ROCK-ROCKET. AQUEOUS and IGNEOUS ROCKS, to which the reader is referred. ROCK, a kind of sweetmeat, made of sugar, sometimes mixed with almonds and various flavouring materials. The sugar is first boiled, and then poured out upon a cold marble slab, and worked up into a rough mass.-The term is also frequently applied to another form of sweetmeat, in which the sugar, whilst hot and soft, is pulled repeatedly over a smooth iron hook, until it becomes white and porous. This is also flavoured with peppermint or other essences. ROCK, COCK OF THE (Rupicola aurantia), a bird of the order Insessores; tribe Dentirostres; family Pipride (Manakins, &c.), regarded by many as a sub-family of Ampelida. The Pipride, or Manakins, are a pretty large group of birds, many of them of very curious and beautiful plumage, most of them inhabitants of America, and only of the tropical parts of it. They have the bill broad at the base, the nostrils at the side nearly hidden by feathers; the wings rather short, but pointed; the tail very short and even; the legs (tarsi) long and slender. In the genus Rupicola, the bill is strong; and the species sometimes called Rock-manakins are comparatively large birds, having a double vertical Cock of the Rock (Rupicola aurantia). crest on the head, with the feathers disposed in a fan-like manner. The Cock of the R. is a native of Guiana and of other north-eastern parts of South America. It is remarkable for its bright orangecoloured plumage-the quill-feathers of the wings, however, being black, and the tail tipped with yellow -its large crest overhanging the bill, and its wary habits. It is a solitary bird, inhabiting rocky places, retiring into a hiding-place during the day, and coming forth to feed at sunrise and sunset. The tips of the crest-feathers are tinged with brown and yellow. The wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts are loose flowing plumes, giving a resemblance to gallinaceous birds. The size is about that of a common pigeon.-The Peruvian Cock of the R. (R. Peruviana) is less brilliant in plumage than the Guiana species. RO'CKALL stands on a sandbank in the North Atlantic Ocean; this bank is nearly 100 miles in length, and 40 in breadth. The rock itself is situate in 57° 35' N. lat., 13° 40′ W. long., about 300 miles west of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, and is of a rounded form, rising about 18 or 20 feet above the sea. It is frequented by large flocks of sea-birds, and the place was found a few years ago to be surrounded by considerable shoals of the larger kinds of fish, chiefly Gadide and Pluronectide. A company was formed in 1861 to carry on a fishery at the place; but the supply not proving so great as was anticipated, and the distance from the markets being very considerable, the speculation proved to be very unprofitable. There are still a few fish about R., but they are caught by private fishermen. ROCK BUTTER, a mineral substance, consisting of Alum (q. v.), mixed with alumina and oxide of iron, of a pasty consistency, and appearing alum. It is always greasy to the touch, but is often as an exudation oozing out of rocks which contain hard enough to exhibit a straight foliated frac ture. It is very easily broken. It occurs in most of the places where alum is procured. ROCK CRYSTAL, a popular and partly also a scientific name for the finest and purest Quartz (q. v.), seldom applied, however, to small crystals which are mere six-sided pyramids, but more generally to those in which the six-sided prism is well developed. The name is sometimes limited to colourless and perfectly transparent quartz, but is also more rarely extended to that which is violet or amethystine (Amethyst, q. v.), red (Bohemian Ruby or Silesian Ruby), wine-yellow (Citrin or Gold Topaz), brown or smoky (Smoke Quartz, Cairngorm Stone), &c. The beauty of specimens of R. C. is sometimes very great. The crystals are sometimes slender, crossing and penetrating each other in exquisite groups. They sometimes enclose other substances, which are beautifully seen through the transparent R. C., as slender hair-like or needlelike crystals of hornblende, asbestos, oxide of iron, rutile or oxide of titanium, oxide of manganese, &c., and such specimens are known by various fanciful names, as Thetis's Hair-stone, Venus's Hair-stone, Venus's Pencils, Cupid's Net, Cupid's Arrows, &c.; and sometimes the enclosed substances are small spangles of iron-glance, or crystals of iron pyrites, or native silver in fern-like leaves, or spangles of gold. Very large crystals of perfectly pure R. C. are sometimes found. One found in the Alps, and which was among the treasures carried from Italy by the French in 1797, is 3 feet in diameter, and weighs 8 cwt. R. C. was prized by the ancients, and was used by them, as it still is, for vases, cups, seals, &c. An important modern use of it is for lenses of spectacles, &c., its hardness rendering it much less liable to be scratched than glass. Lenses of R. C. are often called Pebble lenses. ROCKET, a name given to a number of plants of the natural order Cruciferæ, and belonging to the genera Brassica, Sisymbrium, Erysimum, Barbarea, Hesperis, &c.