of the general interest,
but in so doing he came very near traversing, unwittingly, the plans of
the general government by his local action, laudable and proper as that
certainly was. He was, however, professionally lucky to a proverb, and
escaped this mischance by a hair's breadth. The purposed detachment had
already started for Jamaica, and he was accompanying it in person, when
there joined him on March 25th, off the island of St. Kitt's, not far
from Antigua, a frigate bearing Admiralty despatches of February 5th.
These required him to desist from any enterprises he might have in hand,
in order to give his undivided attention to the local preparations for
an expedition, as yet secret, which was shortly to arrive on his
station, under the command of Admiral Pocock, with ultimate destination
against Havana.

To be thus arrested at the very outset of a movement from which he
naturally expected distinction was a bitter disappointment to Rodney.
Several years later, in 1771, he wrote to Sandwich, who was not the
First Lord when Pocock was sent out, "I had the misfortune of being
superseded in the command of a successful fleet, entrusted to my care in
the West Indies, at the very time I had sailed on another expedition
against the enemy's squadron at Santo Domingo, and was thereby deprived
of pursuing those conquests which so honorably attended upon another,
and which secured him such great emoluments,"--for Havana proved a
wealthy prize. His steps, however, upon this unexpected reversal of his
plans, were again characterized by an immediateness, most honorable to
his professional character, which showed how thoroughly familiar he was
with the whole subject and its possible contingencies, and the
consequent readiness of his mind to meet each occasion as it arose;
marks, all, of the thoroughly equipped general officer. The order as to
his personal movements being not discretional, was of course absolutely
accepted; but his other measures were apparently his own, and were
instantaneous. A vessel was at once sent off to Barbados to notify
Admiral Pocock that the best place in the West Indies for his rendezvous
was Fort Royal Bay, in the newly acquired Martinique. The ten
sail-of-the-line, accompanied by two large transports from St. Kitt's,
were then sent on to Jamaica to move troops from there to join Pocock;
the command of the detachment being now entrusted to Sir James Douglas,
who received the further instruction to send