r the resources of the neighboring country to be
largely available, while the distant ports of the East and West Indies
depended wholly upon home. Hence the strategic question of
communications assumed additional importance. To intercept a large
convoy of supply-ships was an operation only secondary to the
destruction of a body of ships-of-war; while to protect such by main
strength, or by evading the enemy's search, taxed the skill of the
governments and naval commanders in distributing the ships-of-war and
squadrons at their disposal, among the many objects which demanded
attention. The address of Kempenfeldt and the bad management of
Guichen in the North Atlantic, seconded by a heavy gale of wind,
seriously embarrassed De Grasse in the West Indies. Similar injury, by
cutting off small convoys in the Atlantic, was done to Suffren in the
Indian seas: while the latter at once made good part of these losses,
and worried his opponents by the success of his cruisers preying on
the English supply-ships.

Thus the navies, by which alone these vital streams could be secured
or endangered, bore the same relation to the maintenance of the
general war that has already been observed of the separate parts. They
were the links that bound the whole together, and were therefore
indicated as the proper objective of both belligerents.

The distance from Europe to America was not such as to make
intermediate ports of supply absolutely necessary; while if difficulty
did arise from an unforeseen cause, it was always possible, barring
meeting an enemy, either to return to Europe or to make a friendly
port in the West Indies. The case was different with the long voyage
to India by the Cape of Good Hope. Bickerton, leaving England with a
convoy in February, was thought to have done well in reaching Bombay
the following September; while the ardent Suffren, sailing in March,
took an equal time to reach Mauritius, whence the passage to Madras
consumed two months more. A voyage of such duration could rarely be
made without a stop for water, for fresh provision, often for such
refitting as called for the quiet of a harbor, even when the stores on
board furnished the necessary material. A perfect line of
communications required, as has been said, several such harbors,
properly spaced, adequately defended, and with abundant supplies, such
as England in the present day holds on some of her main commercial
routes, acquisitions of her past wars. In