more adapted to the
talent displayed in performing the service than to its magnitude.

[Sidenote: Arrival of Admiral Arbuthnot.]

A few days after the surprise of Powles Hook, the long expected fleet
from Europe, under the command of Admiral Arbuthnot, having on board a
reinforcement for the British army, arrived at New York. This
reinforcement however did not enable Sir Henry Clinton to enter
immediately on that active course of offensive operations which he
had meditated. It was soon followed by the Count D'Estaing, who
arrived on the southern coast of America with a powerful fleet; after
which the British general deemed it necessary to turn all his
attention to his own security. Rhode Island, and the posts up the
North River were evacuated, and the whole army was collected in New
York, the fortifications of which were carried on with unremitting
industry.

[Sidenote: St. Lucia taken by the British. St. Vincents and Grenada
by the French.]

The Count D'Estaing and Admiral Byron, having sailed about the same
time from the coast of North America, met in the West Indies, where
the war was carried on with various success. St. Lucia surrendered to
the British, in compensation for which the French took St. Vincents
and Grenada. About the time of the capture of the latter island,
D'Estaing received reinforcements which gave him a decided naval
superiority; after which a battle was fought between the two hostile
fleets, in which the Count claimed the victory, and in which so many
of the British ships were disabled that the Admiral was compelled to
retire into port in order to refit.

The earnest representations made on the part of the United States had
prevailed on the cabinet of Versailles to instruct the Count D'Estaing
to afford them all the aid in his power; and the present moment seemed
a fit one for carrying these orders into execution. Letters from
General Lincoln, from the executive of South Carolina, and from the
French consul at Charleston, urged him to pay a visit to the southern
states; and represented the situation of the British in Georgia to be
such that his appearance would insure the destruction of the army in
that quarter, and the recovery of the state.

[Sidenote: Count D'Estaing with his fleet arrives on the southern
coast of America.]

Yielding to these solicitations, the Count sailed with twenty-two
ships of the line, and eleven frigates, having on board six thousand
soldiers, and arrived so su