-GARDEN R. (Brassica Eruca, or Eruca sativa) is an annual plant, a native of Austria, with stem two feet high, upright and branching; the leaves smooth, succulent, cut and toothed. When in flower, it has a strong, peculiar, and disagreeable smell; but when it is very young, this smell is almost imperceptible, and the leaves are used as a salad, for which it is frequently sown on the continent of Europe, and was formerly cultivated also in Britain. The name GARDEN R. is also given to Hesperis matronalis, also called Dame's Violet (q. v.), a favourite ornament of our flowerborders.-The YELLOW R. of our flower-borders is a double-flowered variety of Barbarea vulgaris (see CRESS).-The WILD R. (Sisymbrium officinale, or Erysimum officinale) is common in Britain, and is sometimes sown and used as a spring pot-herb. ROCKET is a firearm capable of taking effect at a long range. The rocket consists of a light ROCK-FISH-ROCK ISLAND. tubular case of pasteboard, or thin metal, charged to the muzzle with a composition consisting of saltpetre 68 parts, sulphur 12 parts, charcoal, or mealed powder, 32 parts. This composition is rammed hard into the case, the centre being left void. To the rocket is attached a long stick, which serves (like the tail of a kite) to straighten its course. See PYROTECHNY. When lighted at the end the stream of gases propels the mass on the principle explained under BARKER'S MILL. As a mere firework, rockets are made of a few ounces in weight: as intended to throw light upon a town or a hostile work, they average from lb. to 2 lb. These light rockets were improved by Sir William Congreve, who so contrived them, that, when over the necessary point, the rocket discharged a number of light balls, which burned in the air for several minutes with great brilliancy, while others at the same point released small parachutes, which sustained a bright light for a still longer time. But Sir William Congreve did more: he converted the rocket into a terrible weapon of war, with ranges which no ordnance of that day could attain. Discarding the small sizes, he made 12-lb., 18-lb., and 32-lb. rockets, which he charged with canister shot, bullets, and other missiles. The stick for a 32-lb. rocket is 18 feet in length, and the maximum Congreve Rocket. range 3500 yards. The range can be also increased by discharging the rocket from a cannon, with a timefuse to ignite it at the cannon's utmost range, when the rocket commences its own course. As missiles, these rockets are found to annoy most seriously the defenders in any fortified work, and, in a bombardment, they speedily set houses and buildings on fire. In the field, also, the plunging, ricochetting motion of the rocket greatly disturbs both cavalry and infantry. The Congreve rockets were first tried on actual service, and with fatal effect, at the attack on Copenhagen in 1807. One great advantage in a rocket is, that it has no recoil against the stand from which it is fired; the largest rocket may therefore be discharged without danger from the smallest boat; consequently, in naval attacks on maritime fortresses, a flotilla of rocket-boats is a very common auxiliary. ROCK-FISH. See WRASSE. ROCKFORD, a city of Illinois, U. S., on both sides of Rock River, 92 miles west-north-west of Chicago, on the Chicago and Galena Railway. It is the centre of a rich country, with county buildings, 5 banks, 3 newspapers, 15 churches, and factories supplied with water-power by the rapids of the river. Pop. in 1860, 7363; in 1870, 11,049. As They occur in nearly every country. Some of them appear to be natural, others artificial; the latter seem to have been formed by cutting away a mass of rock round the centre-point of its base. The former are chiefly granitic rocks, in which felspar and porphyry are abundantly present; and these ingredients becoming rapidly decomposed, and the dust and sand washed away by rains, what was formerly a solid rock soon assumes the appearance of a group of irregularly-shaped pillars, having a rhomboidal horizontal section, and separated into portions by horizontal and vertical fissures. decay proceeds, the edges of the blocks forming the pillar are first attacked and disappear, as is also the case with greenstone and basalt, and the pillar now becomes a pile of two or more spheroidal rocks, resting one upon the other (see fig., where A, B, and C exhibit three successive stages in the process of decomposition, as observed by De Luc in the mountains of Silesia). Should a mass of rock be so situated as to preserve its equilibrium in spite of the gradual diminution of its base or point of support, a