if Count de Grasse could have extended
his co-operation two months longer."

Such, in the opinion of the revered commander-in-chief of the American
armies, was the influence of sea power upon the contest which he
directed with so much skill and such infinite patience, and which,
amidst countless trials and discouragements, he brought to a glorious
close.

It will be observed that the American cause was reduced to these
straits, notwithstanding the great and admitted losses of British
commerce by the cruisers of the allies and by American privateers.
This fact, and the small results from the general war, dominated as it
was by the idea of commerce-destroying, show strongly the secondary
and indecisive effect of such a policy upon the great issues of war.

FOOTNOTES:

[129] Martin: History of France.

[130] This delay was due to calms. Howe's Despatch, Gentleman's
Magazine, 1778.

[131] Most accounts say between Goat Island and Canonicut; but the
position given seems more probable. The names "Goat" and "Gould"
(often written "Gold") are easily confused. Since writing the above,
the author has been favored with the sight of a contemporary
manuscript map obtained in Paris, which shows the anchorage as near
Canonicut and abreast Coaster's Harbor Island; the latter being marked
"L'Isle d'Or ou Golde Isle." The sketch, while accurate in its main
details, seems the more authentic from its mistakes being such as a
foreigner, during a hurried and exciting stay of twenty-four hours,
might readily make.

[132] "The arrival of the French fleet upon the coast of America is a
great and striking event; but the operations of it have been injured by
a number of unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances, which, though
they ought not to detract from the merit and good intention of our
great ally, have nevertheless lessened the importance of its services
in a great degree. The length of the passage, in the first instance,
was a capital misfortune; for had even one of common length taken
place, Lord Howe, with the British ships-of-war and all the transports
in the river Delaware, must inevitably have fallen; and Sir Henry
Clinton must have had better luck than is commonly dispensed to men of
his profession under such circumstances, if he and his troops had not
shared at least the fate of Burgoyne. The long passage of Count
d'Estaing was succeeded by an unfavorable discovery at the Hook, which
hurt us in two respects,--first, in