Capt.  Badiley,  then  at  Porto  Eerraro,  exerted  his  utmost
energies  to  strengthen  his  fleet  by  men  and  guns  from  the
merchant  ships  (pp.  189,  201),  and  when  the  crisis  arrived,
he  sailed  out,  plying  near  the  imprisoned  vessels,  so  as  to
succour  them  should  they  succeed  in  breaking  through
tlieir  formidable  opponents  (p.  195).  The  conflict  took
place  on  March  4th,  but  the  issue  was  signally  disastrous,
for  of  the  six  ships  which  attcmp1,ed  to  force  their  passage,
only  one  escaped  to  join  Badiley.  The  Bonadventure  was
blown  up  by  the  firing  of  her  own  powder ;  the  iSampsou


PREFACE.  xiii

was  fired  by  a  Dutch  fire-ship  ;  the  Leopard,  in  which  was
Capt.  Appleton,  was  surrendered  by  her  crew,  contrary  to
the  will  of  the  captain,  who  declared  that  though  there  was
no  hope  of  saving  her,  he  would  rather  liare  blown  her  up
than  given  her  up  ;  and  the  Peregrine  and  another  were
taken  and  burned  (p.  214).  Of  their  crews  only  280
sound  and  90  wounded  men  remained,  and  these  were  all
turned  adrift,  without  clothes  and  victuals,  at  Leghorn,
where  the  English  agent  took  them  in  charge,  and  sent
most  of  them  off  to  man  the  ships  hiring  in  Venice  for
Enghsh  service  (pp.  223,  234,  284).
The  surviving  officers  taken,  Appleton,  Marsh,  and
Seaman,  complained  of  great  incivility  on  the  part  of  their
captors,  but  after  the  lapse  of  a  few  months,  the  agent,
Longland,  procured  their  release,  on  his  own  personal  bond,
with  that  of  two  other  English  merchants  in  Leghorn,
that  they  should  travel  to  Holland,  and  there  surrender
themselves  prisoners  of  war.
