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gained so far to windward, that if he had continued his voyage it was become impossible for the English to come up with him. But deeming it contrary to the dignity and reputation of the mighty armament which he commanded, to suffer two ships to be taken almost under the fire of its guns, he took the brave but no less adventurous resolution of going to their succour; thus, for the sake of protecting an inconsiderable part of his fleet, exposing himself to the hazard of losing the whole. He formed his line of battle, bore down upon the English, and rescued the Zélé. But this movement had brought him so near to the enemy, that it was no longer in his power to avoid an engagement. The two admirals prepared for it with equal ardor. The same high spirit was shared by all their crews; there was not a sailor of the two nations who did not feel that he was about to contend for the honor of his sovereign, and the dominion of the West Indies. But the night was already come; it was employed on either side in making every preparation for the great day of the

morrow.

The space of sea which was to serve as the field of battle, is contained between the islands of Guadaloupe, Dominica, the Saints, and Maria Galante. Both to windward and leeward, the waters abound in shoals and very dangerous reefs. The twelfth of April, at six in the morning, the two fleets found themselves drawn up in presence of each other, but on opposite tacks. The wind at this mornent having veered from east to southeast, became more favorable to the English. They profited of it without loss of time; their van and the greater part of their centre ranged up to within half cannon-shot of the enemy, and commenced the attack with unexampled fury. The action lasted from seven in the morning till seven at night. The other ships of the centre, and the greater part of those of the rear, edged up successively, and took part in the battle. Among them was distinguished the Barfleur, of ninety guns, the ship of admiral Hood. During this time the Zélé, towed by the Astree, was endeavoring to gain Guadaloupe.

Never did warriors the most inflamed with desire of victory, display more desperate valor or determined resolution, than the French and English in this memorable day. The broadsides, from their rapid succession, appeared continual; through the thick smoke that covered the two fleets, nothing was seen but the blaze of their guns, nothing was heard but the thunder of artillery, and the crash of the spars that were shivered into splinters. The Formidable, admiral Rodney's ship, discharged in the course of this terrible conflict no less than eighty broadsides; the Ville de Paris an equal number. The fight continued for several hours without any apparent superiority of success; almost all the ships were excessively shattered; the crews were exhausted with fatigue. From the very commencement of the action the English, according to their custom, had endeavored to

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break the enemy's line of battle. But the wind was not strong enough; and the French perceiving their design, held firm and repulsed them with vigor. Meanwhile, the van and centre of the count de Grasse had suffered extremely in their rigging, which occasioned a sensible retardment in the movements of these two divisions. The third, commanded by M. de Bougainville, not having regulated its manœuvres by those of the rest of the line, had fallen into extreme disorder. To this fatal event, which could only be imputed to men, there soon succeeded another, originating in the contrariety of fortune. The wind became all at once so unfavorable to the French, that their sails filled aback; it was for the same reason extremely propitious to the English. Rodney took advantage of it instantly. He bore rapidly down with the Formidable, the Namur, the Duke and the Canada, and penetrated through the French line at the post occupied by the Glorieux, which was completely dismasted, at the distance of three ships from the Ville de Paris. His other ships were directed by signal to follow him. This order having been executed with great promptitude, the whole British fleet found itself to windward of the enemy's. From this moment the fate of the day could no longer be doubtful. The English wore round close upon their adversaries, who, broken and in total confusion, could ill withstand an enemy fighting in compact line, and animated by the prospect of infallible victory. The French protracted their resistance only by detached groups, or partial engagements of ship with ship. Their desperate situation, however, had not yet abated their courage. They endeavored to reestablish the line to leeward, but all their efforts were vain, though they signally honored their misfortune. The English of preference closed with those ships which they judged unable to escape them. The Cauada engaged the Hector, which did not surrender till after having exhausted all its means of defence. The Centaur attacked the Cesar; they had both remained entire. A furious action ensued. The French captain would not surrender. Three other ships of war assailed him; but after his ship had been battered to pieces, and his ensign-staff shot away, M. de Marigny, who commanded the Cesar, ordered his colors to be nailed to the mast, and redoubled the fire of all his batteries. He was slain; his successor defended himself with the same courage. At length his mainmast being fallen, and all his tackling destroyed, he yielded to number. The captain of the Glorieux did not surrender till after the most honorable resistance. The Ardent, after a no less gallant defence, fell also into the power of the English. The Diademe, torn all to pieces, went to the bottom. If all the French captains whom fortune betrayed on this day, displayed an heroic bravery, none of them deserved more lasting praises than the unfortunate count de Grasse. He seemed inflexibly resolved rather to sink with his ship, than to surrender her to the enemy. Totally dismasted, and admitting the water

