Before reaching Newport, he learned that the French had started for Boston.

He hoped that they would find it necessary to go outside George's Bank, and that he might intercept them by following the shorter road inside.

In this he was disappointed, as has been seen, and the enemy's position was now too strong for attack.

The French retreat to Boston closed the naval campaign of 1778 in North American waters.
[Illustration] The inability or unwillingness of d'Estaing to renew the enterprise against Rhode Island accords the indisputable triumph in this campaign to Howe,--an honour he must share, and doubtless would have shared gladly, with his supporters in general.

That his fleet, for the most part two years from home, in a country without dockyards, should have been able to take the sea within ten days after the gale, while their opponents, just from France, yet with three months' sea practice, were so damaged that they had to abandon the field and all the splendid prospects of Rhode Island,--as they already had allowed to slip the chance at New York,--shows a decisive superiority in the British officers and crews.