ch he could attack us to the greatest
advantage. The spring tides were at the highest, and that
afternoon thirty feet on the bar. We consequently expected
the hottest day that had ever been fought between the two
nations. On our side all was at stake. Had the men-of-war been
defeated, the fleet of transports and victuallers must have
been destroyed, and the army, of course, have fallen with us.
D'Estaing, however, had not spirit equal to the risk; at three
o'clock we saw him bear off to the southward, and in a few
hours he was out of sight."

Four days later, Howe, reporting these occurrences, wrote: "The
weather having been favourable the last three days for forcing
entrance to this port, I conclude the French commander has desisted."
It is clear that the experienced British admiral did not recognise the
impossibility of success for the enemy.

After the demonstration of the 22d, d'Estaing stood to the southward,
with the wind at east. The British advice-boats brought back word
that they had kept company with him as far south as the Capes of
the Delaware, and there had left him ninety miles from land. When
their leaving freed him from observation, he turned, and made for
Narragansett Bay, an attack on which, in support of an American land
force, had been concerted between him and Washington. On the 29th
he anchored three miles south of Rhode Island, and there awaited a
suitable moment for forcing the entrance.

Narragansett Bay contains several islands. The two largest, near
the sea, are Rhode Island and Conanicut, the latter being the more
westerly. Their general direction, as that of the Bay itself, is north
and south; and by them the entrance is divided into three passages.
Of these, the eastern, called Seakonnet, is not navigable above Rhode
Island. The central, which is the main channel, is joined by the
western above Conanicut, and thus the two lead to the upper Bay. The
town of Newport is on the west side of Rhode Island, four miles from
the main entrance.

On the 30th of July, the day after the French fleet had arrived, two
of its ships of the line, under command of the afterwards celebrated
Suffren, went up the western channel, anchoring within it near the
south end of Conanicut. One of them, as she passed, was hulled
twice by the British batteries. At the same time, two frigates and
a corvette entered Seakonnet; whereupon the British abandoned and
burned a sloop of wa