attended to, that he was peremptorily ordered to adhere to his inftruction. However that was, whether the propofal was made, rejected, or not, the fubfequent events fully fhewed, that the cruize off Point Salines was the measure which fhould have been adopted.

On the 28th of April, fome of Sir Samuel Hood's headmoft cruizers returned haftily in fight, with fignals, which announced the appearance of a fuperior fleet and a numerous convoy, to the windward of Point Salines. Notwithftanding the fuperiority of force now denounced, the admiral immediately made a fignal for a general chace to windward, and in fome time after, when the fhips were pretty well come up, he formed the line a-head. The importance and emergency of the occafion, occafioned a confultation between the admirals in the night, when it was determined to continue the line a-head, fo that, getting as much as poffible to windward, they might be enabled to clofe in with Fort-Royal at day light, fo as to cut off the enemy from that harbour.

April 29. In the morning the enemy appeared; their convoy, keeping clofe in under the land, were turning round the Diamond Rock, while De Graffe' drew up his fleet in a line of battle a-breaft, for their protection; and notwithstanding the utmost exertions of the British commanders to gain the wind and prevent it, four fhips of the line and a fifty, in Fort Royal harbour, were abled to join him. The Prince William likewife, with great celerity and diligence, opportunely

en

joined Sir Samuel Hood at this critical moment; but the French had ftill a fuperiority of fix ships of the line.

Notwithstanding this great inequality of force, every poffible manœuvre was gallantly ufed by the British commanders to bring the enemy to close action. As the Count de Graffe was to windward, the option lay entirely with him, both as to action and diftance. He chofe, in the feaman's phrase, a long hot diftance. The French fired half an hour before their fhot could take effect, and confequently before their fire was returned. At half past eleven their balls began to reach, and the engagement commenced; but ftill at too great a distance, and continued fo to the laft. Never, faid Sir Samuel Hood, was more powder and fhot thrown away in one day.

Although the engagement feemed, in point of firing, to be general, the diftance preferved by the enemy, and the ftrenuous, though ineffectual efforts, made, upon every occafion that offered, by the British fhips, to close with them, rendered it partial. Thus fome of the best ships in the fleet, under the conduct of captains of the most undoubted bravery, did not lofe a man; and the lofs fuftained by several others in the fame circumftanccs, was fo trifling as not to deferve mention. On the other hand, the van, and the nearest fhips of the center, in their conftant ftruggles to close the enemy, and get to windward, were expofed to a long and heavy weight of fire. By this means, a few fhips fuffered very confiderably; but this was more with refpect to

their mafts, hulls, and rigging, than to the lofs of men.

The action lafted, from firft to laft, about three hours; when the British commander, finding that not one shot in ten of the enemy reached, and that all his endeavours to gain the wind were fruit lefs, ceafed firing entirely; and his example was, not long after, followed on the other fide. The lofs in men amounted only to 36 flain, and 161 wounded; but the fervice fuffered confiderably in the death of the brave Capt. Nott of the Centaur, who, with his first lieutenant, Plowden, gallantly fell in this action. The damage fuftained by the Ruffel, and at leaft four other fhips, which rendered them unfit for immediate fervice, was the great lofs fuftained in this engagement. The former had received fo many fhot between wind and water, that fhe was obliged to bear away for St. Euftatius; and was with difficulty preserved from finking in her paffage.

From these unfortunate circumftances, the gallant exertions made by the British officers, for bringing an unwilling enemy to that decifive action, which they fo much wished, but were not able to compel him to, had the fingular fortune of being productive of fome of the actual confequences of a defeat; and of affording fo decided a fuperiority to the French, as could not for fome time be refifted.

The French admiral was not blind to the great advantage, which the prefent comparative fituation of both fleets afforded. He accordingly continued in fight, and feemed difpofed, on the following

day, to bring matters to that decifive conclufion, which he had before fo much evaded. But this defign was totally disconcerted by the unexpected manoeuvres of Sir Samuel Hood. That judicious commander, feeing that the French line was very irregular, and that the van, and a part of the center, were greatly feparated from the reft, made one of those bold movements, which, by throwing the fleet into the greateft apparent confufion, would, to a common eye, have appeared to be full of danger, at the fame time that it could only have been directed by the greatest judgment. The object was to gain the wind, in which he was very near fucceeding; and in that cafe, he would have cut off and destroyed one half of the French fleet, before it could have been fuccoured by the other. Fortune failed in her ufual favour to bold enterprize. This movement, however, totally changed the appearance of things; and the British fleet, inftead of being on the defenfive, carried the face of being the aggreffor during the reft of the day.

But the condition of the wounded fhips, which grew continually worfe by motion, induced the British commanders, in the night, to a determination of bearing away for Antigua, instead of lofing any more time, in daring or tempting the enemy to the enemy to an engagement. The French, elated at any thing which carried the appearance of a flight, and might afford fome room for boafting of a victory, purfued in the morning with a vigour which they had not before fhewn; and the Torbay having fallen confiderably a-ftern, fhe re

ceived feveral shot, and fome damage, before he could be relieved, although that was both speedily and boldly done. The French, in order to keep up the name and appearance of a purfuit, continued in fight for the reft of the day.

