In order rightly to appreciate the campaign which almost immediately opened, it is interesting to observe how the operations of both America and Britain were controlled by incidents over which neither had control. They also illustrate the contingencies which shape all military and naval operations over a broad theatre of war. A superior British squadron, under Admiral Byron, sailed from Portsmouth, England, as soon as it was known that France would actively support the United States. This was on the twentieth day of May. Upon receipt of news, supposed to be trustworthy, that the French fleet had been ordered to the West Indies only, the order was suspended in time for his return. Admiral Byron, who had been ordered to relieve Admiral Howe, returned to Plymouth. He did not actually sail with his fine fleet of twenty-two ships until the fifth of June. Even then, the ships were scattered by storms; and four of them, reaching New York separately, narrowly escaped capture by the French just after Count d’Estaing left that port for Newport. The French fleet, when advised of the evacuation of Philadelphia, immediately sailed for New York. Its arrival produced intense excitement. The Annual Register (British) of that period reflects the sentiment very fully. The British ships, then in port, were inferior in number and weight of metal to those of France. Every available vessel of sufficient capacity to carry heavy guns was immediately subsidized for defence. The entire city was exposed to attack as when occupied by the American army after its retreat from Long Island. It was a strange change in the relations of the British and American forces in that vicinity.