There were three distinct treaties of peace signed at Breda respectively, with the Dutch, the French, and the Danes, and these were ratified on August 24th, 1667. The terms upon which this peace was made were safe and honourable at least, though not so glorious and beneficial as might have been expected after such a war. By it the honour of the flag was secured; and the island of Poleron, to prevent further disputes, was yielded to the Dutch. In the West Indies we kept all that we had taken, except Surinam; and the French were obliged to restore what they had taken from us.
[THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ALGERINE NAVY.]
On the conclusion of the Dutch war it became necessary to restore order on the high seas by destroying the pirates who had taken advantage of the disturbed condition of things to prey upon English and Dutch commerce; and with this view Charles II. sent Sir Thomas Allen with a stout squadron into the Mediterranean to repress the Algerines, and the Dutch sent Admiral Van Ghent with a squadron to secure their trade. Van Ghent having engaged six corsairs, forced them to fly to their own coasts, where probably they would have escaped if Commodore Beach with four English frigates had not fallen upon them, and, after a close chase, obliged them to run aground. In this situation they were attacked by the English and Dutch in their boats; and, being abandoned by their respective crews, were all taken, and a great number of Christian slaves of different nations released. The English commodore presented sixteen Dutch slaves to Admiral Van Ghent, and received from him twenty English by way of exchange; but the Algerine ships being leaky, they were burnt. The same year some of our frigates attacked seven of the enemy's best ships near Cape Gaeta. The admiral and vice-admiral of the Algerines carried fifty-six guns each; their rear-admiral, the biggest ship in the squadron, carried sixty, and the least forty. Yet after a sharp engagement the vice-admiral sank, and the rest were forced to retire, most of them miserably disabled. At the close of the year 1669 Captain Kempthorne, afterwards Sir John, in the Mary Rose, a small frigate, engaged seven Algerine men-of-war; and, after a very warm action, forced them to sheer off, being in no condition to continue the fight any longer.
It is somewhat extraordinary that, considering the Dutch, as well as the English, were concerned in attacking these pirates, we have no better account of the war that was carried on against them, or of the force they employed, than we are left to collect as we can, from scattered accounts of particular engagements. In 1668 their navy only consisted of twenty-four ships, great and small—that is, from about fifty to twenty guns: and they had likewise six new ships of force upon the stocks. Yet this pitiful enemy continued to disturb, and even to distress the commerce of both the maritime powers for several years.
At last Sir Edward Spragge was sent with a strong squadron of men-of-war and frigates to put an end to the war.
Spragge sailed from England, on this expedition, in the spring of the year 1671, with five frigates and three fire-ships, uniting his fleet with a squadron of as many more ships already at sea; so that, in all, his fleet consisted of about twelve sail. In the latter end of the month of April he had intelligence that there were several Algerine men-of-war in Bugia Bay; on which he called a council of war, when it was resolved that he ought immediately to attack them. In pursuance of this resolution he sailed thither, but, in his passage, had the misfortune to have the Eagle fire-ship disabled by a storm; and soon after, one of his ships springing her main mast, was obliged to bear away for the Spanish shore. Sir Edward, however, persisted in his design, refitted the Eagle, and bore into the bay of Bugia with a brisk gale, not doubting that he should be able to fire the ships; but by the time they got within half-shot of the castle and forts it fell a dead calm, and when the wind rose again it proved contrary.
On May 2nd they were able to do nothing for the same reason, the wind changing every half hour; upon which, Sir Edward resolved to make an attempt upon them in the night with his boats and the smallest of his fire-ships, which rowed as well as a long-boat. About twelve o'clock that night he executed his project, sending in all his boats, and the Eagle fire-ship, under the command of his eldest lieutenant, Mr. Nugent; but the night proving very dark, and the high land obscuring the ships as they drew near them, they passed by; and Lieutenant Nugent leaving one of the boats with the fire-ships, besides her own, rowed in to discover the enemy leaving orders with the captain of the fire-ship to come to an anchor in case he found shoal water. The lieutenant had not left them a minute before he perceived himself within pistol-shot of the ships; and, concluding the business now as good as done, steered off again to find the fire-ship, and, to his amazement, saw her in flames.
The enemy taking the alarm at this, the lieutenant was forced to retire with his boats; and so this promising enterprise, which had given hopes of burning the Algerine men-of-war, without the loss of a man, miscarried. The next day the enemy unrigged all their ships and made a strong boom with their yards, top masts, and cables, buoyed up with casks, for which they had all the leisure and convenience they could wish, the wind hindering the English from doing anything; and, to try the admiral's patience to the very utmost, it so fell out that a drunken gunner firing a pistol, his other small fire-ship was destroyed; so that he had now none left but the Little Victory, which drew too much water to enter that part of the bay where the Algerines lay.