to prevent any vessel from
getting behind you, was most excellent. Well, it is a splendid victory,
the more so as it has been won with so little loss. The French certainly
showed but little discretion in thus running into the trap you had
prepared for them. Of course they could not tell what to expect, but at
least, whatever it might have cost them, they ought to have sent a strong
boat division in to reconnoitre. No English captain would have risked his
vessel in such a way."

With very little delay the voyage to Jamaica was continued. Two of the
relief party went straight on, the other remained with the _Furious_ in
case she should fall in with a French fleet. When the little squadron
entered Port Royal they received an enthusiastic welcome from the ships on
the station. Both prizes were bought into the service and handed over to
the dockyard for a thorough refit. Their names were changed, the _Eclaire_
being rechristened the _Sylph_, the _Actif_ becoming the _Hawke_.
Lieutenant Farrance was promoted to the rank of captain, and given the
command of the latter vessel, and some of the survivors of a ship that had
a fortnight before been lost on a dangerous reef were told off to her. He
was, according to rule, permitted to take a boat's crew and a midshipman
with him from his old ship, and he selected Will Gilmore, and, among the
men, Dimchurch and Tom Stevens.

The planters of Jamaica were celebrated for their hospitality, and the
officers received many invitations.

"You are quite at liberty to accept any of them you like," Captain
Farrance said to Will. "Till the vessel gets out of the hands of the
dockyard men there is nothing whatever for you to do. But I may tell you
that there is a good deal of unrest in the island among the slaves. The
doings of the French revolutionists, and the excitement they have caused
by becoming the patrons of the mulattoes has, as might be expected, spread
here, and it is greatly feared that trouble may come of it. Of course the
planters generally pooh-pooh the idea, but it is not to be despised, and a
few of them have already left their plantations and come down here. I
don't say that you should not accept any invitation if you like, but if an
outbreak takes place suddenly I fancy very few of the planters will get
down safely. I mean, of course, if there is a general rising, which I hope
will not be the case. Negroes are a good deal like other people. Where
they are well treated they