Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/41

Rh Such had been the services of the man who was now starting with a squadron of five line of battle ships to maintain the honour of his country in the Eastern seas. Setting sail on the 22nd March, in company with the fleet destined for the American waters under the Count de Grasse, Suffren separated from that admiral at Madeira, and continued his course towards the Cape of Good Hope. He had under his charge seven transports conveying detachments of the regiment of Pondichery, and overlooking these was a corvette of 16 guns, La Fortune. He had it very much at heart to reach the Cape as quickly as possible, so as to anticipate the arrival there of Commodore Johnstone, who, he had been informed, had sailed for that place from St. Helena with thirty-seven ships of sorts.

Commodore Johnstone had sailed from Spithead on the 13th March, 1781, with orders to attack the Dutch possessions at the Cape. Arriving at St. Iago, one of the Cape de Verde islands, he deemed it necessary to stop there in order to take in wood, water, and livestock for his voyage. He accordingly put into Porto Pray a early in April.

It so happened that one of Suffren's men of war, the Artésien, had been originally destined for the fleet sailing to the American waters, and her supplies of