74 
from him to Mr. Nepean, of which 
the following are copies: 
Sir,  Vidiory, in Lagos Bap, Feb.16. 
The hopes of falling in with the 
Spanifh fleet, exprefled in my @tter 
to you of the 13th inflant, were 
confirmed that night, by our dif- 
tinétly hearing the report of their 
fignal guns, and by intelligence re- 
ceived from Captain Foote, of his 
Majefty’s fhip Niger, who had, with 
equal judgment and perfeverance, 
kept company with them for feveral 
days, on.my prefcribed rendezvous 
(which, from the ftrong fouth-caft 
winds, I had never been able to 
reach), and that they were not 
more than three or four leagues 
from us. I anxioufly awaited the 
dawn of day, when, being on the 
fiarboard tack, Cape St. Vincent 
bearing eaft by north eight leagues, 
I had the fatisfaction of feeing a 
number of fhips extending from 
fouth-weft to fouth, the wind then 
at weft by fouth. At forty minutes 
‘paft ten, the weather being ex- 
tremely hazy, La Bonne Citoyenne 
made the fignal that the fhips were 
of the line, twenty-five in number. 
His Majefty’s fquadron under my 
command, confifting of the fifteen 
fips of the line named in the mar- 
gin*, happily formed in the moft 
compact order of failing, in two 
lines. By carrying a prefs of fail, 
I was fortunate in getting in with 
the enemy’s ficet at half paft eleven 
o’clock, before it had time to con- 
neé& and form a regular order of 
battle. Such a moment was not to 
be loft; and, confident in the fkill, 
valour, and dif{cipiine of the officers 
AP Pe Nee i 
end men | had the happinefs to 
comunand, and judging that the ho- 
nour of his Majefty’s arms, and the 
circumftances of the war in thefe 
feas, required a confiderable degree 
of enterprize, I felt myfelf juftified 
in departing from the regular fyf- 
tem, and pafiing through their fleet, 
in a line formed with the utmoft 
celerity; tacked, and thereby fepa- 
rated one third from the main body, 
after a partial cannonade, which 
prevented their rejunétion in the 
evening; and, by the very great 
exertions of the fhips which had 
the good fortune to arrive up with 
the enemy on the larboard tack, the 
fhips named in the margin} were 
captured, and the action ceafed a- 
bout five o’clock in the evening. I 
inclofe the moft correét lift I have 
been able to obtain of the Spanifh 
fleet oppofed to me, amounting to 
twenty-feven fail of the line, and 
an account of the killed and wound- 
ed in his Majefty’s fhips, as well as 
in thofe taken from the enemy. 
The moment the latter (almoft to- 
tally difmatted), and his Majefty’s 
fhips the Captain and Culloden, are 
in a {tate to put to fea, I fhall avail 
myfelf of the firft favourable winds 
to proceed off Cape St. Vincent, in 
my way to Lifbon. Captain Cal- 
der, whofe able affiftance has great- 
ly contributed to the public fer- 
vice during my command, is the 
bearer of this, and will more parti- 
cularly defcribe to the Lords Con! 
miffioners of the Admiralty the 
movements of the fquadron on the 
14th, and the prefent ftate of it. 
Iam, &c. 
J. Jervis. 
pie Viétory, Britannia, Barfleur, Prince George, Blenheim, Namur, Captain, Gos 
liah, Excellent, Orion, Coloffus, Egmont, Culloden, Irrefiftible, Diadem. 
+ Salvador del Mundo 112 guns, San Jofef 112, San Nicolas 80 [84], San Ifi- 
dro 74 guns. 
Lik 
