Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/642

Rh 618 R O D R O D mand, and during a period of quiet was active in improv- ing the naval yards on his station. Sir George struck his flag with a feeling of disappointment at not obtaining the governorship of Jamaica, and was shortly after forced to settle in Paris. Election expenses and losses at play in fashionable circles had shattered his fortune and now broke up his family till the eve of war with France. In February 1778, having just been promoted admiral of the White, he used every possible exertion to obtain a com- mand from the Admiralty, to free himself from his money difficulties. By May he had, through the splendid gener- osity of his Parisian friend Marechal Biron, effected the latter task, and accordingly he returned to London with his children. Sir George was enabled to remit at once to his benefactor the full loan, and it is worthy of record that the English Government in later years awarded pensions to the marechal's daughters in recognition of their father's chivalrous act. 1 That an attempt was made by the French ministry during the war crisis to seduce Rodney into accepting high rank in the French navy is undeniable from the evidence we possess, but the details of the com- mon version must be accepted with reserve, excepting the undoubted instant rejection of the offer. To the English cabinet the honour of both Rodney and Biron remained untarnished, if we may judge of the former by his letters, public and private, and of the latter by the pension awarded to his relatives. 2 Sir George was appointed once more commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, 1st October 1779, but did not sail till 29th December. He captured a Spanish convoy bound to Cadiz on 8th January 1780, and eight days later defeated the Spanish admiral Don Juan de Langara off Cape St Vincent, taking or destroying seven ships. On 17th April an action, which, owing to the carelessness of some of Rodney's captains, was indecisive, was fought off Martinique with the' French admiral Guichen. Rodney, acting under orders, captured the valuable entrepot of St Eustatius, and by his strong measures for stopping illegal and contra- band trade evoked an attempt at censure on the part of his political opponents. After a few months in England, recruiting his health and defending himself in parliament, Sir George returned to his command in February 1782, and a running engagement with the French fleet on 9th April led up to his crowning victory off Dominica, when on 12th April with thirty -five sail of the line he defeated Comte de Grasse, who had thirty-three sail. The French inferiority in numbers was more than counterbalanced by the greater size and superior sailing qualities of their ships, yet five were taken and one sunk, after eleven hours' fight- ing. This important battle saved Jamaica and ruined French naval prestige, while it enabled Rodney to write " Within two little years I have taken two Spanish, one French, and one Dutch admirals." A long and wearisome controversy exists as to the originator of the manoeuvre of " breaking the line " in this battle, but the merits of the victory have never seriously been affected by any differ- ence of opinion on the question. A shift of wind broke the French line of battle, and advantage was taken of this by the English ships in two places. Rodney arrived home in August to receive unbounded honour from his country. He had already been created Baron Rodney of Rodney Stoke, Somerset, by patent of 19th June 1782, and the House of Commons had voted him a pension of 2000 a year. From this time he led a 1 See Barrow's Life of Anson, pp. 328-329. 2 See Naval Chronicle, 1799, i. 369-370 ; Mundy, Life of Rodney, i. 183 ; United Service Journal, 1830, pt. ii. pp. 37-38, for diver- gent evidence about the French offer of service. See also Academy, 4th October 1884, for the identification of a letter which perhaps bears upon Sir G. Rodney's prospects in 1778. quiet country life till his death, which occurred on 24th May 1792, in London, while on a visit to his son. Next to Nelson we may fairly place Rodney, not only because of his well-merited successes, but for masterly decision and confident boldness in grappling with fleets of the three chief maritime states of Europe while in the plenitude of their power. He fought his equals in naval science, but conquered by superior practical skill. See General Mundy, Life and Correspondence of Admiral Lord Rodney, 2 vols., 1830 ; Rodney letters in 9th Report of Hist. MSS. Com., pt. iii. ; "Memoirs" in Naval Chronicle i. 353-393; and Charnock, Biographia Navalis v. 204-228. Lord Rodney published in his lifetime (probably 1789) Letters to His Majesty's Ministers, <L-c., relative to St Eustatius, &c., of which there is a copy in the British Museum. Most of these letters are printed in Muudy's Life, vol. ii., though with many variant readings. (G. F. H.) RODOSTO, a town of European Turkey, in the sandjak of Tekfur Daghi or Rodosto in the vilayet of Adrianople (Edirne), is situated on the coast of the Sea of Marmora about midway between Gallipoli and Constantinople. Its picturesque bay is enclosed by the great promontory of Combos, a spur about 2000 feet in height from the hilly plateau to the north, and round about the town are stately cypress groves. The church of Panagia Rhevmatocratissa contains the graves, with long Latin inscriptions, of the Hungarian exiles of 1696. Rodosto has long been a great depot for the produce of the Adrianople district, but its. trade has suffered considerably since Dedeagatch became the terminus of the railway up the Maritza. In 1880 the value of exports and imports was 230,824. The popula- tion, formerly about 30,000, was in 1840 about 10,000, and at present (1885) may be estimated at 17,000, about half Turks, a quarter Armenians, and the remainder Greeks, Jews, and Latins. Rodosto is the ancient Rhfedestus or Bisanthe, said to have been founded by Samians. In Xenophon's Anabasis it is mentioned as in the kingdom of the Thracian prince Seuthes. Its restoration by Justinian is chronicled by Procopius. In 813 and again in 1206 it was destroyed by the Bulgarians, but it continues to appear as a place of considerable note in later Byzantine history, being captured and recaptured in successive wars. RODRIGUEZ, an island in the Indian Ocean in 19 41' S. lat. and 63 23' E. long., which, after the Seychelles, forms since 1814 the most important dependency of the British colony of Mauritius, from which it is distant 344 nautical miles. It is the easternmost of all the islands con- sidered as belonging to Africa. With a length of 1 3 miles east and west and a breadth of 3 to 6 north and south it has an area estimated at 42^ square miles. On all sides it is surrounded by a coral reef, which on the north and south forms a large flat area partly dry at low water. The island proper was long believed to consist of granite overlaid with limestone and other modern formations, and thus it was regarded as a striking exception to the rule that all mid-ocean islands are of volcanic origin, and served in the hands of Peschel and others as a proof of the former exist- ence in the Indian Ocean of the hypothetical continent of Lemuria. The investigations of the Transit of Venus Ex- pedition have shown that it is built up of " doleritic lavas which have been poured out at a considerable number of orifices," now difficult to identify, at successive periods of uncertain date. The lavas are rich in olivine. In some places, as in the Cascade Valley, the disintegration of the rocks has produced beds of earthy clays varying in colour from a dull brick red to a liver brown, and forming a prominent feature in the landscape. A central ridge of considerable elevation (Grande Montague, 1140 feet) runs through the island from east to west, sending off a variety of spurs (Le Piton, 1160 feet). Deep-cut river valleys, often interrupted by cascades, run down in all directions to the sea. On the south-west there is a large plain of coralline limestone, remarkable for the caves of all sizes (some beautifully stalactitic) with which it is riddled.