will give a Balle Champetre upon my departure. They hate me; and they will every Officer who does his duty. You know I have the honour of having Prince William under my command. In every respect, both as a Man and a Prince, I love him. He has honoured me as his confidential friend; in this he shall not be mistaken. I am sorry for poor Kate, but marriage is not a thing to be hastily entered into ; and it's better to find a man to be good for nothing before, than after marriage. I am happy my Father has been able to make an addition to Maurice's allowance. I have never lost sight of his preferment in the line he is in, but my interest is but rising. I have already spoken to his Royal Highness about him, but it must take time to get on; and the Prince has it not in his power to do all he wishes at present. My time is short; therefore my letter must finish. Compliments to all I know, and believe me ever, Your affectionate brother, HORATIO NELSON. TO WILLIAM LOCKER, ESQ., TOWN MALLING. [Autograph, in the Locker Papers.] My dear Friend, Boreas, English Harbour, February 9th, 1787. Your letter of November 29th I received by a Merchantship; it is the only one I have got, although I see you have wrote several desiring me to get things; but not a line has ever reached me till now. I was fearful I had unknowingly offended, but am happy to find it is not so. I am at a loss how to direct this letter, but shall send it to your Agent; for I have never heard of your removal to Kensington, nor am I certain you live there now, but it must take its chance. I am here without Ships enough to hold Court-Martials; and discipline, you know, cannot be kept up without that resort. Mountserrat, February 13. I am here with the Pegasus and Solebay; the Island has made fine Addresses and good dinners, &c. To-morrow we sail for Nevis and St. Christopher's, where the same fine things will be done again. His Royal Highness keeps up strict discipline in his Ship, and without paying him any compliment, she is one of the first ordered Frigates I have seen. He has had more plague with his Officers than enough: his First Lieutenant will, I have no doubt, be broke. I have put him under Arrest; he having wrote for a Court-Martial on himself to vindicate his conduct, because his Captain thought proper to reprimand him in the Order-book: in short, our Service has been so much relaxed during the War, that it will cost many a Court-Martial to bring it up again. I am kept in utter darkness about who is coming to this Country. Since August, when Sir Richard Hughes left the Station, the Admiralty have not wrote me a single line, only to take the Pegasus and Solebay under my command. Many things have happened, and they have neither approved, nor otherwise, of my conduct. That Lord Howe3 is a strange character-it may be all right, but I can't understand it. Pray remember me kindly to the Bradleys; I am truly sorry for poor Dick. I had not heard of his death. To Lord Ducie, and any others that may please to honour me with their remembrance. I am sorry for your wine, but I have five dozen of it saved and in bottles. Rum I have plenty of on board, and you shall have as much as you please; and whatever else I am in possession of, being, as I ought to be, with the truest esteem, 4 We are at last out of English Harbour again, and so far I am on my way to be with you. I anticipate with pleasure our 3 First Lord of the Admiralty. 4 Vide ante. meeting; for never do I feel truly happy when separated from you. Length of time often, too often, gives proof of the failings of human nature, and how difficult it is to be perfect. You have given me a proof that your goodness increases by time. These I trust will ever be my sentiments; if they are not, I do verily believe it will be my folly that occasions it. Never think otherwise, than that I am, in the fullest sense of the word, most affectionately your HORATIO NELSON. TO PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ., ADMIRALTY. [Original, in the Admiralty.] Boreas, Nevis, 15th February 1787. Sir, I beg leave to acquaint you for their Lordship's information that his Majesty's Ship Maidstone arrived here yesterday evening. I have the honour to remain, &c. HORATIO NELSON. TO MRS. NISBET. [From Clarke and M'Arthur, vol. i. p. 92.] Boreas, 28th February 1787. Indeed I am not well enough to write much, and I have a good deal of fag before me. Captain Holloway is gone from us. Captain Newcomes is laid up; therefore poor I