ation; but in the heat of
the action, his ship being set on fire by accident, was blown up, and-he
perished with all his crew, except a midshipman and ten or eleven
sailors, who were taken up alive by a privateer that happened to be in
sight. Favourable as this accident may seem to the Glorioso, she did
not escape. An English ship of eighty guns, under the command of captain
Buckle, came up and obliged the Spaniards to surrender, after a short
but vigorous engagement. Commodore Griffin had been sent, with a
reinforcement of ships, to assume the command of the squadron in the
East Indies; and although his arrival secured Fort St. David's and the
other British settlements in that country, from the insults of monsieur
da la Bourdonnais, his strength was not sufficient to enable him to
undertake any enterprise of importance against the enemy; the ministry
of England therefore resolved to equip a fresh armament, that, when
joined by the ships in India, should be in a condition to besiege
Pon-dicherry, the principal settlement belonging to the French on the
coast of Coromandel. For this service, a good number of independent
companies was raised, and set sail, in the sequel, with a strong
squadron under the conduct of rear-admiral Boscawen, an officer of
unquestioned valour and capacity. In the course of this year, the
British cruisers were so alert and successful, that they took six
hundred and forty-four prizes from the French and Spaniards, whereas the
loss of Great Britain in the same time did not exceed five hundred and
fifty.

CONGRESS AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

All the belligerent powers were by this time heartily tired of a war
which had consumed an immensity of treasure, had been productive of
so much mischief, and in the events of which, all, in their turns, had
found themselves disappointed. Immediately after the battle of Laffeldt,
the king of France had, in a personal conversation with sir John
Ligonier, expressed his desire of a pacification; and afterwards his
minister at the Hague presented a declaration on the same subject to the
deputies of the states-general. The signal success of the British arms
at sea confirmed him in these sentiments, which were likewise reinforced
by a variety of other considerations. His finances were almost
exhausted, and his supplies from the Spanish West Indies rendered so
precarious by the vigilance of the British cruisers, that he could no
longer depend upon their arrival. The t