At the same time, two French ships of the line and thirteen hundred troops had sailed from Martinique against Tobago.  When de Grasse returned from the failure at Santa Lucia, he learned that the British were at sea, apparently bound for Barbados.  Alarmed for his detachment before Tobago, he again sailed with the fleet for that island on the 25th of May, accompanied by three thousand more troops.  Rodney learned at Barbados of the attempt on Tobago, and on the 29th dispatched a squadron of six sail of the line, under Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake, to support the defence.  On the 30th he heard that the French main fleet had been seen to windward of Santa Lucia, steering south, evidently for Tobago.  On the same day Drake and de Grasse encountered one another off the latter island, the French being to leeward, nearest the land.  Drake necessarily retired, and on the morning of June 3d was again off Barbados, whereupon Rodney at once sailed for Tobago with the whole fleet.  On the 4th the island was sighted, and next morning information was received that it had capitulated on the 2d.

The two fleets returning north were in presence of one another on the 9th; but no engagement took place.  Rodney, who was to windward, having twenty sail to twenty-three,[93] was unwilling to attack unless he could get a clear sea.  The strength of the currents, he said, would throw his fleet too far to leeward, in case of reverse, into the foul ground between St. Vincent and Grenada, thus exposing Barbados, which had not recovered sufficiently from the hurricane to stand alone.  He therefore put into Barbados.  De Grasse went to Martinique to prepare the expedition to the American continent, which resulted in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.  On the 5th of July he sailed from Fort Royal taking with him the “trade” for France, and on the 26th anchored with it at Cap Francois in Haiti, where he found a division of four ships of the line which had been left the year before by de Guichen.  There also was a frigate, which had left Boston on the 20th of June, and by which De Grasse received dispatches from Washington, and from Rochambeau, the general commanding the French troops in America.  These acquainted him with the state of affairs on the continent, and requested that the fleet should come to either the Chesapeake or New York, to strike a decisive blow at the British power in one quarter or the other.

[Footnote 91:  This latter is applied to vessels, usually ships of war, which are used as transports or supply ships, and therefore carry only a part of their normal battery.]

[Footnote 92:  Rodney said that Hood “lay-to” for the night.  This is antecedently incredible of an officer of Hood’s character, and is expressly contradicted by Captain Sutherland of the Russell.  “At 6 P.M. (of the 28th) our fleet tacked to the north, and kept moving across the bay (Fort Royal) for the right (sic), in line of battle.”  Ekins, “Naval Battles,” p. 136.  The word “right” is evidently a misprint for “night.”  Rodney’s criticisms seem to the author captious throughout.]