The arrival of the Ruffel, indicated to the conquerors of St. Euftatius, the danger of attending any longer to the fale of the effects in that island. Great exertions were employed to fit her again for fervice; her damages, though the water had rifen above the platform of her magazine, were fpeedily repaired; and in three days after her arrival, the admiral and general, with the Sandwich, Triumph, Ruffel, and fome land forces, proceeded to join Sir Samuel Hood, and to protect the islands. Some time was neceffarily fpent at Antigua, after the junction, for the repair and fupply of the fhips which had fuffered in the late action; and that bufinefs being done, the commander in chief procceded with the whole fleet to Barbadoes.

In the mean time, the Marquis de Bouille, with a body of troops under the Vifccunt Damas, landed in the night on the island Ma, 10. of St. Lucia, which, though otherwife ftrong, was in no great condition of defence in point of garrifon. They took poft at the town of Grofs-Iflet, where they hoped to furprize and cut off the 46th regiment. By fome fortune or accident they failed in this; though they furprized a centinel before day-light, who was killed in the fcuffle; they likewife took an officer prifoner, who, with the fick foldiers in the

hofpital, they fent off to Marti nique. They then fummoned the officer who commanded in PigeonIfland, threatening the utmost feverities of war, if he did not immediately furrender. This poft was of the utmost importance, particularly with respect to their intended naval operations. The fpirited answer which was returned, and the vigorous preparation they perceived for an obitinate defence, feems to have given the firft check to their hopes, if not to their progrefs.

The accidental arrival of a frigate, and of two floops of war, who immediately landed their fea

men and marines to man the bat

teries, contributed much to the prefervation of the ifland. In the mean time, the most foldierly dif pofitions, and vigorous preparations, were made by Brig. Gen. St. Leger, for the defence of the different pofts; which were fufficiently frong, but too numerous and extenfive for his fmall force. He was admirably feconded by his cficers; and the merchants, with the mailers and crews of the trading veffels, all went, with a degree of alacrity and fpirit which did them the highest honour, to man and defend their respective pofts. Thus, every English, and confeqently military part of the inland, carried the appearance of the most determined refiftance. The natives were naturally on the fide of the enemy.

In the night, the French troops took a most painful and toilfome march, to feize the ftrong grounds about Morne- Fortune, which was the grand or principal poft. And on the fucceeding day, the danger of the ifland feemed imminent in

deed;

deed; for it was invested by a French fleet of 25 fail of the line. Thefe bore down, with a view of anchoring in Grofs-Iflet Bay; but they were received with fo fevere and well-directed a fire, from the batteries on Pigeon-Ifland, that they were obliged to abandon their defign, and to retire, with evident marks of confufion and difmay, to leeward. The Marquis de Bouille, notwithstanding, continued to make fuch difpofitions, as indicated a determined defign of attacking the ftrong poft of the Morne on the following day. But to the astonishment of the whole island, and the no fmall difmay of the French natives, he re-embarked all his troops in the night, and the whole fleet was feen ftanding over to Martinique in the morning.

The French pretend that this was only a feint, intended to difguife their real defign upon Tobago. But this feems calculated merely to cover the difgrace of an ineffectual attempt, and of a retreat. The attempt upon St. Lucia was likely to produce a directly contrary effect to that pretended, and to interrupt, inftead of furthering, their defigns upon Tobago. It was to be expected that the first report of it would have drawn Sir George Rodney to that quarter, and that his arrival would have been about the time when they leaft wifhed it with refpect to Tobago. The probability feems to be, that the French inhabitants, in their eagernefs to return to their natural government, had reprefented things, with refpect to the ftrength and fituation of the island, to be worfe than they really were, and, on

the other hand, that the fpirit and vigour difplayed by the commanding officer and his garrifon, made them appear much better. Thus, meeting with a countenance and preparation which they fo little expected, it is very probable, that the confideration of Tobago might then have operated with no fmall effect, and that they deemed it prudent not to waste their force, where the refiftance was fo determined, and the event fo doubtful, while they had a greater, and perhaps lefs difficult, object in view.

On the very day that Sir George Rodney, with the fleet, arrived from Antigua at Barbadoes, a fmall French fquadron, with a confiderable body of land forces, under the conduct of M. de Blanchelande, late governor of St. Vincent's, appeared off the island of Tobago. Governor May 23. Fergufon immediately difpatched the Rattlefnake, which was a very fwift failer, with the intelligence to Sir George Rodney, at Barbadoes; and Captain Barnes had the fortune to deliver the difpatch, at twelve o'clock on the night of the 26th. It is not our business to enter any farther into the controverfy which arofe upon this fubject, than merely to ftate the facts as they appear. The commander in chief feems to have conceived, that the force of the invaders was much lefs,

and that of the island confiderably greater, than they really were, Under the influence of this opinion, the commander in chief contented himself with fending Admiral Drake, with fix fail of the line, fome frigates, with a regiment, and two additional com

panies,