PART days came up with the combined fleet in a line II. of battle. But when he was bearing down on the

Spaniards, and ready to engage, the French ad1741. miral, with his fquadron, interpofed with a flag of truce, and fent a meffage to inform the Brit ifh admiral, "That as the Spaniards and "French were engaged in one joint expedition. " he must obey his orders, and could not avoid "taking them into his protection." A council of war being called on this extraordinary affair, either from the restriction the admiral lay under by his orders, or from the fuperiority of the combined fleet, being above thirty fail, and the English only thirteen, it was refolved To "proceed to Port Mahon, and wait for a rein"forcement." But before the admiral received any, the French and Spanish fquadrons, in conjunction, failed to Barcelona; and from thence they fet fail again on the 24th of December, with a fecond embarkation for Italy.

As the Spaniards had thus fucceeded in their principal fcheme of tranfporting an army to Italy, and in joining the French squadron, it occafioned great fpeculation throughout the whole British nation: they knew the vivacity of the admiral, and relied on his conduct; nor could they tell what reafon to afcribe for it, unless the Hanoverian treaty of neutrality; wherein they fufpected, it was ftipulated, that this fleet in the Mediterranean, fhould continue as inactive as the troops by land, and that the English admiral fhould fuffer the Spaniards quietly to tranf port a formidable body of forces to Italy, to overrun, ravage, and poffefs themfelves of all the dominions the Queen of Hungary had in thofe parts.

CAPT.

CAPT. THOMPSON, in the Succefs man of CHAP. war of twenty guns, in his cruize on the Madeira III. ftation, took a French fhip of 300 ton, from the Havanna, laden with fugar, cochineal, and 1741. cocoa, having alfo on board 180,000 dollars, fixty bars of gold and filver, and other valuable treasure: the prize was carried to Boston in New England, and appeared of such estimation, that it was reported, the fhare of the captain would be 60,000l. and that the common failors would have at least 500l. a-piece.

CAPT. HERVEY, commander of the Superbe man of war, arrived from the Weft Indies the 25th of December at Kinfale, and brought in with him a Spanish fhip called the Conftante, of 400 ton, twenty-four guns, and fixty-four men, which he took in his paffage, in the latitude of 33 deg. 20 m. longitude 65 deg. The, captain was Don Francis Havre Caftilio, who came from the Caraccas bound for the Canaries, laden with cocoa and treasure to the amount of 200,000 l.

THE privateering part of the war, was maintained with great fpirit by the English and Spaniards, both in Europe and America: the English reaped the greatest advantage in America, and the Spaniards in Europe, where, in the fingle port of St Sebastian, they had collected above a hundred prizes. The whole captures of the British fhips, feized, taken, or destroyed by the Spaniards, fince the commencement of the war to the end of the prefent year, were 372; and fuppofing, upon no immoderate calculation, every hip and cargo, one with another, to be worth 3,500 l, the lofs would amount to 1,202,000l. to which may be added 50,000l. more, as the value of the houses, goods, and efVOL. I. fects,

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PART fects, of the British merchants feized in Spain, II. contrary to the faith of treaties, at the breaking ~out of the war; the whole lofs in fhips, goods, 1741. and effects, will then appear to be 1,252,000%. To ballance this lofs, the Spanifh fhips, taken by the English to the fame time, were 390; which, valued at 3000% each, make 1,170,000 / fo that the ballance of profit was, in favour of the Spaniards, 820,000l. on account of fhips, goods, and effects; but, as the loss they suffered at Porto Bello, Chagre, and Carthagena, may be computed at 877,000l. by this deduction the Spaniards fuftained a lofs, in the whole war, of 57,000l. But the British nation was ftill the greater fufferer, by the additional lofs of the vast numbers of feamen, taken and kept prisoners by the Spaniards; which was a moft grievous misfortune, confidering the scarcity of that inestimable part of the constitution, and the oppreffive methods lately enforced for manning the royal navy: for allowing but twelve feamen to every merchant fhip taken, the number of British seamen in the hands of the Spaniards, amounted to above 4,000; omitting the calculation of thofe that had, either with the peril of their lives escaped from the dungeons of Spain, or fuch crews as the Spanish privateers had fometimes fet on fhore, when they had more prisoners than they could fafely venture to detain; and this lofs was the more fenfibly felt, as the greatest part of these unfortunate men, lay either rotting and ftarving to death in the loathfome confinement of Spanish goals, or compelled, through mere want and torture, to enlift against their inclinations, hearts, and confcience, in that service ; whereby, to preferve their lives, they were obliged to affociate themselves to act against their

fellow

fellow fubjects, and the intereft of that country CHAP. which is ever dear to, and infeparably folded III. round the heart of every Englishman: while the more truly British, honeft, and brave feamen, 1741. touched with a nobler innate love and attachment to their maternal land, ftill preserved their Englifh virtue, with an inflexible refolution to withftand the greatest temptation offered on one hand by the artifices of Spain, and the terrible fufferings they expofed them to on the other; yet these highly valuable men, if they were not finally deprived of their honefty, fidelity, and allegiance; if they ftill nobly perfevered in those generous fentiments of affection for their king and country, and defpifing every hardship, refifting every allurement, to encrease the number of those privateers that were employed to destroy the trade of their country; as no cartel was fettled for exchange of prifoners, and expecting no other redemption from the worst of imprisonment, if this was any longer neglected, they must inevitably exhaust their gallant fpirits; and, immured from the healthful breath and chearful light of heaven, lie feebly expiring amid the filth, vermin, and want, of Spanish dungeons, fickness, and hunger.

THOUGH the Spanish prifoners, in the British dominions, were no ways inferior in number to the English prifoners in Spain, yet they were greatly inequivalent in worth; the British merchants were too immediately effected by fuch a disparity; and, as the Spanish privateers were likely to increase it, the merchants were univerfally concerned, that their trade should be fo furprizingly interrupted, from fuch fhoals of Spanish veffels, in or near the British coaft and foundings, on the very stations where the British

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PART men of war fhould be to protect it: their alarm II. was the greater, as the Spaniards from their late weakhefs at fea, by fuch a number of valuable 1741. prizes, were encouraged and enabled to augment the force of their privateers, and render the British navigation every day more and more precarious; to prevent which, as no effectual fecurity was obtained from the admiralty, the merchants determined to follicit the affistance of parliament.