the commander-in chief that the van had no enemy to contend with.

According to the admiral's previous instructions to his captains, the above signal was to be considered as casting a stigma upon those to whom it was addressed. * At all events no immediate attempt was made by the generality of the ships to comply with the signal, and those that were the most prompt in obeying it were baffled by the calm state of the weather. The Formidable, and one or two of the other ships, had to employ their boats to tow themselves round. Hence the manoeuvre was slow, partial, and imperfect. When the 10 ships did at length get on the starboard tack, five (four French and one Spanish), under Rear-admiral Dumanoir, hauled their wind, and the remaining five kept away, as if to join Admiral Gravina, then to leeward of the rear, in the act of making off.

It was in the height of all this confusion in the combined van, that the Britannia, Agamemnon, Orion, and Ajax got intermingled among the French and Spanish ships, which had wore and edged away in the manner related. The Britannia appears to have been engaged, a short time, with the San-Francisco-de-Asis, and subsequently with the Rayo three-decker. It was considered on board the Britannia, that the ship she engaged, after the San-Francisco-de-Asis, was the French Neptune, with " a tier of guns on her gangway. " Owing to the obscurity occasioned by the smoke, and to the want of wind to blow out the flags, a mistake respecting the colours might easily be made ; and certainly the Neptune had no guns on her gangway, but was a regular 80, similar to the Bucentaure.

The Agamemnon and Ajax also exchanged a few broadsides with some of the ships that had bore up ; and the Orion, as already stated, was the first, after the Africa, that became closely engaged with the Intrépide. The latter and the San-Augustin were the only ships of the five, that seemed to have any other object in view than a retreat. The San-Francisco-de-Asis might reasonably have declined closing with the Britannia; but the Héros appears to have had no three-decker opposed to her, although she probably was one of the ships that raked the British Neptune, after the latter had silenced the Santisima-Trinidad. The Héros had her captain killed, but sustained no other loss of consequence, and very slight damage. What loss the Rayo suffered is not known ; but she did undoubtedly incur a loss, and had her masts and rigging tolerably wounded and cut up.

The Britannia, with some slight damage to her masts and still less to her hull, had one lieutenant (Francis Roskruge), eight seamen, and one marine killed, her master (Stephen Trounce), one midshipman (William Grant), 33 seamen, and seven marines

*  See p. 10

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