360 CUBA AND rOKTO RICO 



The waters off this island are famous to all Englishmen 

 as the scene of what they consider one of the greatest bat- 

 tles of all naval history, although they have never given it 

 a name other than " Rodney's victory." As our ship passed 

 by these waters, every Briton hung over the rail with in- 

 tense interest, recalling this great conflict which took place 

 on April 12, 1782, between Admiral Rodney and the French 

 admiral De Grasse. This battle, which is fully described 

 in Captain Mahan's book, was really one of the decisive 

 events of the world's history, for it not only reduced the 

 French to a secondary position in the West Indies, but 

 established England's great position as a modern sea- 

 power. Furthermore, it saved Jamaica to England, and 

 the circumstances leading up to it indirectly freed the 

 American colonies, for had not England been so occupied 

 during the American Revolution with her struggles against 

 the French in the West Indies, which were then considered 

 of so much greater value than the American colonies, there 

 is little doubt that our own cause would have been lost. 

 In the English mind this victory, which occurred simul- 

 taneously with the surrender of Yorktown, completely 

 overshadowed the latter event. 



In the peace that followed St. Lucia became a British 

 possession, but the erstwhile French citizens made things 

 lively for their new masters. In a revolution they recov- 

 ered the whole of the island with the exception of two mil- 

 itary posts, and it required Lord Abercrombie with twelve 

 thousand British soldiers to restore quiet. 



The whole southern half of the Caribbean circle is Eng- 

 lish, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada are three of a 

 kind, while the little Grenadines are largely uninhabited 

 islets. 



It has been said that four islands among the Caribbees 

 realize one's ideals Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, 

 and St. Vincent. " The first is grand and gloomy ; the 

 second is somber in its mountains, but breaks out into 

 smiling tracts of cultivated land ; the third combines the 



