De Grasse’s immediate task was to protect a large convoy from Martinique to Cap Francois (now Cap Haytien), in Hayti, a distance of about a thousand miles.  Cumbered with merchant vessels, and aware that Rodney would be at once on his track, he could not go straight across the Caribbean; the British fleet, not so hampered, would be sure to overtake and destroy.  He purposed, therefore, to skirt the Antilles, keeping continually in reach of a port of refuge.  Rodney, knowing the aim to be Jamaica, had little doubt of overtaking in any case, if started promptly.  He therefore kept himself in signal touch of Fort Royal by a chain of frigates, extending from its offing to his own anchorage.

On the 8th of April the French sailed.  The British followed instantly, and before sundown had them in sight, not only by lookout vessels, but from the mastheads of the main fleet.  At daybreak next morning they were visible from the decks of the British van; a very marked gain.  De Grasse saw that at that rate, unless he got rid of the convoy, he would certainly be overtaken, which it was his aim to elude in pursuance of the usual French policy of ulterior purposes; so, being then north of Dominica, he sent the merchant vessels into Guadaloupe, and undertook to carry the ships-of-war through the passage between the two islands, beating to windward.  This would draw the British away from the convoy, unless they were content to let the fleet go, which was not to be expected.

Between 8 A.M. and 2 P.M. of April 9th, several sharp skirmishes took place between the French and the British van, under Hood.[9] De Grasse had here an opportunity of crushing a fraction of the enemy, but failed to use it, thus insuring his own final discomfiture.  Rodney, who was becalmed with the centre and rear of his command, could do nothing but push forward reinforcements to Hood as the wind served; and this he did.  Pursuit was maintained tenaciously during the following night and the next two days,—­April 10th and 11th; but in sustained chases of bodies of ships, the chased continually drops units, which must be forsaken or else the retreat of the whole must be retarded.  So in this case, certain of De Grasse’s ships were either so leewardly or so ill handled that the bulk of the fleet, which had gained considerably to windward, had to bear down to them, thus losing the ground won.  Under such circumstances the chapter of accidents—­or of incidents—­frequently introduces great results; and so it proved here.

At 2 A.M. of April 12th, De Grasse’s flag-ship, the Ville de Paris, and the seventy-four-gun ship Zele, crossing on opposite tacks, came into collision.  The former received little damage, but the Zele lost her foremast and bowsprit.  De Grasse then ordered her into Guadaloupe, in tow of a frigate.  When day broke, about five o’clock, these two were only about six miles from the British rear, under Hood, whose division had been shifted