liated
by capturing St. Lucia. Then a fleet was sent out from England under
Admiral Byron, and another from France under Count de Grasse. The French
took St. Vincent and Grenada, and every island of either nation was in a
state of alarm and consternation. In July, 1779, Spain joined the others
against England, on the ground that her flag had been insulted. To this
it was replied that she harboured American privateers, and furnished
them with false documents, under which they carried Spanish colours.
Thus England had her hands full, for the Yankees alone gave her quite
enough work, without the addition of these old rivals.

As yet Rodney had not come out, but in the years 1778 and 1779 he
pressed his claim on the Government to have a command in the West
Indies. The seas were well known to him, and he had his views as to the
proper mode of carrying out operations; but for some time his
application was refused. Finally, however, in October, 1779, he was
appointed to replace Admiral Byron, with supreme control over the
operations in the Caribbean Sea, as well as freedom to intervene if
necessary on the American coast.

Rodney was at last satisfied, and he left in December with a convoy, the
whole fleet numbering three hundred. In the centre were transports and
merchant vessels, and on either side men-of-war. Off Cape Finisterre he
captured a convoy of sixteen Spanish vessels, and beyond Cape St.
Vincent fought with another squadron, and captured four men-of-war,
including the admiral. On then to the relief of Gibraltar, from whence
he sent part of the fleet into the Mediterranean, and where he remained
until February 13, 1780, when he sailed for the West Indies.

Arriving off St. Lucia on the 28th of March, he came upon the French
fleet under De Guichen, which he attempted to engage, but was prevented
from the want of skill in his captains. The result was that both fleets
sailed away from each other without much damage to either, both stating
that the other refused to fight. As, however, the French had thirty
vessels to the English seventeen, they could have compelled an action;
so that, although the affair was not creditable to either, it was
perhaps a little more disgraceful to the larger fleet. Rodney was in a
great rage. He attributed his failure to the incompetency of his
subordinates, who had not been properly trained to make combined naval
evolutions. Every captain, he said, thought himself fit to be Prime
Ministe