Monthly Chronicle.

Finding , on my return off Brest on the 19 th past , that the French fleet had , a few days before , put to sea ; and receiving , on the same evening , advices from Rear-Admiral Montague , I deemed it requisite to endeavour to form a junction with the Rear Admiral as soon as possible , and proceeded immediately for the station on which , he meant to -wait for the return of tbe Venus . But having gained very credible intelligence , on the 21 st of the same month , whereby I had reason to suppose the French fleet was then but a few leagues farther to the Westwardthe course before fleered was altered accordingly .

, On the morning of the 28 th the enemy were discovered far to windward , and partial actions were engaged with them that evening and the next day . The weather-gage having been obtained in the progress of the last-mentioned day , and the fleet being in a . situation for bringing the enemy to close action on the ist instant , the ships bore up together for that purpose , between seven and eight o'clock in the moraine . _

The French , their force consisting of twenty . six sail of the line , opposed to his Majesty's fleet of twenty-five ( the Audacious having parted company with the sternmost ship . of the enemy ' s line , captured in the night of the 28 th ) waited for the action , and sustained the attack with their accustomed resolution . In less than an hour after thc close action commenced in the centre , the French . Admiral , . engaged by the Queen Charlotte-, crowded off , and was followed by most of the ships of his van in condition to carry sail after . him , leaving with us about ten or twelve of his crippled or totally dismasted shi exclusive of one sunk in the

enps , gagement . The Queen Charlotte had then lost her fore-topmast , and the main-top ^ mast fell over ' Hie side very soon after . The greater number of the other ships of the British . ' . eet were , at this time , so much disabled , or widely separated , and under such circumstances with respect to . those ships of the enemy in a state for action , and with which the firing was still con-. tinued , that two or three , even of their dismantled ships , attempting to get away under a spritsai ! singly , or smaller sail raised on the stump of the foremast , could not . be detained .

Seven remained in our possession , one of which , however , sunk before the adequate assistance coptd be given to her crew—but many were saved . The Brunswick having lost her mizen-mast in the action , and drifted to leeward of -the French retreating ships , was obliged to put away large to the Northward from them . Not seeing her chaced by the enemy , in that predicament , 1 flatter myself she may arrive in safety at Plymouth . All the other twenty-four ships of his Majesty ' s fleet reassembled later in the day ; and I am preparing to return with them , as soon as the . captured ships of the enemy are secured , for Spithead .

The material injury to bis Majesty's ships , I understand , is confined principally to their masts and yards , which I ' conclude will be speedily replaced . I have not been yet able to collect regular accounts of the killed and wounded in the different ships . Captain Montague is tlie only officer of his rank who fell in the action . The numbers of both descriptions , I hope , will prove small , the nature of the service considered ; but I have the concern of having to add on the same subject , that Admiral Graves has received a wound in the arm , and that Rear-Admhals Bowyer and

Pasley , and Captain Hutt of the Queen , have each had a leg taken off ; they are , however ( I have the satisfaction to . hear ) in a favourable state under those misfortunes .- ^ - In the captured ships the number of the killed and wounded appear to be very considerable .

Though I shall have , on the subject of these different actions with the enemy , distinguished examples hereafter to report , I presume the determined bravery of the several ranks of officers , and the ships' companies employed under my .. authority , will have been already sufficiently denoted by the effect of their spirited exertions ; and I trust I shall be excused for postponing the more detailed narrative of the other transactions of the fleet thereon , for being communicated at a future opportunity ; more especially as my first Captain , Sir R . Curtis , who is charged with this dispatch , will be able to give any further information the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty may at this time require . It is incumbent on me , nevertheless , now to add , that f am greatly ¦ indebted to him for his counsels , as . well as conduct , in . every branch of my official duties ; and I have similar assistance , in the late occurrences , to acknowledge of my