ned energy and skill Howe had won the
first move in the game. Clinton's army and New York were saved.

"The arrival of the French fleet," wrote Washington a little later, "is
a great and striking event; but the operations of it have been injured
by a number of unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances, which have
lessened the importance of its services to a great degree. The length of
the passage, in the first instance, was a capital misfortune; for, had
even one of common length taken place, Lord Howe, with the British ships
of war and all the transports in the river Delaware, must inevitably
have fallen; and Sir Henry Clinton must have had better luck than is
commonly dispensed to men of his profession under such circumstances, if
he and his troops had not shared at least the fate of Burgoyne." If this
narration of events is so carefully worded as not to imply a censure
upon D'Estaing, it none the less, however unintentionally, measures the
great military merit of Lord Howe.

Nor did this end his achievements. Two or three days after the French
departed a small reinforcement from England reached New York, and in the
course of a week Howe, who had not failed to keep touch with the enemy's
fleet till it was ninety miles at sea, heard that it had been seen
again, heading for Narragansett Bay, then controlled by a British
garrison on Rhode Island. This was in pursuance of a prearranged plan to
support the American forces under General Sullivan, which had already
advanced against the place. Adapting anew his action to the
circumstances of the enemy's movements, Howe, though still much
inferior, hurried to the spot, arriving and anchoring off Point Judith,
at the entrance to Newport, on August 9th, the day after D'Estaing had
run the fire of the British works and entered the harbor. With correct
strategic judgment, with a flash of insight which did not usually
distinguish him when an enemy was not in view, and contrary to his
avowed policy when commander of the Channel Fleet, he saw that the true
position for his squadron was in face of the hostile port, ready to act
as circumstances might dictate. His mere presence blocked this operation
also. D'Estaing, either fearing that the British admiral might take the
offensive and gain some unexpected advantage, or tempted by the apparent
opportunity of crushing a small hostile division, put to sea the next
day. Howe, far superior as a seaman to his antagonist, manoeuvred to
avoid