The Americans were not in readiness to begin their naval hostilities at a distance from their own coasts till late in the last year. That circumstance however, was of no great disadvantage, by reason of an unexpected occurrence. The discovery of an intended conspiracy among the negroes of Jamaica, detained the fleet till after the customary time of sailing. Through this detention, it sailed at a season that was accompanied with much tempestuous weather, which scattered the ships, and exposed them to such American cruisers, as lay in wait for them in the latitudes through which they were to pass in their voyage homeward. The consequence was, that many of them were taken by the American privateers. The trade from the other islands suffered proportionably; so that by the close of the year, the British loss in captures, exclusive of transports and government store-ships, was considerable higher than a million sterling. The privateers were at no difficulty as to the disposal of their prizes. The ports of France and Spain especially the first, were open to them, both in Europe, and in their American dominions. In the last the captors sold them openly, without any colours of disguise. On remonstrances from the British court, a little more decorum was observed in Europe, and a check given to the avowed sale of them; for a while they were obliged to quit the harbours, and were purchased at the entrance or in the offing. But in the West-India islands the real inclinations of the French were undisguised. They not only purchased the prizes as fast as they could be brought into port; they moreover fitted our privateers, under American colours and commissions, and with a few American seamen on board (at times probably not any) carried on a war upon the British commerce. Though many have been the captures made by the ships and armed vessels of the British navy, they have not counterbalanced, either in number or value those taken by the Americans from Great-Britain. Several of them indeed were laden with flour, and other articles for the trade in the West-Indies; and so proved a timely relief to the British islands, which were suffering much, through the depravation they lay under, of those various supplies with which they had been before furnished from the American continent.