aker, but "Black Dick," as the sailors called him,
was master of his profession and out-manoeuvred D'Estaing who was a
cavalry officer turned admiral. A storm dispersed both fleets and
D'Estaing, after collecting his ships, sailed off to Boston to refit.
Sullivan retreated and got away from Rhode Island a day before Clinton
arrived with 4,000 men. Lord Howe soon afterwards resigned his command,
declaring that he would not serve again under the present ministers.
D'Estaing sailed from Boston to the West Indies, leaving the American
populace furious at his departure from Rhode Island.

Clinton was called upon to send 5,000 men to the West Indies, Washington
was badly supported by congress, and neither was in a position to act
against the other. Successful expeditions were made in the autumn
against the privateering haunts of the insurgents, Buzzard's bay,
Martha's Vineyard, and on the New Jersey coast; many ships were taken
and much damage was done. The western frontiers were raided by the tory
troops of Johnson and Butler and by our Indian allies. Shocking
barbarities were committed, specially in the Wyoming valley, where the
prisoners were massacred by the Indians, though there the women and
children were spared, and at Cherry Valley, where there was a general
massacre during the attack. In 1779 the Americans retaliated on the
Indians with fearful severity, and cruelly wasted the lands of the
Senecas and Cayugas and the settlements in the Alleghany.

[Sidenote: _MISTAKEN NAVAL POLICY._]

Neither the operations on the coast nor the border fighting had any
material influence on the progress of the war. By the end of 1778,
however, the war entered on a new and, as it proved, decisive phase; it
became a struggle for the southern provinces. In November Clinton sent
a small force by sea under Colonel Campbell to invade Georgia. Campbell
routed the Americans and took Savannah; and General Prevost, who joined
him from Florida, easily obtained possession of the province. Lincoln's
attempt to regain it was defeated at Briar creek on March 3, 1779, and
Prevost penetrated into South Carolina. He finally retired to Georgia,
leaving a garrison at Port Royal, which secured his access to the sea
and gave him a footing in South Carolina, as well as a base for covering
Georgia. The campaign was a promising opening of operations in the
south.

When news of the outbreak of the war reached the West Indies, the French
governor of Martini