On the other hand, he had reserved the express right to conquer any of her islands south of Bermuda.

The West Indies were then the richest commercial region on the globe in the value of their products; and France wished not only to increase her already large possessions there, but also to establish more solidly her political and military tenure.
[Illustration] In September, 1778, the British Island of Dominica was seized by an expedition from the adjacent French colony of Martinique.

The affair was a surprise, and possesses no special military interest; but it is instructive to observe that Great Britain was unprepared, in the West Indies as elsewhere, when the war began.

A change had been made shortly before in the command of the Leeward Islands Station, as it was called, which extended from Antigua southward over the Lesser Antilles with headquarters at Barbados.

Rear-Admiral the Hon.