ions of this character could not be kept
wholly secret, and Pitt learned enough to convince him that Spain was
becoming hostile in intention. With his usual haughty resolve, he
determined to forestall her by declaring war; but the influence
against him in the councils of the new king was too strong. Failing to
carry the ministry with him, he resigned on the 5th of October, 1761.
His prevision was quickly justified; Spain had been eager in
professing good-will until the treasure-ships from America should
arrive laden with the specie so needed for carrying on war. On the
21st of September the Flota of galleons anchored safely in Cadiz; and
on the 2d of November the British ambassador announced to his
government that "two ships had safely arrived with very extraordinary
rich cargoes from the West Indies, so that all the wealth that was
expected from Spanish America is now safe in old Spain," and in the
same despatch reports a surprising change in the words of the Spanish
minister, and the haughty language now used.[106] The grievences and
claims of Spain were urged peremptorily, and the quarrel grew so fast
that even the new English ministry, though ardently desiring peace,
recalled their ambassador before the end of the year, and declared war
on the 4th of January, 1762; thus adopting Pitt's policy, but too late
to reap the advantages at which he had aimed.

However, no such delay on the part of England could alter the
essential inequality, in strength and preparation, between the two
nations. The plans formed by Pitt were in the main adopted by his
successor, and carried out with a speed which the readiness of the
English navy permitted. On the 5th of March, Pocock, who had returned
from the East Indies, sailed from Portsmouth, convoying a fleet of
transports to act against Havana; in the West Indies he was reinforced
from the forces in that quarter, so that his command contained
nineteen ships-of-the-line besides smaller vessels, and ten thousand
soldiers.

In the previous January, the West India fleet, under the well-known
Rodney, had acted with the land forces in the reduction of Martinique,
the gem and tower of the French islands and the harbor of an extensive
privateering system. It is said that fourteen hundred English
merchantmen were taken during this war in the West Indian seas by
cruisers whose principal port was Fort Royal in Martinique. With this
necessary base fell also the privateering system resting upon