The envoy showed the letter to Cardinal Alberoni, who, upon reading it, told him with some warmth, that "his master would run all hazards, rather than recall his troops or consent to any suspension of arms;" adding, that "the Spaniards were not to be frightened, and that he was so well convinced of their fleets doing their duty that if the admiral should think fit to attack them he should be in no pain for the success." Mr. Stanhope having in his hand a list of the British squadron, desired his eminence to peruse it, and to compare its strength with that of their own squadron; this the cardinal took and threw on the ground with much passion.

All that the cardinal could be brought to promise was to lay the admiral's letter before the king, and to let the envoy know his resolution upon it in two days; but it was nine before he could obtain and send it away. The answer was written under the admiral's letter in these words:—

"His Catholic Majesty has done me the honour to tell me that the Chevalier Byng may execute the orders which he has from the king his master.

"The Cardinal Alberoni.

"Escurial, July 15th, 1718."

The admiral, pursuing his voyage with unfavourable winds, reached the Bay of Naples on August the 1st, and on the 9th anchored in view of the Faro of Messina. The Spanish army, having taken the city of Messina, were now encamped before the citadel which the troops under Sir George Byng's convoy were intended to relieve. From these strained conditions hostilities seemed imminent, and the desire of the English was that the Spaniards should take the responsibility and the blame of striking the first blow.

Under these circumstances Sir George Byng sent Captain Saunders with a letter to the Marquis de Lede, in which he acquainted him with the instructions under which he was acting, and proposed to him to come to a cessation of arms in Sicily for two months, in order to give time for the several courts to conclude on such resolutions as might restore a lasting peace: but added that "if he was not so happy as to succeed in this offer of service, nor to be instrumental in bringing about so desirable a work, he then hoped to merit His Excellency's esteem in the execution of the other part of his orders, which were, to use all his force to prevent farther attempts to disturb the dominions his master stood engaged to defend."

The next morning the captain returned with the general's answer, "That as he had no powers to treat he could not of consequence agree to any suspension of arms, but should follow his orders, which directed him to seize on Sicily for his master the King of Spain." Upon receiving this answer Admiral Byng immediately weighed, with the intention of coming with his squadron before Messina, in order to encourage and support the garrison and the citadel. In executing this manœuvre he sighted two Spanish scouts in the Faro; whereupon he altered his design, and stood through the Faro with all the sail he could, following the scouts, imagining they would lead him to the fleet, which they did. About noon he came in view of their whole Spanish fleet, lying by and drawn into a line of battle, consisting of twenty-seven sail of men-of-war small and great, besides two fire-ships, four bomb-vessels, seven galleys, and several ships laden with stores and provisions, commanded by the Admiral Don Antonio de Casteneta and four rear-admirals, who, sighting the English squadron, stood away large but in good order of battle.

The admiral followed them all the rest of that day and the succeeding night, and the next morning early, the English having approached near to them, the Marquis de Mari, rear-admiral, with six Spanish men-of-war and all the galleys, fire-ships, bomb-vessels and store-ships, separated from the main fleet and stood in for the Sicilian shore; upon which Admiral Byng detached Captain Walton in the Canterbury with five other ships to follow them.

The admiral pursuing the main body of the Spanish fleet, the Orford, Captain Falkingham, and the Grafton, Captain Haddock, came up first with them, about ten o'clock, the Spaniards firing their stern-chase guns. The Spaniards repeating their fire, the Orford attacked the Santa Rosa, of sixty-four guns, and took her. The St. Carlos, of sixty guns, struck next, without much opposition to the Kent, Captain Matthews. The Grafton attacked warmly the Prince of Asturias, of seventy guns, formerly called the Cumberland, in which was Rear-admiral Chacon; but the Breda and Captain coming up, Captain Haddock left that ship, much shattered, for them to take, and stretched ahead after another ship of sixty guns, which had kept firing on his starboard bow during his engagement with the Prince of Asturias. About one o'clock the Kent, and soon after the Superbe, Captain Master, came up with and engaged the Spanish admiral of seventy-four guns, who, with two ships more, fired on them and made a running fight till about three; and then the Kent, bearing down under his stern, gave him her broadside and fell to leeward afterwards; the Superbe, putting forward to lay the admiral aboard, fell on his weather-quarter; upon which, the Spanish admiral shifting his helm, the Superbe ranged under his lee-quarter; on which he struck to her. At the same time the Barfleur, which carried the English admiral, being astern of the Spanish admiral, within shot, and inclining on his weather-quarter, Rear-admiral Guevara and another sixty-gun ship, which were to windward, bore down upon him, and gave him their broadsides, and then clapped upon a wind, standing in for land. The admiral immediately tacked and stood after them until it was almost night; but there being little wind, and the enemy hauling away out of his reach, he left pursuing them and rejoined the fleet two hours after night.

The Essex took the Juno of thirty-six guns, the Montague and Rupert took the Volante of forty-four guns, and Rear-admiral Delaval, in the Dorsetshire, took the Isabella of sixty guns. The action happened off Cape Passaro, at about six leagues' distance from the shore. The English received but little damage: the ship that suffered most was the Grafton, for, being a good sailer, her captain engaged several ships in succession, always pursuing the headmost and leaving the ships he had disabled or damaged to be taken by those that followed him. The admiral lay by for some days at sea to refit the rigging of his ships and to repair the damages which the prizes had sustained, and on the 18th received a letter from Captain Walton, who had been sent in pursuit of the Spanish ships which had made for the Sicilian shore under the Marquis de Mari. The letter is singular enough to deserve notice. It ran thus:—

"Sir,—We have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and vessels which were upon the coast, the number as per margin.

"I am, etc.,

"George Walton.

"Canterbury, off Syracuse, August 16th, 1718."