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.

The long passage of Count d'Estaing was succeeded by an unfavorable discovery at the Hook, which hurt us in two respects,--first, in a defeat of the enterprise upon New York and the shipping and troops at that place, and next in the delay occasioned in ascertaining the depth of water over the bar which was essential to their entrance into the harbor of New York.

And, moreover, after the enterprise upon Rhode Island had been planned and was in the moment of execution, that Lord Howe with the British ships should interpose merely to create a diversion and draw the French fleet from the island was again unlucky, as the Count had not returned on the 17th to the island, though drawn off from it on the 10th; by which means the land operations were retarded, and the whole subjected to a miscarriage in case of the arrival of Byron's squadron."-- WASHINGTON'S Letter, Aug.
20, 1778.
[133] See page 426.
[134] D'Estaing's position at anchor is marked by the anchor in Plate X.
[135] Of one of these, the "Monmouth," sixty-four (a'), it is said that the officers of the French flag-ship drank to the health of the captain of the "little black ship." Ships' names, like those of families, often have a marked career.

A former "Monmouth," twenty years before, had attacked and taken, practically single-handed, the "Foudroyant," eighty-four, one of the finest ships in the French navy.
She was then commanded by a Captain Gardiner, who, having commanded Byng's ship in the battle which led to his execution, was moved by his mortification at the result of that affair to dare such desperate odds, and thereby lost his life.

The same ship, here punished so severely off Grenada, will be found in like sturdy fight, under another captain, three years later in India.
[136] The line BC shows the final direction of the French line-of-battle; the lee ship (o) having tacked and standing to o', while the other ships took position in her wake.