on all parts, the Ville de Paris, after a combat of ten hours, continued to keep up a terrible fire with starboard and larboard guns. Captain Cornwallis in the Canada, appeared to rest his glory upon reducing her; but by her very mass she repulsed all his efforts; six other British ships joined the Canada, to give the final blows to the French admiral, but still in vain. Several of his ships had attempted to succour him; at first his two seconds the Languedoc and Couronne, then the Pluton and the Triumphant. But, overwhelmed by number, the captains of these ships had been constrained to abandon their captain-general to all the dangers of his position. The count de Grasse found his last hope extinct; his fleet, lately so flourishing, was either dispersed or fallen into the power of the enemy, but his invincible courage refused to bend. He persisted in this manner, facing with the most admirable intrepidity the repeated attempts that were made upon him from every quarter, till past six o'clock in the afternoon. Admiral Hood's approach in the Barfleur of ninety guns, did not alter his determination. He bore a heavy fire from him during some time, without any appearance of yielding; and it was not till after a dreadful destruction of his people that he consented at last to strike. He and two more were the only men left standing upon the upper deck. Thus fell into the hands of the English the Ville de Paris, justly considered as one of the fairest ornaments of the French marine. This magnificent ship had been presented to Lewis XV. by his capital, at the epoch of the disasters occasioned by the war of Canada. It had cost four millions of livres. Thirty-six chests of money, and the whole train of artillery, intended for the attack on Jamaica, became the prey of the victors. The English lost in this battle and in that of the ninth, upwards of a thousand men. The loss of the French was much more considerable, without reckoning prisoners. The first had in particular to regret the captains Bayne and Blair of the Alfred and Anson. Lord Robert Manners, son of the marquis of Granby, a young man of the greatest promise, survived his wounds but a short time. This day cost life to six captains of French ships; among whom were the viscount d'Escars and M. de la Clocheterie; the first of the Glorieux, the second of the Hercule.

To reap the fruits of his victory, admiral Rodney would have wished to pursue the enemy after the battle. But as it grew dark, he thought it necessary, in order to secure his prizes, and to afford time for inquiring into the condition of the ships that had suffered in the action, to bring too for the night. The following morning he was still detained upon the coasts of Guadaloupe by a calm, which lasted three days. Having at length examined the bays and harbors of the neighboring French islands, and being satisfied that the enemy had sailed to leeward, Rodney despatched sir Samuel Hood, whose division being in the rear, and coming up late, had suffered but little

in the battle, to the west end of St. Domingo, in the hope that he might be able to pick up some of their disabled ships. Hood was afterwards to repair to Cape Tiberon, where admiral Rodney had appointed to meet him with the rest of his fleet.

With the exception of some French ships, which M. de Bougainville conducted to St. Eustatius to be repaired, all the others under the marquis de Vaudreuil, keeping together in a body, made the best of their way to Cape Francois. In the meantime, admiral Hood had arrived in the waters of St. Domingo, and while cruising in the Mora passage, which separates that island from Porto Rico, he descried four sail of French vessels, two of the line, and two of less force. These were the Jason and Caton, which were returning from the anchorage of Guadaloupe, with the frigate Aimable and the sloop of war Ceres. Their captains were not informed of the action of the twelfth of April, and were pursuing their voyage in full security. They fell into the midst of the squadron of sir Samuel Hood, who had little difficulty in forcing them to surrender. A fifth sail, which was discovered in the distance, had the fortune to escape the pursuit of the English, by an unexpected shift of wind in her favor. Thus the French loss amounted to eight ships of the line; but the Diademe having been sunk, and the Cesar having blown up, there remained but six in the possession of the English, as trophies of their victory.

