troude was wary on his arrival in the leeward islands on 29 march, refusing to approach martinique and instead anchoring near the îles des saintes until the situation in the islands could be established. before he could make contact with nearby guadeloupe, he was discovered by patrolling british warships and a warning sent to cochrane, who was on his flagship hms "neptune" off martinique. within hours "neptune" was cruising off the saintes, joined by the ships of the line hms "pompee", hms "york", hms "belleisle", hms "captain", hms "polyphemus" and a number of smaller warships that could operate closer inshore. blockading the saintes was a difficult task: the french had three channels through which they could escape, too many to be effectively blocked by the forces at cochrane's disposal. in addition, troude's force could not be attacked directly, the width of the channels making it impossible for the british ships to attack in full strength.