SIR GEORGE KOOKE TAKES GIBRALTAR.

The arms of England were not less fortunate by sea than they had been upon the Danube. Sir George Rooke having landed king Charles at Lisbon, sent a squadron to cruise off Cape Spartell, under the command of rear admiral Dilkes, who on the twelfth of March, engaged and took three Spanish ships of war, bound from St. Sebastian’s to Cadiz. Rooke received orders from the queen to sail to the relief of Nice and Villa Franca, which were threatened with a siege by the duke de Vendôme; at the same time he was pressed by king Charles to execute a scheme upon Barcelona, projected by the prince of Hesse d’Armstadt, who declared his opinion, that the Catalonians would declare for the house of Austria, as soon as they should be assured of proper support and protection. The ministry of England understanding that the French were employed in equipping a strong squadron at Brest, and judging it was destined to act in the Mediterranean, sent out sir Cloudesley Shovel with a considerable fleet, to watch the motions of the Brest squadron; and he was provided with instructions how to act, in case it should be sailed to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, sir George Rooke, in compliance with the entreaties of King Charles, sailed with the transports under his convoy to Barcelona, and on the eighteenth of May appeared before the city. Next day the troops were landed by the prince of Hesse, to the number of two thousand, and the Dutch ketches bombarded the place; but by this time the governor had secured the chiefs of the Austrian party; and the people exhibiting no marks of attachment to king Charles, the prince re-embarked his soldiers, from an apprehension of their being attacked and overpowered by superior numbers. On the sixteenth day of June, sir George Rooke, being joined by sir Cloudesley Shovel, resolved to proceed up the Mediterranean in quest of the French fleet, which had sailed thither from Brest, and which Rooke had actually discovered, in the preceding month, on their voyage to Toulon. On the seventeenth day of July the admiral called a council of war in the road of Tetuan, when they resolved to make an attempt upon Gibraltar, which was but slenderly provided with a garrison. Thither they sailed, and on the twenty-first day of the month the prince of Hesse landed on the isthmus with eighteen hundred marines; then he summoned the governor to surrender, and was answered, that the place would be defended to the last extremity. Next day the admiral gave orders for cannonading the town; perceiving that the enemy were driven from their fortifications at the south mole-head, he commanded captain Whi-taker to arm all the boats, and assault that quarter. The captains Hicks and Juniper, who happened to be nearest the mole, immediately manned their pinnaces, and entered the fortifications sword in hand. The Spaniards sprung a mine, by which two lieutenants, and about a hundred men were killed or wounded. Nevertheless, the two captains took possession of a platform, and kept their ground until they were sustained by captain Whi-taker, and the rest of the seamen, who took by storm a redoubt between the mole and the town. Then the governor capitulated; and the prince of Hesse entered the place, amazed at the success of this attempt, considering the strength of the fortifications, which might have been defended by fifty men against a numerous army.

A sufficient garrison being left with his highness, the admiral returned to Tetuan to take in wood and Water; and when he sailed, on the ninth day of August, he descried the French fleet, to which he gave chase with all the sail he could spread. On the thirteenth he came up with it, as it lay in a line off Malaga ready to receive him, to the number of two-and-fifty great ships, and four-and-twenty galleys, under the command of the count de Tholouse, high-admiral of France, with the inferior flags of the white and blue divisions. The English fleet consisted of three-and-fifty ships of the line, exclusive of frigates, but they were inferior to the French in number of guns and men, as well as in weight of metal, and altogether unprovided with galleys, from which the enemy reaped great advantage during the engagement. A little after ten in the morning the battle began, with equal fury on both sides, and continued to rage with doubtful success till two in the afternoon, when the van of the French gave way; nevertheless, the fight was maintained till night, when the enemy bore away to leeward. The wind shifting before morning, the French gained the weather-gage; but they made no use of this advantage; for two successive days the English admiral endeavoured to renew the engagement, which the count de Tholouse declined, and at last he disappeared. The loss was pretty equal on both sides, though not a single ship was taken or destroyed by either; but the honour of the day certainly remained with the English. Over and above the disadvantages we have enumerated, the bottoms of the British fleet were foul, and several large ships had expended all their shot long before the battle ceased; yet the enemy were so roughly handled, that they did not venture another engagement during the whole war. The French king, in order to raise the drooping spirits of his people, claimed the victory, and published an account of the action, which, at this distance of time, plainly proves that he was reduced to the mean shift of imposing upon his subjects, by false and partial representations. Among other exaggerations in this detail, we find mention made of mischief done to French ships by English bombs; though nothing is more certain than that there was not one bomb vessel in the combined fleet. The French academy, actuated by a servile spirit of adulation, caused a medal to be struck on the occasion, which, instead of perpetuating the glory of their prince, served only to transmit their own shame to posterity. After the battle, sir George Rooke sailed to Gibraltar to refit, and leaving a squadron with sir John Leake, set sail for England on the twenty-fourth day of August. He arrived in September, and was received by the ministry, and the people in general, with those marks of esteem and veneration which were due to his long services and signal success; but he was still persecuted with a spirit of envy and detraction. Philip king of Spain, alarmed at the reduction of Gibraltar, sent the marquis de Villadarias with an army to retake it. The siege lasted four months, during which the prince of Hesse exhibited many shining proofs of courage and ability. The place was supplied with men and provisions by convoys from Lisbon, until monsieur de Pointis put a stop to that communication, by entering the bay with a strong squadron; but he was obliged to retire at the approach of sir John Leake and admiral Vanderdussen; and the marquis de Villadarias, having made little or no progress on land, thought proper to abandon the enterprise.