Naturally the attention of the British government was immediately fixed upon Havana. This being the most important military post of New Spain, its conquest promised to close the passage of the ocean to the Spanish ships carrying away from America its inexhaustible treasures for the sole enrichment of the crown of Spain. It meant also opening that and other ports of the Spanish West Indies to British navigation, and lastly it was to be only the beginning of operations which ultimately were to include the conquest of other possessions of Spain in that part of the world. The honor of conceiving the project has been conceded to Admiral Knowles, who had submitted his plan to the Duke of Cumberland; but although the latter recommended it to the ministry, the plan of the invasion, which had been simultaneously submitted by Lord Anson, chief of the board of Admiralty, and which was almost identical with that of Knowles, was the one finally adopted. In order to divert the attention of the enemy from the true object of the expedition, a rumor was circulated that the forces were destined for Santo Domingo, which seemed quite plausible, this island being nearer to Martinique than to Cuba, and one half of it belonging to France, the other to Spain. _The London Gazette_ of January ninth corroborated this statement by the announcement that the English army was bound for the Antilles. George III. entrusted the Duke of Cumberland with the task of selecting the chiefs who were to be placed at the head of the enterprise, and his choice fell upon the following: Lieutenant-General Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, for general-in-chief of the land forces, and Admiral Sir George Pococke for the command of the squadron. The latter and a division of four thousand men gathered in Portsmouth and orders were given to General Monckton to hold the forces which had gone to the conquest of Martinique and Guadeloupe ready for the arrival of Admiral Pococke. The authorities in Jamaica and the British colonies of North America were ordered to prepare two divisions, the first of two thousand men, the latter of four thousand. The British command staked everything upon a surprise attack. Fear that information of the rupture between the two countries might have reached Cuba, caused no little anxiety to Lord Albemarle and Admiral Pococke. The expedition narrowly escaped an encounter with the squadron of M. de Blenac, who had left Brest in aid of Martinique with seven vessels and four frigates and a sufficient force to have saved that colony, had he come in time. Unfortunately he arrived in sight of Martinique only after the surrender of Fort Royal, and on hearing that the island was in possession of the British, he altered his course and turned towards Cape France, leaving the passage free for Admiral Pococke and his fleet.