had pushed on shore with their pinnaces and some other boats before the rest could come up; whereupon the enemy sprang a mine that blew up the fortifications upon the mole, killed two lieutenants and forty men, and wounded about sixty. However, our men kept possession of the great platform which they had made themselves masters of, and Captain Whitaker landed with the rest of the seamen which had been ordered upon this service, who advanced and took a redoubt, or small bastion, halfway between the mole and the town, and possessed themselves of many of the enemy's cannon. The admiral then sent a letter to the governor, and at the same time a message to the Prince of Hesse to send to him a peremptory summons, which His Highness did accordingly; and on the 24th in the morning, the governor, desiring to capitulate, hostages were exchanged, and the capitulation being concluded the prince marched into the town in the evening and took possession of the land and north-mole gates and the out-work. "The town is extremely strong, and had an hundred guns mounted, all facing the sea and the two narrow passes to the land, and was well supplied with ammunition. The officers, who have viewed the fortifications, affirm there never was such an attack as the seamen made; for that fifty men might have defended those works against thousands." After this remarkable service the Dutch admiral thought of returning home, and actually detached six men-of-war to Lisbon; so little appearance was there of any further engagement. But on August the 9th the French fleet, under the command of the Count de Toulouse, was seen at sea, and appeared to be the strongest fleet that had been equipped during the whole war; the English admiral, however, resolved to do all in his power to force an engagement, which determination resulted in the battle off Malaga, of which the following is Sir George Rooke's own account, as published by authority. It was dated from on board the _Royal Catherine_, off Cape St. Vincent, August 27th, 1704, and addressed to his Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark. "On the 9th instant, returning from watering our ships on the coast of Barbary to Gibraltar, our scouts made the signals of seeing the enemy's fleet; which, according to the account they gave, consisted of sixty-six sail, and were about ten leagues to windward of us. A council of flag-officers was called, wherein it was determined to lie to the eastward of Gibraltar to receive and engage them. But perceiving that night, by the report of their signal guns, that they wrought from us, we followed them in the morning with all the sail we could make.