rocking-stone or loggan is the result. For an exposition of the principle regulating the stability of equilibrium of rocking-stones, see STABILITY. Various explanations have been given of the uses of these singular objects. They are supposed to have been used in very early times for purposes of divination, the number of vibrations determining the oracle; hence it came to be believed that sanctity was acquired by walking round them. Some rocking-stones occur near to remains of ancient fortifications, which seems to bear out a statement in one of the poems of Ossian, that the bards walked round the stone singing, and made it move as an oracle of the fate of battle. In Greece, rocking-stones occur as funeral monuments, and are generally found on conspicuous places near the sea. Rocking-stones are numerous in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cornwall, and Wales. One near Land's End, in Cornwall, has been computed to weigh no less than 90 tons. Near Warton Crag, Lancashire, are no less than seven of these stones. In Scotland, Rocking Stone. they occur in the parishes of Kirkmichael, Dron, and Abernethy, Perthshire, and in the parish of Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire. In Ireland, they are found in many places; one situated on the eastern part of Brown's Bay, island of Magee, is popularly the approach of sinners and malefactors. believed to acquire a rocking tremulous motion at ROCK ISLAND, a city of Illinois, at the foot of the upper rapids on the Mississippi, opposite Davenport, Iowa, 2 miles above the mouth of Rock River, 182 miles west-by-south of Chicago. The Mississippi is here crossed by a railway bridge, and the island from which the town is named has been ROCKING-STONES, or LOGGANS, are large selected as the site of a national armoury. A dam masses of rock so finely poised as to move back- across a portion of the river gives water-power for wards and forwards with the slightest impulse. numerous manufactories. Pop. in 1860, 5130. ROCKLAND LAKE-ROCKY MOUNTAINS. ROCKLAND LAKE, a beautiful sheet of water in Rockland County, New York, U.S., 30 miles north of New York City, 1 mile from the Hudson, and 160 feet above its surface. It is celebrated for furnishing 200,000 tons of pure ice, annually harvested by about 1000 men, for the supply of New York, and for export. ROCKLAND, a town in Maine, U.S., on the west side of Penobscot Bay, 40 miles south-east of Augusta. It has a broad and deep harbour, and 64 lime-kilns, making 5000 casks of lime a day, chiefly shipped to Boston and New York. Its commerce employs 18 ships, 40 barks and brigs, and 150 schooners. It has 3 banks, 2 newspapers, 8 churches, &c. Pop. in 1860, 7316. RO'CKLING (Motella), a genus of fishes of the Cod and Haddock family (Gadidae), having an elongated body, compressed towards the tail; the first dorsal fin very slightly elevated, and very delicate; the second dorsal and the anal fins long, continued almost to the tail fin. Several species are found on the British coasts, and are distinguished among other things by the number of their Three-bearded Rockling or Sea Loach (Motella tricirrata). barbules, three, four, or five. The largest of them is never more than 19 or 20 inches long; the smallest, the MACKAREL MIDGE (M. glauca), only about an inch and a quarter. None of the species is much regarded by fishermen, one reason being, that decomposition takes place very rapidly after they are taken out of the water, although, when quite fresh, they are not bad for the table. ROCK-OIL. See NAPHTHA. ROCK RIVER rises in the south-eastern portion of Wisconsin, U.S., and runs south-west into Illinois, thence south-west, and empties itself into the Mississippi 3 miles below Rock Island. Its course of 200 miles is through one of the most beautiful and fertile regions in the world, known as the 'Rock River Country.' Its frequent falls give abundant water-power, and it is crossed by 12 lines of railway. feet above the river. In many parts of the world, rock-salt is found in beds under the soil or other rocks. Those of Cheshire in England are particularly celebrated, as at present yielding almost all the salt used in Britain, great part of which is pumped from them in the form of brine. Part is also obtained by mining, as at Northwich. The mines of Wieliczka, in Poland, are of great extent. The workings are at depths varying from 200 to 740 feet, and the salt at the deepest working is the purest. Some of the chambers in the mines are said to be 300 feet high. Blasting by gunpowder is often necessary in the mining operations. The mines give employment to 1200 or 1400 workmen; and they have been wrought for centuries. Vast quantities of rock-salt occur in many parts of Asia, Africa, and America. In Caramania and Arabia, rock-salt is sometimes used for building houses, the dryness of the climate rendering its solubility unimportant. The salt