Admiral Hood rejoined sir George Rodney off Cape Tiberon; the latter then proceeded with the disabled ships and the prizes to Jamaica. The former remained, with twenty-five ships that had suffered the least, in the waters of St. Domingo, to watch the enemy, and prevent him from attempting any expedition of importance against the British possessions. Though discouraged by the check which they had just received, the allies were still formidable. They had at Cape Francois twenty-three sail of the line, under the marquis de Vaudreuil, and sixteen Spanish, commanded by don Solano. Their land forces amounted to near twenty thousand men. They relinquished, however, the enterprise of Jamaica, and indeed every sort of attempt in the West Indies. The Spaniards returned to the Havanna. Some French ships took under their guard a convoy of merchantmen, and arrived in Europe without accident. The marquis de Vaudreuil repaired with the rest of his fleet to the ports of North America. Thus ended the projects against Jamaica, and all this campaign in the West Indies. It produced afterwards one only event; the Bahama Islands which had hitherto served as a shelter for British privateers, surrendered the sixth of May to the Spanish arms. The French obtained also another success in the most northern regions of America; a feeble compensation of their late losses. The marquis de Vaudreuil, a little before his departure for the United States, had detached M. de la Peyrouse, with the ship of war Sceptre, and the frigates Astree and Engageante. His instructions

were, to repair to Hudson's bay, and do all the harm possible to the establishments of the British northwest company. The expedition succeeded completely; the English estimated the damage he caused them at several millions of livres. It was much more remarkable for the almost insurmountable obstacles which the nature of the places and climate presented to the French, than for the resistance of their enemies, whom they surprised in full security and without defence. The coasts were difficult and little known, and the shoals very dangerous. Though it was only the last of July when the ships of the expedition arrived in Hudson's bay, yet the cold was already so rigorous there, and the masses of floating ice so numerous that they were very near being shut up for the winter in those bleak and dismal regions.

In the meantime, admiral Rodney had repaired to Jamaica; he had made a triumphal entry into the port of Kingston. The inhabitants of the island crowded with eagerness to behold their deliverer, and to enjoy the spectacle of the victorious and of the captured ships. But no object more excited their curiosity, than the French admiral himself, who, already become illustrious by great success in America, and ready but now to fall upon their island at the head of the most ⚫ formidable armament, appeared there at present as a memorable example of the caprices of fortune. The victory of Rodney and the exultation of the colonists, did not however cause them to forget what generosity exacted of them towards an unfortunate enemy. They loaded him with all the attentions which they judged suitable to console him.

Meanwhile, before the news of the victory of the twelfth of April had reached England, admiral Pigot had been appointed to the command of the West India fleet, in the room of Rodney. The latter obeyed without delay, and departed for Europe, after having embarked the count de Grasse in the homeward bound Jamaica convoy. The odious pillage committed at St. Eustatius, had brought Rodney into great discredit with the public. His conduct had been censured with extreme asperity even in parliament. The complaints which arose on all parts against this admiral, might have contributed no less to his recall than his attachment to the party in opposition to minisBut when arrived in England, he answered his accusers only by showing them the count de Grasse prisoner. Immediately, the infamous spoiler of St. Eustatius became the idol of the nation. Those same individuals who had inveighed against him with the most vehemence, showed themselves the most forward to load him with panegyric in the same measure.

ters.

The count de Grasse encountered in England the most honorable reception; he owed it perhaps as much to ostentation as to politeness. As soon as he was arrived at London he was presented to the king, and waited on by all the great. The people assembled in throng

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