In Asia
they had driven the French from Pondicherry and all their
Indian possessions; in Africa they had wrested from them
Goree and the Senegal country; in the West Indies they had
taken Guadeloupe and Dominica; in the European seas they
had captured ship after ship, routed and crippled the great
fleet of Admiral Conflans, seized Belleisle, and defeated a bold
attempt to invade Ireland. The navy of France was reduced
to helplessness. Pitt, before his resignation, had planned a
series of new operations, including an attack on Martinique,
with other West Indian islands still left to France, and then
in turn on the Spanish possessions of Havana, Panama, Manila, and
the Philippines. Now, more than ever before, the war appeared in
its true character. It was a contest for maritime and colonial
ascendency; and England saw herself confronted by both her great
rivals at once.
Admiral Rodney sailed for Martinique, and Brigadier
Monckton joined him with troops from America. Before the
middle of February the whole island was in their hands; and
Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent soon shared its fate. The
Earl of Albemarle and Admiral Sir George Pococke sailed in
early spring on a more important errand, landed in June near
Havana with eleven thousand soldiers, and attacked Moro Castle,
the key of the city. The pitiless sun of the tropic midsummer
poured its fierce light and heat on the parched rocks where the men
toiled at the trenches.
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