which crystallises on the margins and bottoms of salt lakes may be regarded as a variety of rock-salt. Concerning the salt of the ocean, the salt found in many desert regions as an efflorescence on the ground or on rocks, the salt with which sandstone and other rocks are impregnated, &c., see SALT. ROCK-SOAP, a mineral consisting of silica, alumina, peroxide of iron, and water, the silica nearly one-half, the alumina and the water sometimes nearly each one-fourth of the whole. It is earthy, easily broken, black or nearly so, very soft, and easily cut with a knife, is greasy to the touch, and adheres strongly to the tongue. It is valued by painters for crayons. It is found in a number of places on the continent of Europe, and occurs in trap rocks in the Isle of Skye. It is only found massive. ROCK-WORK, an ornamental structure often introduced into gardens, for the cultivation of plants such as grow on or amongst rocks. It is made of rough blocks of stone rudely piled together, with earth, &c. Simple as it seems, it is very difficult of construction; and too often, after much expense, it has a paltry and ridiculous appearance. ROCKY MOUNTAINS, that portion of the great ranges of mountains in the central and western portions of North America which lies in the United States and British possessions, a continuation of the Cordilleras of Mexico, between the Pacific Ocean and 105° W. long., and reaching from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. In the United States, the R. M. extend over a breadth of 1000 miles, and cover an area of 980,000 square miles. From lat. 32° to 40° N., the ranges bear nearly north and south; between lat. 40° and 45° N., their course is north-west; then, after a more northerly bend, they keep a course nearly parallel to that of the Pacific, with many detached ranges and peaks. one of which, Mount Elias, lat. 61° N., long. 141° W., is 17,800 feet high, ROCK-ROSE. See CISTUS. and marks the boundary-line of longitude between ROCK-SALT is common salt (chloride of sodium) Alaska and the British possessions. Mount Shasta, occurring as a mineral and in a solid form. It in the Coast range in North California, is 14,000 feet is always mixed with various impurities. It is high; Fremont's Peak, near the western boundary of found massive or crystallised, its crystals generally Wyoming, and the sources of the Yellowstone and cubes, its masses very often either granular or Colorado Rivers, is 13,570 feet. In British Columbia, fibrous. It is white, gray, or, owing to the presence Mount Brown, lat. 53°, is 16,000 feet; and Mount of impurities, more rarely red, violet, blue, or Hooker, 15,700 feet. The passes have elevations of striped. For its chemical and other qualities, see 6000 to 7000 feet, and a vast territory is from 4000 SALT. It is a very extensively-diffused mineral, to 5000 feet above the level of the sea. The central and in some places forms great rock and even moun- range of the R. M. forms the ridge which divides tain masses. A hill of rock-salt near Montserrat, the rivers that fall into the Pacific from those in Spain, is 500 feet high. The island of Ormuz, in that fall into the Arctic Ocean, Hudson's Bay, and the Persian Gulf, is formed of rock-salt. The the Gulf of Mexico, and whose head-waters are Indus, in the upper part of its course, forces its often interlocked; but between the eastern and way through hills of rock-salt, rising in cliffs 100 western ranges lie the territory of Utah and the state ROCOCO-RODENTIA. of Nevada, in which are large rivers having no other exactly corresponding with the Glires of Linnæus. outlets than lakes, generally salt, as Great Salt Lake The order is a truly natural one, and is therefore in Utah, and Humboldt's Lake, the outlet of Hum- universally recognised by naturalists. The R. are boldt's River, in Nevada. The tops of the higher small quadrupeds; the largest of them-the Capyranges are covered with perpetual snow, and their bara-not being equal in size to a hog, whilst to this lower regions abound with artemisias, odoriferous order belong the smallest of mammalia. They are plants, and sunflowers. The rocks are metamorphic very numerous, and widely distributed over the gneiss, granites, porphyries, mica and talcose slates, globe, particularly abundant in South America, and and gold-bearing quartz, with deposits of mercury, rarest in Australia. They are all remarkably characsilver, carboniferous limestone, coal, and petroleum. terised by their front teeth, variously regarded as Anthracite has been found near Santa Fé, and copper incisors and canines-the true incisors or canines in New Mexico and Arizona. being absent-which are large and of peculiar structure, two in each jaw, and separated by a considerhave a plate of hard enamel in front, which wears able vacant interval from the molars. The front teeth is ornamental design run mad, without principle or