This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1597.]
DISPUTES WITH THE FRENCH.
525

knowledge, fought a French vessel. On June 18th, off Ramea Island, other French ships were encountered, and quarrels arising, were fought with. The English fared ill, and were obliged to retire with the loss of their pinnace and an anchor and cable. Worse still befell on June 23rd, when the Chancewell, which had become separated from her consort, was wrecked on Cape Breton Island. The French pillaged her people, stripping them to their very shirts; but most of the survivors seemed to have gained the Hopewell, which, ere she returned to England, amply avenged the unfortunates by boarding and capturing a French craft of 200 tons, and spoiling her of her fish and oil.[1]

GEORGE CLIFFORD, EARL OF CUMBERLAND, K.G.
(From C. Picart's engraving after the picture formerly in the Bodleian.)

The year 1598 witnessed the last and most ambitious of the numerous privateering expeditions of that distinguished maritime adventurer, the Earl of Cumberland. The squadron collected on

  1. Hakluyt, iii. 195.