learned, that the French fleet, of what force not exactly known, had sailed from Brest some days before.

We shall now proceed to furnish such particulars relative to the strength and object of the grand armament which France had equipped and sent to sea, as the studied concealment and obscurity that pervade the French accounts will permit. Since early in May the convoy from the United States, under the protection of Rear-admiral Vanstabel, with the two 74-gun ships Jean-Bart and Tigre, two frigates and a brig, had been expected to make its appearance off the French coast. The above squadron, which had put to sea from Brest on the 26th of December, had arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, early in February, and sailed again on the 2d of April, with a convoy numbering 117 sail, all deeply laden with provisions and West-Indian produce. On the 6th of May Rear-admiral Nielly, with the five following ships of the line,

and several frigates and corvettes, sailed from Rochefort, with orders to form a junction with Rear-admiral Vanstabel and the convoy, in latitude 47� 48' north, and longitude 15� 17' west of Paris, because of the asserted knowledge, that a British squadron had been detached to intercept it.

On the 16th of May, at 5 h. 30 m. p.m. the grand fleet of France, consisting of the following 25 ships of the line, besides 15 or 16 frigates and corvettes, under the joint command of Rear-admiral Villaret-Joyeuse and the Conventional deputy Jean-Bon Saint-André, who accompanied, the admiral in the Montagne, sailed from the road of Brest, with a fair wind at north-east: