three sail of the line, and the news of his appointment to the Jamaica station, and a few days later by two other ships from the West Indies. He sailed on the 17th October on a forlorn effort to save Cornwallis, who had been forced to surrender on that very day. The British fleet looked again into the Chesapeake, saw that all was over, and returned to Sandy Hook. Graves then handed over the command to his successor, Digby, and left for his new station. The fall of Yorktown was the practical end of the war in North America. While Cornwallis’s army was undergoing its fate, the allies had made another idle demonstration at the mouth of the Channel. Thirty-six sail of the line, under Don Luis de Córdoba, appeared at its entrance early in August, while thirteen others cruised on the coast of Ireland to intercept trade. Darby, weakened by the departure of Digby for America, was with difficulty reinforced to thirty sail, and had to lie at anchor in Torbay. The allies, who had come on the very tardy reflection that the best way to prevent relief to Gibraltar or Minorca was to watch the mouth of the Channel, did not dare to attack him. They feared to be crushed in detail if they attacked in line ahead, and were persuaded they had no room (they might have been persuaded that they had no seamanship), to attack in line abreast. On the 14th September Darby put to sea to make an effort, and found the enemy gone. They had in fact separated on the 5th September in wretched health. The French went home to Brest, the Spaniards to Cadiz, whence eighteen of the least inefficient of them sailed under Don Miguel Gaston to escort the treasure ships from America. In the absence of an enemy the service was successfully performed. Darby remained at sea till November to protect trade. CHAPTER IX THE CLOSE OF THE WAR AND THE EAST INDIES AUTHORITIES.—_Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain_, by Beatson; _Naval Chronology_, by Isaac Schomberg; _Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord de Saumarez_, by Ross; _Life and Correspondence of Rodney_, by Mundy; _Life of Viscount Keppel_, by T. Keppel; _An Essay on Naval Tactics_, by Clerk; _Naval Battles of Great Britain_, by Ekins; “Letters of Sir Samuel Hood,” by Hannay, in _Navy Records Society Publications_; _Naval Researches_, by White; _Plans of Battles of the War_, by Matthews; _Life of Howe_, by Barrow; _La Marine française_, by Chevalier; _Batailles navales de la France_, by Troude; _Journal de Bord du Bailli de Suffren_, by Moris; _Histoire du Bailli de Suffren_, by Cunat; _Siege of Gibraltar_, by Drinkwater; _Sea Power in History_, by Mahan; _Het Nederlandsche Zeewezen_, by De Jonghe; _Marins et Soldats français en Amerique_, by the Vicomte de Noailles; _La Marine Militaire de la France sous le règne de Louis XVI._, by Lacour-Gayet.