e,
before the arrival of which nothing could be attempted, Rodney sent a
part of his fleet to cruise to windward and as far north as Guadeloupe;
but the officer in charge of the French convoy, suspecting this action,
kept well north of that island, and reached Fort Royal, Martinique, on
the 20th of March. The ships-of-war with him raised De Grasse's fleet
to thirty-three effective sail-of-the-line and two fifty-gun ships.

The object of the united efforts of France and Spain this year was the
conquest of Jamaica. It was expected to unite at Cap Francais (now Cap
Haitien), in Hayti, fifty ships-of-the-line and twenty thousand
troops. Part of the latter were already at the rendezvous; and De
Grasse, appointed to command the combined fleets, was to collect in
Martinique all the available troops and supplies in the French
islands, and convoy them to the rendezvous. It was this junction that
Rodney was charged to prevent.

The region within which occurred the important operations of the next
few days covers a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, from south
to north, including the islands of Sta. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica,
and Guadeloupe, in the order named. (See Plate XI. p. 378.) At this
time the first was in English, the others in French, hands. The final,
and for the moment decisive, encounter took place between, and a
little to westward of, Dominica and Guadeloupe. These are
twenty-three miles apart; but the channel is narrowed to thirteen by
three islets called the Saints, lying ten miles south of Guadeloupe.
It is said to have been De Grasse's intention, instead of sailing
direct for Cap Francais,[202] to take a circuitous course near the
islands, which, being friendly or neutral, would give refuge to the
convoy if pressed. The close pursuit of the English, who came up with
him off Dominica, led him to forsake this plan, sending the convoy
into Basse Terre at the south end of Guadeloupe, while with the fleet
he tried to beat through the channel and pass east of the island, thus
drawing the English away from the transports and ridding himself of
the tactical embarrassment due to the latter's presence. Accidents to
various ships thwarted this attempt, and brought about a battle
disastrous to him and fatal to the joint enterprise.

The anchorages of the two fleets, in Martinique and Sta. Lucia, were
thirty miles apart. The prevailing east wind is generally fair to pass
from one to the other; but a strong westerly