HITHRTO, till this day I could not give you a good accompt of our VVelch Expedition, wee have had so many obstru­ctions through unseasonable weather, rugged wayes, want of necessaries, and other in­conveniencies, that wee may well say these things; Except the Lord had beene with us, they had swallowed us up quick. But besides this wee had atten­ding on us a numerous Armie before us, and behind us a great party. VVee divers wayes sought an oppor­tunity to fight with them, which till this instant wee could never doe, they before taking alwayes the ad­vantage of their VVelch wayes, hills, and Rivers.

[Page 4]This posture they continued in, till divers of our Souldiers were wearied out, and both Foot and Horse so far spent, as the Enemie himself knew his great ad­vantage over us: and out of that consideration, having mightily encreased his Armie, and wee through all these inconveniences some-what decreased ours, hee upon the eighth of this instant about 8. of the clocke in the forenoone proffered us the Battle. VVee see­ing his number, & he being upon us before we were well aware of him, quitted our present station, which was at Saint Fagons, the Enemie drew into the place of our Guards: but wee being very loth to retreat, upon a little hill neere Saint Fagons, made good our ground, drew up our Armie, faced the Enemie, a for-lorne Hope of Horse and Dragoons were drawne up under the command of Lieutenant Godfrey: And another forlorne Hope of Foot under the command of a Lieu­tenant of Foote. Next them marched 160. fire-lockes under the command of Captaine Garland. In the right wing marched Colonel Okey with three troops of horse and three troopes of Dragoones. In the Body mar­ched Colonell Horton Commander in chiefe. In the left Flanke marched the Horse under the command of Major Barton, with some Dragoones. The body be­ing thus drawne up, our forlorne hope of Horse ad­vanced and fell immediately into a ground where [...]oo. of the Enemies Foote with some Horse lined the hedg­es, Lieutenant Godfrey with a forlorne hope of Horse immediately charged them, routed them, and killed some of them. Colonell Okey upon this taking the ad­vantage of the Enemies running, commanded present­ly Captaine Garland with the fire-locks, Captain Mer­cer [Page 5] with a commanded party of Dragoones and some Horse to second the forlorne Hope. These falling on into another ground where the Enemie was a li­ning the hedges, drave them from hedge to hedge and pursued them. The Enemie in this retreat ha­ving so many reserves of Foote at every hedge, hee makes a stay with a new party: Still Colonell Okey commanded the party both of Fire-locks, Dragoons and Horse to advance; The Enemie having a nume­rous Armie of Foote, still ever and anon sends fresh reserves: but at the end hee was beate by this party of Foote and Horse to a water, and from thence over a River, where againe hee made good his ground. There the dispute lasted a long while, till our body of Horse and Foote advanced, where the Horse with the Foote making way, and charging with the Foot upon their Musqueteers, through the goodnesse of God after an hours dispute they were put to the rout. Wee pursued, tooke divers prisoners, the number as yet unknowne, and the quality; we heare of some men of quality both killed and taken; this for pre­sent in briefe. Wee can give you an accompt that there were farre more prisoners taken than the num­ber of our Armie was: so that wee can well say, God hath done great things for us in mightily stirring up the spirits of Officers and Souldiers so as couragi­ously each one in his place in this businesse doing his part. Wee can truly say that this was the hand of God, wee being but a handfull in comparison to their great Armie which might have been a sufficient motive to have caused us to have refused to fight; Yet the confidegatiō of the great disadvantage the Retreat [Page 6] would have beene to us in our future proceedings. These were motives notwithstanding all the former difficulties, to induce us to fight, where through the Lord we had an answerable success; in which let the glo­ry be given to God, and not to man. Our victory be­ing an absolute rout of them, with very little losse to our selves, some few by-men we had killed; the smal­nesse of the number causing great admiration both to us and the Enemie; divers of the Enemie were killed, forty to one, and about 2500. taken. The chiefe of them that we can heare of was Major-Generall Strad­ling, but none of our party either killed or wounded. Captaine Nicholets and Cornet Okey were both shot through their hats, but free from any other hurt; there have been a few men of my troope killed, and some hurt, but not many. For which and all other mercies I desire God may have the glory: by the next Post you shall hear more. This being done in haft in the field; in the mean time I referre you to Captaine Mercer, who can fully resolve you. No more for present; I take my leave, and remain