must be worked: and I am the more mortified, as I purposed, when the Prince went over to the other side of the Islaud, to have escaped that trip, and have got a few hours to see you: but that is all over. It is possible His Royal Highness may stop at Nevis in his way up from Tortola. This, however, shall be his own act, and not mine. To-day we dine with the Merchants; I wish it over: to-morrow a large party at Nicholas Town; and on Friday in Town Captain Henry Newcome, of the Maidstone, of 28 guns, who was Posted on the 19th May 1782. here. Saturday, sail for Old Road; Sunday, dine on Brimstone Hill; Monday, Mr. Georges' at Sandy Point, and in the evening the Freemasons give a ball. Tuesday, please God, we sail. I did not like the cast of the day at Mr. and I cannot carry two faces. Farewell till to-morrow, and be assured, I am, ever your affectionate, HORATIO NELSON. TO MRS. NISBET. [From Clarke and M'Arthur, vol. i. p. 92.] March 3rd 1787. My journey to Nicholas Town was too great a fag in the height of the sun: I was very ill after it; and nothing but his Royal Highness's attention and condescension, could or should make me go through it. However, I am quite well this morning; and as we shall be pretty quiet to-day, I hope to be able to bear to-morrow and Monday, tolerably well. We shall most likely be at Nevis about the 18th; but keep this to your self. I am, &c. HORATIO NELSON. TO MRS. NISBET. [From Clarke and M'Arthur, vol. i. p. 93. This was Nelson's last Letter to Mrs. Nisbet before their marriage, which took place at Nevis, on the 12th of March 1787. The date of that event, (which is erroneously given, as well by Clarke and M'Arthur, as in the Nelson Pedigree in the Genealogical Books of the Knights of the Bath,) is shown to have been the twelfth of March, by the following passage in a Letter from Lady Nelson to her husband, written from Bath on the 11th of March 1797, immediately after she had heard of the Battle of St. Vincent: "To-morrow is our wedding day, when it gave me a dear husband, and my child the best of fathers." His Royal Highness fulfilled his promise, by giving away the bride. Frances Herbert Woollward was the only child of William Woollward, Esq., Senior Judge of Nevis, by Molly, sister of John Richardson Herbert, Esq., President of the Council of that Island. She was born about 1763, and married first, Josiah Nesbit, M.D., who died eighteen months afterwards, leaving an only child, Josiah. At the time of her marriage with Captain Nelson, she was about twenty-five years of age, and died on the 4th of May 1831, aged 68. Her uncle, Mr. Herbert, died on the 18th January 1793, leaving an only child, Martha Williams, wife of Andrew Hamilton, of Nevis, Esq., who died without issue in August 1819; and in the following year, Mr. Herbert's nephew, Magnus Morton of Nevis, Esq., pursuant to directions in his Will, assumed the Name and Arms of Herbert. He married Christian, daughter of George Forbes of Bush Hill, in that Island, who is mentioned in one of Nelson's Letters. Boreas, Sandy Point, 6th March 1787. How uncertain are the movements of us Sailors. His Royal Highness is rather unwell; therefore I have given up the idea of visiting Tortola for the present. To-day we dine with Mr. Georges, at his Country-house. I am now feeling most awkwardly: his Royal Highness has been with me all this morning, and has told me, that as things here are changed, if I am not married when we go to Nevis, it is hardly probable he should see me there again; that I had promised him not to be married, unless he was present; that he wished to be there, to show his esteem for me, and should be much mortified if impediments were thrown in the way. He intends this as a mark of honour to me; as such I wish to receive it. Indeed his Royal Highness's behaviour throughout has been that of a friend, instead of a person so elevated above me. He told me this morning, that since he had been under my command he has been happy; and that I should find him sincere in his friendship. Heaven bless you; and I need scarcely say, how much I am February the 9th, I had last the honour of writing you from English Harbour. On the 10th I sailed with the Solebay and Pegasus, leaving the Rattler at the wharf to be repaired, she having been found exceedingly bad, and her timbers rotten. The builder, however, is of opinion that she may be put in a state to undertake a summer's passage. I have ordered her to be sheathed with wood, as the expense is so |