more slowly than the substance of the rest of the taste. This style prevailed in Germany and tooth, so that being employed on hard substances, they acquire a chisel-like form, and unlike the teeth of mammals in general, they are always growing from a fresh pulp at the base, so that compensation is made for the wearing away at the tips; but when a tooth is accidentally destroyed, the opposite tooth continuing to grow, sometimes acquires a monstrous shape and size, from which cause rats and other rodents have been known to die, the enormous tooth preventing the eating of food, or even recurving and piercing the skull. The ordinary food of most rodents consists of vegetable substances, and generally of a pretty hard kind, and their front teeth are adapted for comminuting it by gnawing, and are also used for gnawing wood, the shells of nuts, &c., in order to obtain access to food. The molar teeth have flat crowns, having ridges of enamel, which make them more or less tuberculous; and these are in the line of the jaw, whilst the only horizontal motion of which the lower jaw is capable is forwards and backwards, thus making the ridges of the molar teeth powerful instruments for the reduction of hard substances; the jaws also being in general very strong. In the rodents which eat only vegetable food, the molar teeth have rounded tubercles; whilst in the omnivorous kind-as rats -the tubercles become sharp points. The stomach is simple; the intestines are very long; the cæcum is often large, sometimes larger than the stomach itself. The brain is not large, and is nearly smooth, and without convolutions; the rodents are not generally distinguished for sagacity, although some RODENTIA (Lat. Gnawers), or RODENTS, in the system of Cuvier, an order of mammalia, almost stincts. Most of them may be easily tamed, but few of them seem capable of learning anything, and in general they merely acquire a familiarity with man. Of this the rabbit exhibits a very perfect example, although the rat seems to display a far higher intelligence. The eyes are directed laterally. The rodents very generally have the hinder limbs larger than the fore, and their motion is partly a kind of leaping. In some, this is as completely the case as in kangaroos. Some, as squirrels, have an admirable power of climbing trees; and a few, as beavers and water-voles, are aquatic. Most, if not all, have the habit of sitting RODERIC RODNEY. on their haunches, and holding their food to their mouth by their fore-paws; using both paws together, however, as the fore-feet have not at all the character of a hand. The thumb is never opposable to the other toes; sometimes it is rudimentary or wanting. The bones of the fore-leg are generally separate, but have not so much freedom of motion as in the Carnivora. The toes are terminated by claws. The presence or absence of clavicles (collarbones) divides the order into two sections, to the first of which, having clavicles, belong squirrels, mice, rats, voles, the beaver, &c.; and to the second, without clavicles, belong porcupines, cavies, chinchillas, hares, rabbits, &c. The rodents are very numerous, about 600 species being known. Central and Southern Spain at the feet of the Arabs. R. has been made the hero of an epic poem by Southey. RODEZ, a small town of France, capital of the dep. of Aveyron, stands on the crest and slope of a hill, on the north bank of the Aveyron. Its streets are steep, narrow, winding, and dirty; but the promenades around the town are pleasant. The cathedral, with a clock-tower of great height, is a Gothic structure of the 15th century. A variety of woollen cloths are manufactured, and cheese of a highly esteemed quality is made. Pop. 11,856. RODIYAS, a degraded race in Ceylon, who are expelled from society, and live in a condition more abject than that of the Pariahs of India. By some they are thought to be a branch of the Veddahs Under British rule, which does not re(q. v.). cognise caste, the R. have improved socially, and are no longer disqualified for labour. For many interesting particulars respecting this unfortunate race, see Ceylon, by Sir J. È. Tennent, vol. ii. p. 191. RODERIC, the last king of the Visigoths in Spain, whose tragic downfall, coincident with that of the Visigothic monarchy, has inspired poets and romancers (including historians) to throw round him a halo of glory. The Spanish and Arab historians contradict each other in almost every particular of R.'s life-the latter, on the whole, being apparently the more trustworthy. According to them, R. was RODNEY, GEORGE BRYDGES RODNEY, LORD, of humble birth, but rose, through his talent and English admiral, born February 13, 1718, was bravery, to the command of the cavalry. A con- second son of Captain Rodney of the Royal Marines. spiracy having been formed against Witiza, the He was taken from Harrow School at the early reigning monarch, by the clergy