by gambling and bribery at elections, and had taken refuge from his creditors in Paris when the American War began. A loan from the French Marshal Biron saved him from imprisonment as a debtor in the Bastille. On his return to London he sought for employment, and the refusal of other admirals to serve opened the way for him to his great but tardy opportunity. The jobbery and favouritism of the age had by no means left him untouched. During his famous command in the West Indies he made his own son a post-captain at the age of seventeen, and he drove his subordinate, Isaac Coffin, into flat revolt by forcing mere lads on him as lieutenants. When he sailed for Gibraltar in December 1779, two influences were at work in his mind, a noble and ignoble. He burned to gain glory for himself and victory for his country by vigorous conduct of the war, and he was deeply concerned to repair his shattered fortune by prize money. Rodney sailed on the 27th December 1779, taking with him both the reliefs for Minorca and Gibraltar, and a convoy of merchant-ships bound for the West Indies. The trade was seen clear of the Channel, and sent on its way on the 7th January 1780. The main fleet now went on to Gibraltar with the stores and reliefs, and on the 8th, when 300 miles E.N.E. of Finisterre, fell in with and captured a Spanish convoy of one 64-gun ship, seven frigates and sloops, and fifteen merchant-ships, bound for South America. This prosperous beginning of the service was soon followed by a more signal success. Storms in the Straits had distressed the awkward Spanish blockading fleet, and the greater part of it had been forced to take refuge in harbour. But a squadron of eleven ships of the line under the command of Don Juan de Lángara was stationed off Cape St. Vincent to intercept the relieving force which the Spanish Government was convinced would not exceed ten liners. On the 16th January Rodney swept down on this inferior force, in a brisk breeze rising to a gale from the west. He steered between them and the land as they endeavoured to escape, overtook them in the night, and destroyed them completely. Six were taken, one of the prizes being Lángara’s flagship, and a seventh blew up with the loss of all hands. Two of the prizes were recaptured by their Spanish crews during the storm following the action, but as Barceló, the Spanish admiral, did not venture to leave the protection of the forts at Algeciras, there was no further opposition to the relief of Gibraltar. Rodney’s subordinate, Digby, went up the Mediterranean to Minorca with stores. On the 14th the admiral left for the West Indies with six sail of the line, and four days later Digby, leaving four ships to aid in the defence of the fortress, took the others, and the empty storeships, back to the Channel unopposed by Frenchman or Spaniard. This handsome success, the just reward of intelligent measures vigorously executed, raised the spirit of the nation, and Rodney sprang at once from