D’Estaing was succeeded in the chief command, in the West Indies and North America, by Rear-Admiral de Guichen,[69] who arrived on the station in March, 1780, almost at the same moment as Rodney.

[Footnote 54:  The French accounts say three.]

[Footnote 55:  Beatson, “Military and Naval Memoirs,” iv. 390.]

[Footnote 56:  Santa Lucia being in the region of the north-east trade winds, north and east are always windwardly relatively to south and west.]

[Footnote 57:  To the westward.  These islands lie in the trade-winds, which are constant in general direction from north-east.]

[Footnote 58:  Admiral Keppel, in his evidence before the Palliser Court, gave an interesting description of a similar scene, although the present writer is persuaded that he was narrating things as they seemed, rather than as they were—­as at Grenada.  “The French were forming their line exactly in the manner M. Conflans did when attacked by Admiral Hawke.” (Keppel had been in that action.) “It is a manner peculiar to themselves; and to those who do not understand it, it appears like confusion.  They draw out ship by ship from a cluster.”]

[Footnote 59:  That is, towards the ships at anchor,—­the enemy’s rear as matters then were.]

[Footnote 60:  Byron’s Report.  The italics are the author’s.]

[Footnote 61:  Byron’s Report.]

[Footnote 62:  Ibid.  Author’s italics.]

[Footnote 63:  “Naval Researches.”  London, 1830, p. 22.]

[Footnote 64:  Byron’s Report.]

[Footnote 65:  Pierre A. de Suffren de Saint Tropez, a Bailli of the Order of Knights of Malta.  Born, 1726.  Present at two naval actions before he was twenty.  Participated in 1756 in the attack on Port Mahon, and in 1759 in the action off Lagos.  Chef d’escadre in 1779.  Dispatched to the East Indies in 1781.  Fought a British squadron in the Bay of Praya, and a succession of brilliant actions with Sir Edward Hughes, 1782-83.  Vice-Admiral, 1783.  Killed in a duel, 1788.  One of the greatest of French naval officers.—­W.L.C.]

[Footnote 66:  Troude says that one French seventy-four, having touched in leaving port, was not in the engagement.]

[Footnote 67:  First of the name.  Born 1714.  In 1780, he fell under Rodney’s censure, and went home.  In 1781, he commanded in the general action with the Dutch, known as the Dogger Bank.  In 1782, he sailed for the East Indies in the Cato, 64; which ship was never again heard from.]

[Footnote 68:  Sir Hyde Parker, Kt.  Second of the name, son of the first.  Born, 1739.  Captain, 1763.  Rear-Admiral, 1793.  Vice-Admiral, 1794.  Admiral, 1799.  Died, 1807.  Nelson’s chief at Copenhagen, in 1801.]

[Footnote 69:  Louis Urbain de Bouenic, Comte de Guichen.  Born, 1712.  Entered the navy, 1730.  Commanded the Illustre with success in North America in 1756.  Second in command in the action off Ushant in 1778.  Thrice fought Rodney in the West Indies in 1780.  Fought Kempenfelt off the Azores in 1781.  Died, 1790.—­W.L.C.]