XIX. 1656. Montagu repaired, with the principal part of the CHAP. fleet, to the coast of Portugal, to take in water, leaving captain Stayner with six frigates to block up the port of Cadiz. Precisely in this interval arrived a Spanish fleet from the Havannah of uncommon wealth. On board was the marquis of Vaydes, with his wife and seven children, the eldest, a daughter, contracted to the son of the duke of Medina Celi, and the youngest not more than a year old ". At his father's death he had succeeded to a ruined fortune; but by the favour of the court he had been appointed governor of Chili, where he remained nine years, and afterwards viceroy of Peru, in which station he had continued fourteen years. Having accumulated an ample fortune, he was now returning to enjoy his wealth and honours in his native land b. As he approached the shores of Europe, he Engages the English anxiously enquired into the state of the war be- fleet. tween Spain and England. The answer he received from the captain of a Portuguese ship of which he made prize, was, that the English had blockaded the port of Cadiz for a considerable time, but that about a month before, the fleet of king Philip had come out of the port, attacked them, and treated them so severely, that they had found it necessary, to retreat into their own a Ibid, p. 400, 434. b Ibid, P. 433. IV. 1656. mination of the affair. BOOK harbours. Encouraged by this intelligence, his squadron approached the English frigates without apprehension, and at a little distance mistook them for Spanish fishing-boats. Night came on; and the hostile fleets sailed for some hours in company, without alarm on the part of the newly Fatal ter- arrived". But they were fatally taught the error into which they had fallen. The engagement on the part of the marquis's vessel continued for six hours. One hundred and ten men were killed on board; and at length the ship took fire, whether occasioned by the English or the Spaniards was never ascertained". His wife and eldest daughter fell into a swoon, and, together with one of the sons, perished in the flames. The marquis had an opportunity to escape: but his high-wrought feelings at view of so tragic a catastrophe, rendered the thought loathsome to him; and he voluntarily became the victim of a fate, which had taken from him objects so inexpressibly dearf. The Spanish fleet consisted of eight ships; four of them ships of war, the others merchantmen. The admiral, which was not one of the largest, escaped into Cadiz. The vice-admiral, on board which was the marquis of Vaydes and family, was set on fire and sunk; but not till the XIX. 1656. English had taken out of her much gold and CHAP. silver. The rear-admiral, containing two millions of pieces of eight, and another, were taken. Of the rest, two were burned, one sunk, and one escapeds. Cromwel resolved that this fortunate event should make a suitable impression, and accordingly caused the silver which was taken to be landed at Portsmouth, carried by land in many waggons to London, and so conveyed through the city to the Tower, where it was immediately coined into English money. The protector, in proof of his liberality, treated the survivors of the family of the viceroy with much attention, and sent them home to Spain without ransom.-The news of this success reached London on the second of October, about a fortnight after the meeting of parliament. Ibid, 399, 400. h Clarendon, p. 586. Ludlow, p. 560. The amount of the capture was estimated at five millions of pieces of eight. (Thurloe, Vol. V, p. 400.) The value of each of these pieces was rated at about a dollar, or four shillings and three pence three farthings of English money. Taken at this rate, five millions of pieces of eight are worth upwards of one million sterling; and the weight of the silver will be about one hundred and fifty tons. It is computed that, in a journey, fifteen hundred weight is as much as a horse can be expected to draw; and of consequence three tons is a burthen sufficient for four horses. Proceeding on this datum, one hundred and fifty tons would require two hundred horses to convey them, and allowing six horses to a waggon, there would be required about thirty-four waggons. i Warwick, p. 383. Bates. * Journals. On this occasion Waller, who had produced his BOOK celebrated Panegyric on Cromwel in 1654, addressed to him a congratulatory copy of verses, which concludes thus: IV. 1656. "Let the brave generals divide that bough, Our great Protector hath such wreaths enow: BINS.-JOHN REEVE.-LODOVICK MUGGLETON. XX. A MEMORABLE circumstance which occurred early CHAP. in the present parliament, was the treatment of James Naylor, a quaker. He was a disciple of George Fox, the founder of the quakers, and in James great esteem among his fraternity. 1656. Naylor. cation of sects. It was unavoidable, in a state of so great poli- Multiplitical convulsion, when the old distinction of orders in the state was so memorably shaken, and when at the same time the community was so extensively penetrated with fervent and enthusiastic sentiments of religion, that many new and extravagant sects should have arisen to disturb the ecclesiastical arrangements which had previously been established. Among them, as William Penn states, in his Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers, was a party, "called Seekers by some, and the Family of Love by others, Seekers: Love. Family of |