and the nobles of age of twelve, and sent to sea. He became lieutenRoman blood, R. was elevated to the throne in 709, ant in 1739; post-captain, 1742; and commander and by his energy and talent soon quelled all oppo- of the Newfoundland station in 1748, with the rank sition. The sons of Witiza, however, joined with of commodore. In 1752, he returned home, and was some malcontent Visigothic nobles-among whom elected M.P. for Saltash. He afterwards comwas Count Julian-and agreed to summon to their manded the Fougueux, the Prince George, and the assistance the Arab chief, Muza ibn Nozeir, who Dublin men-of-war. In 1759, after 28 years' active had just finished the conquest of Mauritania. The service, he was made rear-admiral; and in July he Spanish writers, on the other hand, assert that the bombarded Havre for two or three days, destroying country groaned under the tyrannical government the town and fortifications so effectually, that it has of R., that his licentious behaviour had disgusted never recovered its former importance as an arsenal many of his nobles, and that the people were ripe for ships-of-war. In 1761, he took Martinique, for a revolution when the Moslem invasion took Grenada, and Santa Lucia. In 1762, he became viceplace. Both are agreed as to the time and mode admiral, and in 1764 was made a baronet. In 1779, of the invasion; but the Arab historiaus brand Spain joined France in the war against England, and Count Julian with the most atrocious treachery, their united fleets appeared in the Channel in overas not only voluntarily surrendering Ceuta, the whelming force. The siege of Gibraltar was underkey of the country, but actually guiding the taken by the Spaniards; and R., who was sent out 13,000 Berbers and Arabs under Tarik into Spain. with 22 sail of the line and 8 frigates to the West A landing was effected at Algesiras, 28th April Indian station, was ordered to relieve Gibraltar en 711; and in spite of vigorous opposition from the route. After capturing seven Spanish ships of war, governor of Andalusia, Tarik marched on, routing he fell in, January 16, 1780, with Admiral Langara, R.'s chosen cavalry, which had been sent to oppose off Cape St Vincent, that promontory which has him. R., who had been employed in another quar- witnessed more of our battles and triumphs than any ter, now hastened at the head of an army, which other headland in the world.' Of the Spanish fleet, is variously estimated at from 50,000 to 100,000 five were captured, and two destroyed. Having men, to oppose the daring invaders, who by this accomplished the relief of Gibraltar and Minorca, time had been so reinforced from Africa and by he quitted the Mediterranean, and crossed the rebels that their numbers amounted to 25,000. The Atlantic to the station of his command. On the two armies met on the banks of the Guadalete, near 17th April he defeated, near Martinique, the French Xeres de la Frontera, and on July 17 the battle commenced. R. directed the centre of his army in person, appointing the sons of Witiza to command the wings, and the battle raged furiously for three days; a single combat then took place between R. and Tarik—a kind of statement extremely frequent in eastern histories-in which the former was slain, and his head cut off, to be embalmed and sent to Muza. The Christians, enraged at the loss of their chief, fought furiously during six days longer, but all in vain, for victory now declared itself decisively in favour of the Moslems, to whom the sons of Witiza had deserted soon after the commencement of the contest, and the rout of R.'s army was complete. The most ancient Spanish chroniclers agree in asserting that R. either died on the field or sunk in the Guadalete, whilst attempting to save himself by swimming his horse across; and the various stories of his escape and subsequent adventures are of much later date. This decisive victory laid all fleet, under the Count de Guichen. Being ill-supported by his captains on this occasion, he complained to the Admiralty. The naval administration of the day was, however, so corrupt and rotten, that the Admiralty suppressed the criminatory passages of his dispatches, and only one of the accused was brought to trial, the others being allowed to escape from the difficulty of finding a sufficient number of non-delinquent officers to try them. R. took Eustatia from the Dutch, with 250 ships and other booty, estimated at three millions sterling. Demerara and Essequibo next surrendered. On the 12th April 1782, R., in conjunction with Hood and Drake, encountered the French fleet under De Grasse off Dominica, April 12, 1782. Each fleet consisted of upwards of 30 ships of the line. The battle was more obstinately contested than any engagement that ever took place between the two nations, being kept up without intermission for nearly 12 hours. De Grasse was totally defeated, and R. lost |