D’Orvilliers and Luis de Córdoba having shrunk away from the Channel in September 1779, we were at liberty to set about defending our remoter interests, the relief of Minorca and Gibraltar, and the strengthening of our naval position in the New World. Mention has been made of the sailing of Arbuthnot in June. He had with him a convoy of 400 merchant-ships with stores for General Clinton at New York. Having turned aside to defend the Channel Islands, he sent his convoy into port to wait for him. A shift in the wind delayed his departure from the Channel, and though he got away safe under the wing of Hardy’s grand fleet, he did not reach New York till August. Here he took over the command from Sir John Collier, who had superseded Gambier, and he co-operated in December 1779 with Cornwallis in the taking of Charlestown, in Carolina, after the retreat of D’Estaign from before Savannah. In the West Indies Hyde Parker had a superiority of force over D’Estaign’s successors, the Comte de Grasse and La Motte Picquet, and was able to confine them to Fort Royal. At the close of 1779 measures were taken to relieve Minorca and Gibraltar and to reinforce the West Indies. A great convoy was collected to carry stores and soldiers to the Mediterranean fortresses. It sailed under the guard of twenty-two line-of-battle ships and many frigates. The command was given to Rodney, who after relieving the fortresses was to go on with part of the fleet to the West Indies, and there supersede Parker. With Rodney a new spirit entered into the conduct of the naval war. He was the ablest officer, except Howe, who had yet hoisted his flag, and was indeed a man of quite another stamp from Keppel, Byron, Parker, Hardy, or Arbuthnot. In the Austrian Succession and Seven Years’ Wars he had gained a reputation in the service for ability and zeal, had been captain under Mathews and Hawke, had commanded in the Leeward Islands, and had been bitterly disappointed when he was superseded by Pocock during the capture of Havana. He was eager, was not satisfied with the prevailing formal application of the Fighting Orders, and had turned his intellect to the conduct of war. His defects were that he was no longer young, and that his health was ruined by diseases which were, at least in part, the result of early dissipation. It was his misfortune to be too deeply conscious of the fact that he represented an ancient family of Somersetshire gentry and was closely connected with the ducal house of Chandos. His brother-officers appeared to him in the light of middle-class persons of inferior breeding who lived mostly in the ports when on shore. The naval habits of the time kept the captain and admiral in great seclusion, since it was hardly thought consistent with their dignity to speak with subordinates except on matters of duty. Under the influence of pain and social arrogance, Rodney carried this isolation to an extreme. He had ruined himself