Letter from Rear-Adm. Sir Samuel Hood to General Jacob de Budé, partly duplicate of 0680, but forcibly expressing his disappointment at not pursuing and capturing the fleeing French fleet, criticising the abilities and actions of Sir Charles Douglas and Adm. Sir George Rodney, and remarking that his (Hood's) health has suffered as a result of 'seeing things go as they do'.
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fire upon me, which I totally disregarded, 'till I was satisfied by firing a single gun from the Quarter deck, that I was fairly within [[underline]] point Blank [[/underline]], when I opened such a tremendous fire against him, as he could not stand more than ten minutes, and down came his own flag, and that from the Ensign staff, with all signal ones together. This was just at Sunsett, and my Boat had scarcely gott on board, when Sir George made the signal to bring too, and continued to lay too the whole night After the glorious business of yesterday, I was most exceedingly disappointed in, & mortified at the Commander in Chief, in the first instance for not making the signal for a General Chace, the instant he hawled [[underline]] that [[/underline]] down for the Line of battle, which was about one oclock; had he so done, I am [[underline]] confident [[/underline]] we should have had, twenty sail of the Enemys Ships of the Line, before dark instead of that, he pursued only under his top sails through the [[underline]] flying [[/underline]] ships, had all the sail sett, their very shattered state would permit--In the next that he did not continue to pursue, under that easy sail, so as never to have lost sight of the Enemy in the night, which [[catchword]] would [[/catchword]]
