be effectually
counteracted either by cheap and ingenious expedients, or by the
cooeperative exertions of many small independent units. "They were
only capable of producing trouble and vexation. So far were they from
preventing the succours from being thrown into the garrison, or from
burning the convoy, that the only damage of any consequence that
they did to the shipping was the wounding of the mizzen-mast of the
_Nonsuch_ so much that it required to be shifted."[103] On the 19th
of April--in one week--the revictualling was completed, and the
expedition started back for England. The fleet anchored again at
Spithead on the 22d of May.

While Darby was returning, La Motte Picquet had gone to sea from
Brest with six ships of the line and some frigates to cruise in the
approaches to the Channel. There, on the 2d of May, he fell in with
the convoy returning from the West Indies with the spoils of St.
Eustatius. The ships of war for the most part escaped, but La Motte
Picquet carried twenty-two out of thirty merchant ships into Brest
before he could be intercepted, although a detachment of eight sail
sent by Darby got close upon his heels.

After a long refit, Darby put to sea again, about the 1st of August,
to cover the approach of the large convoys then expected to arrive.
Being greatly delayed by head winds, he had got no further than the
Lizard, when news was brought him that the Franco-Spanish grand fleet,
of forty-nine ships of the line, was cruising near the Scilly Isles.
Having himself but thirty of the line, he put into Tor Bay on the 24th
of August, and moored his squadron across the entrance to the Bay.

This appearance of the allies was a surprise to the British
authorities, who saw thus unexpectedly renewed the invasion of the
Channel made in 1779. Spain, mortified justly by her failure even
to molest the intrusion of succours into Gibraltar, had thought to
retrieve her honour by an attack upon Minorca, for which she asked the
cooeperation of France. De Guichen was sent in July with nineteen ships
of the line; and the combined fleets, under the chief command of the
Spanish admiral, Don Luis de Cordova, convoyed the troops into the
Mediterranean beyond the reach of Gibraltar cruisers. Returning thence
into the Atlantic, de Cordova directed his course for the Channel,
keeping far out to sea to conceal his movements. But though thus
successful in reaching his ground unheralded, he made no attempt to
profit by