In the simple order of retreat they kept two points before the beam.
[5] No reference to these orders appears in the correspondence of the generals at this time, unless it be in a letter of John Poortmans, deputy-treasurer of the fleet, to Robert Blackbourne, in which he writes on March 9: 'The generals want 500 copies of the instructions for commanders of the state's ships printed and sent down.' (_S.P.

Dom._ 48, f.

65.) [6] _Clarendon MSS._ 45, f.

470.
[7] Hoste, _Evolutions Navales_, p.78.

Dr.Gardiner declared himself sceptical as to the genuineness of the French gentleman's narrative, mainly on the ground of certain inaccuracies of date and detail; but, as Hoste certainly believed in it, it cannot well be rejected as evidence of the main features of the action for which he used it.
_COMMONWEALTH ORDERS_, 1653.[1] [+Duke of Portland's MSS.+] _By the Right Honourable the Generals and Admirals of the Fleet.
Instructions for the better ordering of the fleet in fighting_.
First.