A French officer writing in
Latin to an American friend announces his intention to learn
English: "Inglicam linguam noscere conabor." He made the effort
and he and his fellow officers learned a quaint English speech.
When Rochambeau and Washington first met they conversed through
La Fayette, as interpreter, but in time the older man did very
well in the language of his American comrade in arms.
For a long time the French army effected nothing. Washington
longed to attack New York and urged the effort, but the wise and
experienced Rochambeau applied his principle, "nothing without
naval supremacy," and insisted that in such an attack a powerful
fleet should act with a powerful army, and, for the moment, the
French had no powerful fleet available. The British were
blockading in Narragansett Bay the French fleet which lay there.
Had the French army moved away from Newport their fleet would
almost certainly have become a prey to the British. For the
moment there was nothing to do but to wait. The French preserved
an admirable discipline. Against their army there are no records
of outrage and plunder such as we have against the German allies
of the British. We must remember, however, that the French were
serving in the country of their friends, with every restraint of
good feeling which this involved.
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