ction
without violating the neutrality of Spain. As for the Pleiade frigate,
she made her escape by being a prime sailer. This was a severe stroke
upon the enemy, who not only lost two of her capital ships, but saw them
added to the navy of Great Britain; and the disaster was followed close
by another, which they could not help feeling with equal sensibility of
mortification and chagrin. In the beginning of April, sir Edward Hawke,
steering with his squadron into Basque-road, on the coast of Poictou,
discovered, off the isle of Aix, a French fleet at anchor, consisting of
five ships of the line, with six frigates, and forty transports, having
on board three thousand troops, and a large quantity of stores and
provisions intended as a supply for their settlements in North America.
They no sooner saw the English Admiral advancing, than they began to
slip their cables, and fly in the utmost confusion. Some of them escaped
by sea, but a great number ran into shoal water, where they could not
be pursued; and next morning they appeared aground, lying on their
broadsides. Sir Edward Hawke, who had rode all night at anchor abreast
of the isle of Aix, furnished the ships Intrepid and Medway with trusty
pilots, and sent them farther in when the flood began to make, with
orders to sound ahead, that he might know whether there was any
possibility of attacking the enemy; but the want of a sufficient depth
of water rendered the scheme impracticable. In the meantime, the
French threw overboard their cannon, stores, and ballast; and boats and
launches from Rochefort were employed in carrying out warps, to drag
their ships through the soft mud, as soon as they should be water-borne
by the flowing tide. By these means their large ships of war, and many
of their transports, escaped into the river Charente; but their loading
was lost, and the end of their equipment totally defeated. Another
convoy of merchant ships under the protection of three frigates, sir
Edward Hawke, a few days before, had chased into the harbour of Saint
Martin's, in the isle of Rhe, where they still remained, waiting an
opportunity for hazarding a second departure. A third, consisting of
twelve sail, bound from Bourdeaux to Quebec, under convoy of a frigate
and armed vessel, was encountered at sea by one British ship of the line
and two fire-ships, which took the frigate and armed vessel, and two
of the convoy afterwards met with the same fate; but this advantage was