It remained there a year to protect the vessels in which it had come from France from capture by a stronger British fleet that had at once appeared off the mouth of the harbor.

Another French fleet and another French army were in the West Indies.

In the summer of 1781 it became possible to unite all these French forces, and with the Americans to strike a crushing blow at the British.

Just at this moment Cornwallis shut himself up in Yorktown, and it was determined to besiege him there.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1783.] [Illustration: The Siege of Yorktown.] [Sidenote: The march to the Chesapeake.] [Sidenote: Combat between the French and the British fleets.] [Surrender of Yorktown, October 19, 1781.

_Higginson_, 211-212.] 165.