Hughes and outward-bound English ships, and was favorably placed to
protect his own convoys, which joined him there. On the 3d of June he
sailed for Tranquebar, a Danish possession, where he remained two or
three weeks, harassing the English communications between Madras and
the fleet at Trincomalee. Leaving there, he sailed for Cuddalore, to
communicate with the commander of the land forces and Hyder Ali. The
latter was found to be much discontented with the scanty co-operation
of the French general. Suffren, however, had won his favor, and he
expressed a wish to see him on his return from the expedition then in
contemplation; for, true to his accurate instinct, the commodore was
bent upon again seeking out the English fleet, _after_ beating which
he intended to attack Negapatam. There was not in him any narrowness
of professional prejudice; he kept always in view the necessity, both
political and strategic, of nursing the alliance with the Sultan and
establishing control upon the seaboard and in the interior; but he
clearly recognized that the first step thereto was the control of the
sea, by disabling the English fleet. The tenacity and vigor with which
he followed this aim, amid great obstacles, joined to the
clear-sightedness with which he saw it, are the distinguishing merits
of Suffren amid the crowd of French fleet-commanders,--his equals in
courage, but trammelled by the bonds of a false tradition and the
perception of a false objective.

Hughes meantime, having rigged jury-masts to the "Monmouth," had gone
to Trincomalee, where his squadron refitted and the sick were landed
for treatment; but it is evident, as has before been mentioned, that
the English had not held the port long enough to make an arsenal or
supply port, for he says, "I will be able to remast the 'Monmouth'
from the spare stores on board the several ships." His resources were
nevertheless superior to those of his adversary. During the time that
Suffren was at Tranquebar, worrying the English communications between
Madras and Trincomalee, Hughes still stayed quietly in the latter
port, sailing for Negapatam on the 23d of June, the day after Suffren
reached Cuddalore. The two squadrons had thus again approached each
other, and Suffren hastened his preparations for attack as soon as he
heard that his enemy was where he could get at him. Hughes awaited his
movement.

Before sailing, however, Suffren took occasion to say in writing home:
"Since