The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence | Page 5

DE SUFFREN
Isolation characteristic of Military and Naval Operations in India 234
Occurrences in 1778 234
Sir Edward Hughes sent to India with a Fleet, 1779 235
The Years prior to 1781 Uneventful 235
A British Squadron under Commodore Johnstone sent in 1781 to seize Cape of Good Hope 236
A Week Later, a French Squadron under Suffren sails for India 236
Suffren finds Johnstone Anchored in Porto Praya, and attacks at once 237
The immediate Result Indecisive, but the Cape of Good Hope is saved by Suffren arriving first 238
Suffren reaches Mauritius, and the French Squadron sails for India under Comte d'Orves 239
D'Orves dies, leaving Suffren in Command 240
Trincomalee, in Ceylon, captured by Hughes 240
First Engagement between Hughes and Suffren, February 17, 1782 240
Second Engagement, April 12 242
Third Engagement, July 6 244
Suffren captures Trincomalee 247
Hughes arrives, but too late to save the place 247
Fourth Engagement between Hughes and Suffren, September 3 248
Having lost Trincomalee, Hughes on the change of monsoon is compelled to go to Bombay 251
Reinforced there by Bickerton 251
Suffren winters in Sumatra, but regains Trincomalee before Hughes returns. Also receives Reinforcements 251
The British Besiege Cuddalore 252
Suffren Relieves the Place 253
Fifth Engagement between Hughes and Suffren, June 20, 1783 253
Comparison between Hughes and Suffren 254
News of the Peace being received, June 29, Hostilities in India cease 255
GLOSSARY OF NAUTICAL AND NAVAL TERMS USED IN THIS BOOK 257
INDEX 267

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Remains of the Revenge, one of Benedict Arnold's Schooners on Lake Champlain in 1776. Now in Fort Ticonderoga. Frontispiece FACING PAGE
Major-General Philip Schuyler 12
Edward Pellew, afterwards Admiral, Lord Exmouth 12
Benedict Arnold 27
Attack on Fort Moultrie in 1776 33
Richard, Earl Howe 78
Charles Henri, Comte d'Estaing 78
Admiral, the Honourable Samuel Barrington 104
Comte de Guichen 144
George Brydges, Lord Rodney 144
Fran?ois-Joseph-Paul, Comte de Grasse, Marquis de Tilly 204
Admiral, Lord Hood 204
Sir Edward Hughes, K.B. 254
Pierre Andr�� de Suffren de Saint Tropez 254

LIST OF MAPS
FACING PAGE
Lake Champlain and Connected Waters 8
New York and New Jersey: to illustrate Operations of 1776, 1777, and 1778 40
Narragansett Bay 70
Leeward Islands (West Indies) Station 99
Island of Santa Lucia 101
Island of Martinique 164
Peninsula of India, and Ceylon 234
North Atlantic Ocean. General Map to illustrate Operations in the War of American Independence 280

LIST OF BATTLE-PLANS
FACING PAGE
D'Orvilliers and Keppel, off Ushant, July 27, 1778
Figure 1 86
Figures 2 and 3 90
D'Estaing and Byron, July 6, 1779 106
Rodney and De Guichen, April 17, 1780, Figures 1 and 2 132
Rodney and De Guichen, May 15, 1780 143
Cornwallis and De Ternay, June 20, 1780 156
Arbuthnot and Des Touches, March 16, 1781 172
Graves and De Grasse, September 5, 1781 180
Hood and De Grasse, January 25, 1782, Figures 1 and 2 201
Hood and De Grasse, January 26, 1782, Figure 3 203
Rodney and De Grasse, April 9 and 12, 1782
Figures 1 and 2 210
Figure 3 212
Figures 4 and 5 215
Figure 6 218
Johnstone and Suffren, Porto Praya, April 16, 1781 237
Hughes and Suffren, February 17, 1782 240
Hughes and Suffren, April 12, 1782 243
Hughes and Suffren, July 6, 1782 243
Hughes and Suffren, September 3, 1782 249
* * * * *

THE MAJOR OPERATIONS OF THE NAVIES IN THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

INTRODUCTION
THE TENDENCY OF WARS TO SPREAD
Macaulay, in a striking passage of his Essay on Frederick the Great, wrote, "The evils produced by his wickedness were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown. In order that he might rob a neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of North America."
Wars, like conflagrations, tend to spread; more than ever perhaps in these days of close international entanglements and rapid communications. Hence the anxiety aroused and the care exercised by the governments of Europe, the most closely associated and the most sensitive on the earth, to forestall the kindling of even the slightest flame in regions where all alike are interested, though with diverse objects; regions such as the Balkan group of States in their exasperating relations with the Turkish empire, under which the Balkan peoples see constantly the bitter oppression of men of their own blood and religious faith by the tyranny of a government which can neither assimilate nor protect. The condition of Turkish European provinces is a perpetual lesson to those disposed to ignore or to depreciate the immense difficulties of administering politically, under one government, peoples traditionally and racially distinct, yet living side by side; not that the situation is much better anywhere in the Turkish empire. This still survives, though in an advanced state of decay, simply because other States are not prepared to encounter the risks of a disturbance which might end in a general bonfire, extending its ravages to districts very far remote from the scene of the original trouble.
Since these words were written, actual war has broken out in the Balkans. The Powers, anxious each as to the effect upon its own