vy guns from the ships, manned
by seamen. For these or other reasons d'Estaing did not attack. On the
29th he quitted the island, and on the 30th the French governor, the
Chevalier de Micoud, formally capitulated.

This achievement of Barrington and of Major-General James Grant, who
was associated with him, was greeted at the time with an applause
which will be echoed by the military judgment of a later age. There
is a particular pleasure in finding the willingness to incur a great
risk, conjoined with a care that chances nothing against which the
utmost diligence and skill can provide. The celerity, forethought,
wariness, and daring of Admiral Barrington have inscribed upon the
records of the British Navy a success the distinction of which should
be measured, not by the largeness of the scale, but by the perfection
of the workmanship, and by the energy of the execution in face of
great odds.

Santa Lucia remained in the hands of the British throughout the war.
It was an important acquisition, because at its north-west extremity
was a good and defensible anchorage, Gros Ilet Bay, only thirty miles
from Fort Royal in Martinique. In it the British fleet could lie, when
desirable to close-watch the enemy, yet not be worried for the safety
of the port when away; for it was but an outpost, not a base of
operations, as Fort Royal was. It was thus used continually, and from
it Rodney issued for his great victory in April, 1782.

During the first six months of 1779 no important incident occurred in
the West Indies. On the 6th of January, Vice-Admiral Byron, with ten
ships of the line from Narragansett Bay, reached Santa Lucia, and
relieved Barrington of the chief command. Both the British and the
French fleets were reinforced in the course of the spring, but the
relative strength remained nearly as before, until the 27th of June,
when the arrival of a division from Brest made the French numbers
somewhat superior.

Shortly before this, Byron had been constrained by one of the
commercial exigencies which constantly embarrassed the military
action of British admirals. A large convoy of trading ships, bound
to England, was collecting at St. Kitts, and he thought necessary to
accompany it part of the homeward way, until well clear of the French
West India cruisers. For this purpose he left Santa Lucia early in
June. As soon as the coast was clear, d'Estaing, informed of Byron's
object, sent a small combined expedition against S