al objective, had
sailed again on the 23d of March. It was his hope to cut off two
ships-of-the-line which were expected from England. For this he was
too late; the two seventy-fours joined the main body at Madras, March
30th. Hughes had refitted at Trincomalee in a fortnight, and reached
Madras again on the 12th of March. Soon after the reinforcement had
joined him, he sailed again for Trincomalee with troops and military
stores for the garrison. On the 8th of April Suffren's squadron was
seen to the northeast, also standing to the southward. Hughes kept on,
through that and the two following days, with light northerly winds.
On the 11th he made the coast of Ceylon, fifty miles north of
Trincomalee, and bore away for the port. On the morning of the 12th
the French squadron in the northeast was seen crowding sail in
pursuit. It was the day on which Rodney and De Grasse met in the West
Indies, but the parts were reversed; here the French, not the English,
sought action.

The speed of the ships in both squadrons was very unequal; each had
some coppered ships and some not coppered. Hughes found that his slow
sailers could not escape the fastest of his enemy,--a condition which
will always compel a retreating force to hazard an action, unless it
can resolve to give up the rear ships, and which makes it imperative
for the safety, as well as the efficiency, of a squadron that vessels
of the same class should all have a certain minimum speed. The same
cause--the danger of a separated ship--led the unwilling De Grasse,
the same day, in another scene, to a risky manoeuvre and a great
mishap. Hughes, with better reason, resolved to fight; and at nine
A.M. formed his line on the starboard tack, standing in-shore (Plate
XV., A), the squadron in good order, with intervals of two cables
between the ships.[176] His account, which again varies from that of
Suffren, giving a radically different idea of the tactics used by the
French commodore, and more to the credit of the latter's skill, will
first be followed. He says:--

"The enemy, bearing north by east, distant six miles, with wind
at north by east, continued manoeuvring their ships and
changing their positions in line, till fifteen minutes past
noon, when they bore away (a) to engage us, five sail of their
van stretching along (b) to engage the ships of our van, and the
other seven sail (b') steering directly on our three centre
ships, the 'Superbe,'