Transcription

Sir At 7 am on Saturday the 28th of last Month His Majesty's Ship Amazon being to Windward of Point Saline's, discovered a very large Fleet at 9 her Signal of it was repeated to me by the Russel which Ship I had just ordered to St. Lucia, having One hundred & thirty Sick on board; And she came back again to me I immediately made the Sigl. for a General Chace to the SE in order to bring all the Ships well up to Windward, and at 10 I formed the Line a Head at two Cables length asunder, On opening Rock Diamond saw nothing of the Fleet but from the Masthead, which were then upon a Wind to the Southward, Captain Finch very properly so soon as he saw his Signal repeated stood back to reconnoitre the Fleet, at 12 he returned near enough for me to see his Signal for an Enemy of Superior Force, and upon my desiring to know how many Ships of the Line there were, He answered Nineteen; a little before two Captain Finch came on board and informed me that he saw 19 Sail of the Line very distinctly, and two others of two Decks that he thought were Armed [[underline]] In Fleete [[/underline]], the number of frigates he could not ascertain', as three only were drawn out from the Convoy, that the Convoy was very numerous, and the whole standing to the Northward, which was the Situation we saw part of them in at Sun-sett, from the Masthead, most of them being to the Northward of Point Salines; I sent Captain Finch immediately [[catchword]] to [[/catchword]]