* * * * *

But to proceed, the Dutch had one Man of War sunk, though so near the Shore, that I saw some part of her Main Mast remain above Water, with their Admiral Van Ghent, who was slain in the close Engagement with the Earl of Sandwich.  This Engagement lasted fourteen Hours, and was look’d upon the greatest that ever was fought between the English and the Hollander.

I cannot here omit one Thing, which to some may seem trifling; though I am apt to think our Naturalists may have a different Opinion of it, and find it afford their Fansies no undiverting Employment in more curious, and less perilous Reflections.  We had on board the London where, as I have said, I was a Voluntier, a great Number of Pidgeons, of which our Commander was very fond.  These, on the first firing of our Cannon, dispers’d, and flew away, and were seen no where near us during the Fight.  The next Day it blew a brisk Gale, and drove our Fleet some Leagues to the Southward of the Place where they forsook our Ship, yet the Day after they all returned safe aboard; not in one Flock, but in small Parties of four or five at a Time.  Some Persons at that Time aboard the Ship admiring at the Manner of their Return, and speaking of it with some Surprize, Sir Edward Sprage told them, That he brought those Pidgeons with him from the Streights; and that when, pursuant to his Order, he left the Revenge Man of War, to go aboard the London, all those Pidgeons, of their own accord, and without the Trouble or Care of carrying, left the Revenge likewise, and removed with the Sailors on board the London, where I saw them; All which many of the Sailors afterwards confirm’d to me.  What Sort of Instinct this could proceed from, I leave to the Curious.

Soon after this Sea Engagement I left the Fleet.  And the Parliament, the Winter following, manifesting their Resentments against two of the Plenipotentiaries, viz.  Buckingham and Arlington, who had been sent over into Holland; and expressing, withal, their great Umbrage taken at the prodigious Progress of the French Arms in the United Provinces; and warmly remonstrating the inevitable Danger attending England in their Ruin.  King Charles from all this, and for want of the expected Supplies, found himself under a Necessity of clapping up a speedy Peace with Holland.

This Peace leaving those youthful Spirits, that had by the late Naval War been rais’d into a generous Ferment, under a perfect Inactivity at Home; they found themselves, to avoid a Sort of Life that was their Aversion, oblig’d to look out for one more active, and more suitable to their vigorous Tempers Abroad.

I must acknowledge my self one of that Number; and therefore in the Year 1674,1 resolv’d to go into Flanders, in order to serve as Voluntier in the Army commanded by his Highness the Prince of Orange.  I took my Passage accordingly at Dover for Calais, and so went by way of Dunkirk for Brussels.