ssume responsibility, which already raised Rodney
conspicuously above the average level. On the 9th of March two lookout
vessels came in with news that they had sighted a fleet, corresponding
in numbers to the Brest division, fifteen miles to windward of
Martinique and standing to the southward; the trade wind making it
generally expedient to round the south point of the island in order to
reach the principal port on the west side,--Fort Royal. The British
squadron at once weighed anchor in pursuit; but the enemy, having
ascertained that the surrender was accomplished, had turned back north,
and were soon after reported from Guadaloupe as having passed there,
standing to the westward.

Rodney at once inferred that they must be gone to Santo Domingo. To
follow with the object of intercepting them was hopeless, in view of the
start they had; but the direction taken threatened Jamaica, the exposed
condition of which, owing to inadequate force, had been communicated to
him by the military and naval authorities there. His measures to meet
the case were thorough and deliberate, as well as rapid; no time was
lost either by hesitancy or delay, nor by the yet more facile error of
too precipitate movement. Orders for concentration were already out, but
the point on which to effect it was shifted to Antigua, where, although
inferior in natural resources to Martinique, the established British
naval station with its accumulated equipment was fixed; and the work of
provisioning and watering, so as to permit long continuance at sea
unhampered by necessity of replenishing, there went on apace. It was the
admiral's intention to leave his own command to look out for itself,
while he took away the mass of his fleet to protect national interests
elsewhere threatened.

Such a decision may seem superficially a commonplace matter of course;
that it was much more is a commonplace historical certainty. The merit
of Rodney's action appears not only in the details of execution, but in
its being undertaken at all; and in this case, as in a later instance in
his career, his resolution received the concrete emphasis that a sharp
and immediate contrast best affords. Prior to the enemy's arrival he had
laid the conditions before his colleague in service, General Moncton,
commanding the forces on shore, and asked a reinforcement of troops for
destitute Jamaica, if necessity arose. The result is best told in his
own words; for they convey, simply and w