sight of twenty-seven sail of the line, with fire-ships, ketches, bombs, and seven gallies, drawn up in line of battle between him and the shore.
A council of officers had been held, and Cammmock, an Irishman in the Spanish service, had advised this plan, showing that, ranged thus with their broadsides to the sea, they would be defended by their batteries and troops on shore, and that the force of the currents would make it a very difficult thing to attack them. Castañeta, the admiral, however, dared not to maintain that position; he put out to sea. So soon as they were clear of the straits a council was held to determine whether they should fight or retreat. They came to no fixed resolution, but continued to linger about in indecision till admiral Byng was down upon them. Near Cape Passaro he found the Spanish rear-admiral de Mari, with six ships of the line, and all the galleys, fire-ships, bombs, and store-ships separated from the rest of the fleet, and standing in for the Sicilian shore, he ordered captain Walton, of the "Canterbury," and five other ships, to look after de Mari, and himself continued the pursuit of the main fleet.
Mari commenced firing upon Walton and his squadron, and thus the Spaniards were the first to commence hostilities. Byng's vessels were carried by the breeze into the very midst of the Spaniards, who seemed to have no plan of action whatever. Castañeta, though he had shown no generalship, displayed much bravery. He fought with desperation, though wounded in both legs; but no valour could save the fleet; every ship was taken or sunk except ten, with which Cammock forced his way out of the battle and escaped to La Valetta. Captain Walton, on his part, had come up with de Mari, and compelled him with all his ships, bombs, ketches, &c., to surrender. In his report to the admiral he said—"Sir,—We have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships which were upon the coast; the number as per margin." On which Campbell, in his "Lives of the Admirals," observes—"The ships which captain Walton thrust into his margin would have furnished matter for some pages in a French relation."
This action, which annihilated the new armada of Spain, was fought on the 11th of August. The loss of the English was trifling; no ship was lost, but the "Grafton" was severely injured. Singularly enough, Byng affected not to regard this battle as any regular demonstration of war, but merely an accident, occasioned by the Spaniards firing upon him, and compelling him in honour to resist. He sent a complimentary letter to general de Lede, explaining the accident, and trusting that it would not be regarded as any motive for a rupture betwixt the two nations. At the same time he sent his son to carry the news of the victory to England, where he was received with enthusiasm. There was no change of ministry at this crisis to convert the accident, as in the modern similar case of the battle of Navarino, into "an untoward event." The king received captain Byng most graciously, made him a handsome present, and sent him back to his father with powers authorizing him to negotiate with the princes of Italy as occasion might arise; and with a royal grant to the officers and seamen of all the prizes they had taken from the Spaniards.
And well was this liberal conduct merited, for the British fleet had at a blow crushed the reviving naval power of Spain—a power which, in its rapid resuscitation, had astonished Stanhope when in Spain, and which contemporary writers describe in terms of equal wonder. Castañeta and some of the other principal prisoners assured Byng that in another summer they meant to have fifty sail of the line at sea. In proportion to these prodigious exertions was the rage of Alberoni at this exterminating defeat. He was beside himself. He wrote to the marquis de Monteleone, denouncing the English for breach of faith, though he was conscious that they had only counteracted his own, and ordered him at once to quit England. The ambassador's letter to Mr. Craggs, accompanied by a copy of this letter of Alberoni's, was published, by his direction, in London, in order to damage the ministry; and he ordered all British vessels and goods in Spanish ports to be seized, and the British consuls to be dismissed from Spanish territory. Privateers were sent out to molest the English commerce; and yet, singularly enough, no declaration of war was published on either side. In order to prevent the news of the destruction of the Spanish fleet becoming known to the nation at large, the cardinal took the insane precaution of prohibiting all persons from speaking of it, by beat of drum through Madrid.
Byng, on his part, exerted himself to follow up his advantages. On the 23rd of August he sailed to Reggio, and encouraged general Wetzell, the Austrian commander, to throw his troops into Messina; but the Savoyard authorities, count de Borgo, the resident, and count Maffei, the viceroy, elated by the victory of Byng, objected to admit the imperial troops, notwithstanding a convention to that effect was signed betwixt count Daun, the Austrian agent, and them. Byng, however, let them know that, unless they admitted the troops, he should sail away and leave them to the unobstructed attacks of the Spaniards. This had its effect; the troops were admitted, but were found so few and so indifferent, that, after all, the Savoyards were compelled to surrender the place on the 29th of September. Afterwards Byng sailed to Malta, and menaced its possessors, the knights of St. John, with vengeance for harboring Cammock, who had fled thither with the ships which escaped from the battle of Passaro, but who had again sailed before they could reach Malta.
Alberoni, though defeated at sea, was more successful in Sicily, and he continued his cabals against England in nearly every court of Europe; with only the, more assiduity. He was zealously at work in France, England itself, Holland, Piedmont, and Sweden. By his ambassador at the Hague, the marquis Beretti Landi, he endeavoured to keep the Dutch out of the quadruple alliance by exciting their commercial jealousy; but he was ably opposed by our minister there, the earl of Cadogan. In Piedmont he endeavoured to deter Victor Amadeas from entering into this alliance by assuring him that he was only endeavouring to secure Sicily to keep it out of the hands of the Austrians, and reserve it for him; while, on the other hand, he threatened him with thirty thousand bayonets if he dared to accede to the quadruple treaty. The allies, however, threatened still greater dangers, and the duke at last consented to accept Sardinia in lieu of Sicily, and that island remains attached to the house of Savoy to the present time.
