Folio 205: Edward Cooke, HMS Sybille, at sea. Encloses a copy of his letter to Rear...

Folio 205: Edward Cooke, HMS Sybille, at sea. Encloses a copy of his letter to Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, Commander in Chief in the East Indies, with an account of the Spanish force currently at Manila.

Folio 206: [Blank].

Folios 207-209: enclosed with folio 205. Copy of a letter dated 20 January 1798 from Captain Edward Cooke, HMS Sybille, off Mindoro Island, to Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, Commander in Chief in the East Indies. The letter he sent with the Sarah from Macao will have informed the Admiral of his arrival and his intention to proceed with HMS Fox to the coast of China. Having done this, on January 12 they reached Cape Bolinas, and because of the reports he had received from vessels sailing from Laconia, thought it advisable to look into Manila to check on the Spanish fleet so as to be able to protect the convoy now gathering at Whampoa. Showing French colours the two ships sighted Corregidor on January 14 and worked in towards Manila Bay to the point where the town and the ships in the harbour hoisted their own colours in response. He will not detail the observation with he and Captain Pulteney Malcolm of HMS Fox made, because shortly afterward a number of Spanish officers came aboard and gave them details which they would not have been able to discover otherwise. It was not until their boats were captured that the Spanish realised the two ships were not French. The first to be taken was a guard boat carrying the second Captain from the Spanish frigate the Maria de Cabegea, the second was the Commander in Chief's barge with an officer who was the Governor's nephew, and the third was a barge from the San Pedro, the flagship, with an aide-de-camp of Don Alaba, the Commander-in-Chief, offering refreshments and assistance with anchoring. Some time later a fourth boat arrived with the Captain of the Port, inquiring why the previous boats had stayed so long. Meanwhile boats from HMS Sybille and HMS Fox, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Fortescue Kennedy and Mr Stannings, Master of HMS Sybille and by Lieutenant Haywood and Mr Douglas, Master of HMS Fox, captured three gunboats without losing a man. By now the port was alarmed, so the two ships stood off an anchored for the night, having released the Spanish officers but kept their boats, and sailed away the next morning. He then lists the three line of battle ships and two frigates in the harbour, most with no masts fitted, and the several frigates which have gone to collect timber so that the ships can be made ready for sea. He notes that there are about 16,000 troops at Manilla, 4,000 of them European, and 60 gun boats. The Spanish ships were ill manned and very sickly.