One of the finest of the war-ships, the Burgoyne, of seventy-four guns, in a dark and stormy night, ran upon a rock, and was totally lost, with two hundred of her crew. On the 18th of February, 1783, the Triomphante reached Port Cabello. The Auguste and Pluton, which had been separated from the fleet by the storm, near the Bay of Fundy, had arrived a few days before. Soon after, the remaining war-ships of the squadron, one after another, came in.
The Spanish fleet was to sail from Havana, under command of Don Salano. He had promised to be at the rendezvous punctually. But he did not keep his word. Probably some pique stood in the way. Nothing was seen of him, or heard from him. The Spanish government was dissatisfied with his course, ordered him home, and another was placed in command.
The large combined force, of French and Spanish ships, was to sail from Cadiz, in the extreme south of Spain, under Count d’Estaing. At Port Cabello, he was to take command of the whole expedition. But just as the fleet was on the eve of sailing, the British government, alarmed by the little success which had attended its efforts thus far, the enormous expense which the conflict involved, the loss of all its trade with the colonies, the interruption of its commerce throughout the world, and more than all by the clamor of popular indignation, which rose, in England, against the unrighteous war it was waging, which clamor would make itself heard in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, very reluctantly felt constrained to consider terms of peace. It was decided to defer the sailing of the fleet till the result of the negotiations could be ascertained. Thus when Vaudreuil was hourly looking for the arrival of his whole squadron at Port Cabello, his transports were distant four hundred miles at Cape Francois, in San Domingo. The Spanish squadron, under Don Solano, was distant nearly fifteen hundred miles in Havana; while the great combined fleet of France and Spain, under D’Estaing, was quietly reposing, at the distance of many thousand miles, in the harbor of Cadiz.
The last thing at night, the officers at Cabello were seen at the mast-heads of the ships, ranging the horizon with their glasses, in search of the expected fleets. The earliest dawn of the morning found them again upon the eager, anxious look-out. Thus the remainder of February, and the whole of the month of March passed sadly away. Not a sail was seen to break the outline where the ocean and the sky seemed to meet. The anxiety of the officers became intense. Their decks were blistered beneath the heat of a tropical sun. The climate was insalubrious. There was nothing in their surroundings to cheer them. The disappointment was terrible. The officers who had embarked on the enterprise with high ambition, anticipating renowned achievements and unfading laurels, saw all their hopes vanishing, and that the ridicule of the community, instead of its plaudits, would attend their return. Such is life:
“A path it is of joys and griefs, of many hopes and fears,
Gladdened at times by sunny smiles, but oftener dimmed by tears.”
Serious sickness broke out, which seized alike officers and crew. Commodore Jones was attacked with intermittent fever, which seemed to paralyze his physical energies, leaving his mental powers in all their activity. On the 27th of February, the evening before his arrival at Port Cabello, he wrote to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, saying:
“The English affairs seem in so bad a situation in the East Indies, that I think even the most sanguine among them can expect no manner of advantage for continuing the war. As Spain has, at last, wisely abandoned the siege of Gibraltar, and, as we are told, doubled her ships with copper, I cannot think the English so blind as not to see the great risk they run of being as effectually humbled by sea, as they are by land, should they neglect the present moment to make their peace. I most ardently wish for peace, for humanity tells me there has been too much blood spilt already. I am in hopes to have the happiness, soon after the war, to revisit France.”
The same day he wrote to Honorable Mr. Morris as follows: “I have already received much useful information, since I embarked, and am on such happy terms with the admiral and officers, both of the fleet and army, that I have nothing to wish from them. Deeply sensible how favored I am in being thus placed, I beg you to express my gratitude to Congress on the occasion, and to the Chevalier de Luzerne. The Marquis de Vaudreuil is promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and now carries a vice-admiral’s flag.”
On the 25th of March Jones wrote to Lafayette, who had received from the king military promotion. In this letter he wrote: