vered and chased
a convoy laden with stores for the fleet in the East Indies. One of
the ships of the line accompanying it, the _Pegase_, 74, surrendered,
after a night action of three hours with the _Foudroyant_, 80, Captain
John Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent. Of nineteen transports,
thirteen, one of which, the _Actionnaire_, was a 64-gun ship armed
_en flute_,[133] were taken; a weighty blow to the great Suffren,
whose chief difficulty in India was inadequate material of war, and
especially of spars, of which the _Actionnaire_ carried an outfit for
four ships of the line. After Barrington's return, Kempenfelt made a
similar but uneventful cruise of a month in the Bay.

Howe himself went first to the North Sea in the month of May. Having
there held the Dutch in check during a critical moment, he was
directed next to go to the entrance of the Channel, leaving only a
division in the Downs. Information had been received that an allied
fleet of thirty-two ships of the line, five only of which were
French, had sailed from Cadiz early in June, to cruise between Ushant
and Scilly. It was expected that they would be joined there by a
reinforcement from Brest, and by the Dutch squadron in the Texel,
making a total of about fifty of the line, under the command of the
Spanish Admiral, Don Luis de Cordova. The Dutch did not appear, owing
probably to Howe's demonstration before their ports; but eight ships
from Brest raised the allied fleet to forty. To oppose these Howe
sailed on the 2d of July with twenty-two sail, of which eight were
three-deckers. Before his return, in the 7th of August, he was joined
by eight others; mostly, however, sixty-fours. With this inferiority
of numbers the British Admiral could expect only to act on the
defensive, unless some specially favourable opportunity should offer.
The matter of most immediate concern was the arrival of the Jamaica
convoy, then daily expected; with which, it may be mentioned, de
Grasse also was returning to England, a prisoner of war on board the
_Sandwich_.

On its voyage north, the allied fleet captured on June 25th eighteen
ships of a British convoy bound for Canada. A few days later it was
fixed in the chops of the Channel, covering the ground from Ushant
to Scilly. On the evening of July 7th it was sighted off Scilly by
Howe, who then had with him twenty-five sail. The allies prepared for
action; but the British Admiral, possessing a thorough knowledge of
the nei