commander-in-chief, with the rank of commodore. A few days later the
land was seen to the northward of Madras; but owing to head-winds the
city was not sighted until February 15. Nine large ships-of-war were
found anchored in order under the guns of the forts. They were the
fleet of Sir Edward Hughes, not in confusion like that of
Johnstone.[172]

Here, at the meeting point between these two redoubtable champions,
each curiously representative of the characteristics of his own
race,--the one of the stubborn tenacity and seamanship of the English,
the other of the ardor and tactical science of the French, too long
checked and betrayed by a false system,--is the place to give an
accurate statement of the material forces. The French fleet had three
seventy-fours, seven sixty-fours, and two fifty-gun ships, one of
which was the lately captured English "Hannibal." To these Sir Edward
Hughes opposed two seventy-fours, one seventy, one sixty-eight, four
sixty-fours, and one fifty-gun ship. The odds, therefore, twelve to
nine, were decidedly against the English; and it is likely that the
advantage in single-ship power, class for class, was also against
them.

It must be recalled that at the time of his arrival Suffren found no
friendly port or roadstead, no base of supplies or repair. The French
posts had all fallen by 1779; and his rapid movement, which saved the
Cape, did not bring him up in time to prevent the capture of the Dutch
Indian possessions. The invaluable harbor of Trincomalee, in Ceylon,
was taken just one month before Suffren saw the English fleet at
Madras. But if he thus had everything to gain, Hughes had as much to
lose. To Suffren, at the moment of first meeting, belonged superiority
of numbers and the power of taking the offensive, with all its
advantages in choice of initiative. Upon Hughes fell the anxiety of
the defensive, with inferior numbers, many assailable points, and
uncertainty as to the place where the blow would fall.

It was still true, though not so absolutely as thirty years before,
that control in India depended upon control of the sea. The passing
years had greatly strengthened the grip of England, and
proportionately loosened that of France. Relatively, therefore, the
need of Suffren to destroy his enemy was greater than that of his
predecessors, D'Ache and others; whereas Hughes could count upon a
greater strength in the English possessions, and so bore a somewhat
less responsibility