rbor of Trincomalee in
Ceylon, were both captured, the latter in January, 1782, by the joint
forces of the army and navy. The successful accomplishment of these
two enterprises completed the military situation in Hindostan at the
time when the arrival of Suffren, just one month later, turned the
nominal war into a desperate and bloody contest. Suffren found himself
with a decidedly stronger squadron, but without a port, either French
or allied, on which to base his operations against the English.

Of these four chief theatres of the war, two, North America and the
West Indies, as might be expected from their nearness, blend and
directly affect each other. This is not so obviously the case with the
struggles in Europe and India. The narrative therefore naturally falls
into three principal divisions, which may to some extent be treated
separately. After such separate consideration their mutual influence
will be pointed out, together with any useful lessons to be gathered
from the goodness or badness, the success or failure, of the grand
combinations, and from the part played by sea power.

On the 13th of March, 1778, the French ambassador at London notified
the English government that France had acknowledged the independence
of the United States, and made with them a treaty of commerce and
defensive alliance. England at once recalled her ambassador; but
though war was imminent and England at disadvantage, the Spanish king
offered mediation, and France wrongly delayed to strike. In June,
Admiral Keppel sailed from Portsmouth, with twenty ships, on a cruise.
Falling in with two French frigates, his guns, to bring them to,
opened the war. Finding from their papers that thirty-two French ships
lay in Brest, he at once returned for reinforcements. Sailing again
with thirty ships, he fell in with the French fleet under D'Orvilliers
to the westward of Ushant, and to windward, with a westerly wind. On
the 27th of July was fought the first fleet action of the war,
generally known as the battle of Ushant.

This battle, in which thirty ships-of-the-line fought on either side,
was wholly indecisive in its results. No ship was taken or sunk; both
fleets, after separating, returned to their respective ports. The
action nevertheless obtained great celebrity in England from the
public indignation at its lack of result, and from the storm of naval
and political controversy which followed. The admiral and the officer
third in command be