Grasse, having the Caribbean Sea open before him, free to go where he pleased and strike where he chose, left Fort Royal on the 9th May to retake Santa Lucia. The attack was made on the 11th and 12th without success. The strength of the British posts on Pigeon Island, the Morne Fortuné, and the Vigil enabled General St. Leger to hold out. He was aided by a small squadron under Commodore Linzee. The discovery that the British posts were strong, and apprehension that Rodney might appear, induced the French admiral to embark the soldiers he had landed and return to Fort Royal. Rodney was indeed at sea, and had steered to assist Santa Lucia. He received news of the retreat of the enemy when near Barbadoes on the 23rd May. As that island was ill prepared for an attack, and his fleet still in need of stores with many sick in the crews, Rodney anchored in Carlisle Bay. Grasse had decided to fly at lesser game, and was content to retake Tobago. An advance squadron of his fleet first appeared off the island. It had been detached before the attack—which the French historians, with some economy of truth, call a false attack—on Santa Lucia. Colonel Ferguson, the Governor of Tobago, appealed for help to Rodney, and the admiral, who received the message on the 27th May, sent Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Drake on the 29th with three ships of the line, three frigates, and three sloops to his assistance. Hardly was Drake out of sight before news came that Grasse had sailed on the 22nd from Fort Royal apparently bound for Tobago. Rodney was in no small anxiety for his subordinate, but Drake, who sighted the whole French fleet off Tobago on the 30th, retreated in time. The French had landed at Great Courland Bay on the 24th, and Ferguson, who had but four hundred men and some armed blacks, retreated into the hills, hoping to hold out till Rodney could come. But Bouillé arrived on the 31st May. He was ever a partisan of “thorough,” and well knew there was no time to waste. By his orders two plantations were fired _in terrorem_, and the clamours of the planters, who formed a large part of his force, compelled the governor to surrender on the 2nd June. When Rodney came from Barbadoes on the 3rd the mischief was done. Until the 9th both fleets manœuvred along the string of small islands called the Grenadines, till Rodney, finding that he could not bring his enemy to close action, returned to Barbadoes, and Grasse went north to Fort Royal.