He makes us to be running a course, the devil knows where, I don't.' As I did not know which was right," says the captain of the ship, rather naively, "I did not dare to say anything for fear of bringing down a like storm on my own head."[64] Some hours after this scene, which, as the French officer from whom the extract is taken says, "appears now almost grotesque, but which is only an exact portrayal of the sea manners of the day, the whole squadron was lost on a group of rocks known as the Aves Islands.

Such were the officers." The flag-captain, in another part of his report, says: "The shipwreck resulted from the general line of conduct held by Vice-Admiral d'Estrees.

It was always the opinion of his servants, or others than the proper officers of the ship, which prevailed.

This manner of acting may be understood in the Comte d'Estrees, who, without the necessary knowledge of a profession he had embraced so late, always had with him obscure counsellors, in order to appropriate the opinions they gave him so as to blind the ship's company as to his capacity."[65] D'Estrees had been made vice-admiral two years after he first went aboard ship.
FOOTNOTES: [45] Martin: History of France.
[46] Martin: History of France.
[47] Ledyard, vol ii.p.

599; Campbell: Lives of the Admirals.