“Oh Jove!  O father! if it be thy will
    That we must perish, we thy will obey,
    But let us perish by the light of day.”

They had got the start of us so far that we were not able to come up with them during the night; but at daylight we saw seven sail of the line of battle some miles ahead.  We immediately chased them till about four o’clock in the evening, when our ships came up with them; and, though we were about fifteen large ships, our gallant admiral only fought them with his own division, which consisted of seven; so that we were just ship for ship.  We passed by the whole of the enemy’s fleet in order to come at their commander, Mons. La Clue, who was in the Ocean, an eighty-four gun ship:  as we passed they all fired on us; and at one time three of them fired together, continuing to do so for some time.  Notwithstanding which our admiral would not suffer a gun to be fired at any of them, to my astonishment; but made us lie on our bellies on the deck till we came quite close to the Ocean, who was ahead of them all; when we had orders to pour the whole three tiers into her at once.

The engagement now commenced with great fury on both sides:  the Ocean immediately returned our fire, and we continued engaged with each other for some time; during which I was frequently stunned with the thundering of the great guns, whose dreadful contents hurried many of my companions into awful eternity.  At last the French line was entirely broken, and we obtained the victory, which was immediately proclaimed with loud huzzas and acclamations.  We took three prizes, La Modeste, of sixty-four guns, and Le Temeraire and Centaur, of seventy-four guns each.  The rest of the French ships took to flight with all the sail they could crowd.  Our ship being very much damaged, and quite disabled from pursuing the enemy, the admiral immediately quitted her, and went in the broken and only boat we had left on board the Newark, with which, and some other ships, he went after the French.  The Ocean, and another large French ship, called the Redoubtable, endeavouring to escape, ran ashore at Cape Logas, on the coast of Portugal; and the French admiral and some of the crew got ashore; but we, finding it impossible to get the ships off, set fire to them both.  About midnight I saw the Ocean blow up, with a most dreadful explosion.  I never beheld a more awful scene.  In less than a minute the midnight for a certain space seemed turned into day by the blaze, which was attended with a noise louder and more terrible than thunder, that seemed to rend every element around us.