...wenty-seventh of December, seventeen Dutch mer- chant vessels, laden with hemp, iron, pitch, and tar, left the Texel under the escort of five ships of war commanded by the Count de Bylandt. In the English Channel , on the morning of the thirtieth, they descried a British fleet, by which they were surrounded just before sunset. The Dutch admiral, refusing to permit his convoy to be visited, Fielding, the Bri...