XVIII. 1778. however, brook the language which general BOOK Washington had hastily used, and he wrote him in consequence a passionate letter, which occasioned his being put under immediate arrest; and a court-martial being held upon him for disobedience of orders, misbehaviour in action, and disrespect to his commander, he was found guilty upon every charge, and suspended from all his military commands for twelve months. It was suspected that the commander in chief was not displeased at the dismissal of a man so haughty and impracticable; nor did the army, in whose estimation he had been visibly lessened since the disaster which had befallen him, appear much to regret his loss. For though the capture of general Lee was merely fortuitous, misfortune is in the minds of men nearly allied to disgrace, disgrace produces contempt, and contempt verges towards alienation and hatred. No sooner had sir Henry Clinton and the army evacuated Philadelphia, than lord Howe prepared to sail with the fleet to New York. Repeated calms retarded his passage down the Delawar, so that he could not clear the Cape till the evening of the 28th of June: and on the 29th his lordship reached Sandy Hook, whence he convoyed the army to New York. In a few days after the departure of lord Howe, count d'Estaing arrived off the coast, and anchored in the night of the BOOK 8th of July at the mouth of the Delawar; so that XVIII lord Howe narrowly escaped a surprise, which would probably have been attended with very fatal consequences. 1778. On the 11th the French fleet, consisting of fifteen sail of the line, appeared off Sandy Hook, to which lord Howe could oppose only eleven ships of very inferior magnitude and weight of metal. These were ranged with great skill and judgment in the harbour, in full expectation of an attack from the French fleet, which seemed resolutely bent upon the attempt. But the American pilots on board declared it impossible for the large ships of d'Estaing's squadron to pass the bar so that after eleven days tarriance he sailed to Rhode Island, in order to co-operate with general Sullivan in an enterprise against Newport. The approach of the French fleet created the unpleasant necessity of burning the Orpheus, Lark, Juno, and Cerberus frigates; and of sinking the Flora and Falcon. The commander of the garrison, sir Robert Pigot, made every preparation for a vigorous defence; and lord Howe, being at length reinforced by several ships from England part of a squadron commanded by admiral Byron, tardily dispatched after the Toulon fleet-immediately stood out to sca, though still inferior in force, in order to give battle to XVIII. 1778. the French admiral, who seemed not unwilling BOOK to accept the challenge. After much manoeuvering for the weather-gage, the fleets were separated by a violent tempest, by which the great ships of the French squadron were so much damaged, that it was deemed by count d'Estaing absolutely necessary to steer for the port of Boston to refit. General Sullivan was in conse quence compelled with chagrin and reluctance to withdraw his troops from Rhode Island. After the storm, or rather during the storm, when the fury of it had in some degree subsided, the Renown of fifty guns, captain Dawson, fell in with the Languedoc of ninety guns, d'Estaing's own ship, which had lost both her rudder and her masts, whom he engaged with such advantage as to flatter him with the prospect of an immediate capture, when the appearance of several other ships of the squadron compelled him to desist. Captain Raynor in the Isis, and captain Hotham in the Preston, both of fifty guns, fought with great gallantry the Cæsar of seventyfour, commanded by the celebrated Bougainville, and the Tonnant of eighty-but no ship on either side struck her colors. Lord Howe, with all possible expedition, followed his antagonist to Boston, in the hope of a favorable opportunity of attack; but found the French fleet lying in Nantasket Road, so well defended by the forts XVIIL BOOK and batteries erected on the points of land and the islands adjacent, that it was adjudged abso1778. lutely impracticable. Soon after this (October 1778) lord Howe quitted the command to admiral Gambier, having acquired in the course of the campaign much reputation by his skilful and vigorous exertions in a situation peculiarly critical and hazardous. The projects of count d'Estaing being effectu ally disconcerted in America, he sailed in the beginning of November to the West Indies, in order to second the operations of the marquis de Bouillé, governor of Martinico, who had already captured the important island of Dominique, to which he granted terms so favorable that the inhabitants had little reason to regret the change of masters. On the very same day that the French fleet left Boston, a detachment of five thousand troops, under convoy of a small squadron commanded by commodore Hotham, sailed from Sandy Hook, and arrived, fortunately without encountering the enemy in their course, at Barbadoes, December 10, 1778. Without suffering the troops to disembark, an expedition was immediately resolved upon against the island of St. Lucia, where on the 13th a landing was effected. By the active exertions of general Meadows and admiral Barrington, upon whom the command had now devolved, several of XVIII. 1778. the advanced posts were carried, when count BOOK d'Estaing appeared in view with a far superior force, having on board a large body of troops, with which he hoped to effect the entire reduction of the English islands. The squadron of admiral Barrington consisted only of three ships of the line, two of fifty guns, and three frigates, which he stationed across the entrance of the careenage, supported by several batteries erected on shore. On the morning of the 15th of December the French admiral bore down with ten sail of the line, but met with so gallant a reception, that he thought proper in a short time to draw off. In the afternoon he renewed the attack with his whole squadron, and a furious cannonade, directed chiefly against admiral Barrington's division, was kept up for several hours, without making any impression upon the English line; and the French admiral was again obliged to desist from his attack. He now landed a body of five thousand troops, and putting himself at their head, marched with great resolution to the assault of the British lines: but they were received by general Meadows with the same determined valour as they had before experienced from admiral Barrington; and being repulsed with great loss, the count re-embarked his troops, and left the island to its fate. It soon after surrendered to the British arms on honorable terms |