me, I request that your Royal Highness will open them; and as the contents may be, so you will regulate your proceed ings. I have the honour to remain, Your Royal Highness's Most obedient humble Servant, HORATIO NELSON. TO H. R. H. PRINCE WILLIAM HENRY. [Original, in the possession of William Henry Whitehead, Esq.] Boreas, Nevis, April 26th, 1787. Sir, By the death of my poor friend Collingwood, a Vacancy has arisen for a Commander and Lieutenant. In appointing Mr. Wallis to the command of her, I hope I acted as you wish me. The vacancy as Lieutenant, I leave to be filled up by your Royal Highness. I inclose Mr. Gage's, and have desired Mr. Wallis to take a copy of my letter to him in answer to his. I own I can't help saying his pretensions are not very great, but this I leave to your consideration. I hope your Royal Highness will allow me to beg for your interest, should any difficulties arise about Mr. Wallis's being confirmed, for he is a good Officer; and I am sure will do credit to his Majesty's service. I left English Harbour yesterday, quite fitted up for my voyage Home. The business respecting the Fraud,1 I have examined into as far as the parties choose to disclose themselves. They are not disinterested. They wish to be insured of so much per centage upon all sums recovered; but they have given me a proof, by an account of one quarter, viz. from March to June, 1782, of what Government was defrauded in that quarter; and I am most thoroughly convinced they are enabled to prove Frauds to a very large amount. I shall send the Accounts to Mr. Pitt, for Parliament Captain Wilfred Collingwood, of the Rattler, who died on the 21st April 1787, vide p. 230, post. • James Wallis, then first Lieutenant of the Boreas, the writer of the Narrative of Captain Nelson's Proceedings on the Leeward Islands Station, before referred to. 1 See many subsequent Letters. must know of it, in order to enable Administration to send out persons vested with powers to make examinations in the West Indies. No persons have died at the hospital, but none have recovered. I hope your Royal Highness has had a pleasant trip. We have yet heard nothing of the Packet. Sir Thomas Shirley is here, and Lord Ward is appointed Chief Justice in the room of Mr. Dasent, deceased. I have the honour to remain, with the greatest respect, Your Royal Highness's Most obliged obedient Servant, HORATIO NELSON. The Gentleman you are pleased to appoint, which I take for granted, will be Mr. Church,3 had better be appointed Second of the Boreas for the present; and I can make any arrangements your Royal Highness pleases, when I have the honour of seeing you. TO PHILIP STEPHENS, ESQ., ADMIRALTY. [Original, in the Admiralty.] Boreas, Nevis, 2nd May 1787. Sir, Herewith I have the honour to transmit you the State and Condition of his Majesty's Ships and Vessels on this Station; and also a list of Appointments made by me, and hope their Lordships' will approve of the Officers I have promoted. I have the honour, &c. HORATIO NELSON. 2 John Ward, Esq., was appointed Chief Justice of Nevis, and it does not appear why Nelson should call him Lord Ward. The name of John Dasent occurs, however, as Chief Justice of Nevis, in the Royal Kalendar until 1799. * Stephen George Church, afterwards a Post-Captain. VOL I. A List of the Appointments and Removals of Officers by [Original Draught, in the Nelson Papers.] [Captain Sir Charles Middleton, afterwards an Admiral, and First Lord of the Admiralty, and who was created a Peer in 1805, by the title of Lord Barham, was then Comptroller of the Navy.] Sir, Boreas, Nevis, 2nd May 1787. As a Fraud is likely to be discovered in the Naval Department under your direction, I think it proper to make you acquainted with it, that villany may be punished, and Frauds prevented in future. Sir, before I proceed, I cannot help mentioning a circumstance which hurt me, when I was first left in the command here. The Deputy Naval Officer brought me Bills to sign for money which was owing for goods purchased. I insisted upon having the original Vouchers brought to me, that I might examine if they were really purchased at the market-price, and that Government was not cheated: this I could not obtain; and I wrote to your Board upon the subject of my approval of Bills, without being convinced that the former money I had approved of drawing for, was expended to my satisfaction, and that it was laid out in the most advantageous manner for Government. The answer seemed to imply, that you thought the old Forms were sufficient; which only was a certificate from the Naval Officer, and the Master Shipwright, that so much money was wanted. Since that period I have been less close in my examination, as I should have been very sorry to have incurred the displeasure of you, Sir, a gentleman who stands so high, both as a Professional man, and in the Department you fill with so much honour. I enclose you the accounts of the Fraud from March to June 1782. That the fictious name of ' Co. C.' stands for A. M.,' I am so little versed in mercantile matters, I will not take upon me to say, but all the credits due Cornelius Cole are carried in the Book to the account of Antony Munton. It will be necessary I should tell you who these gentlemen are, that have given this information: they were the partners of Mr. William Whitehead, under the firm of Whitehead and Co.: having separated, they have possessed themselves of all Whitehead's Books and Papers. Mr. Wilkinson was brought up under Muir and Atkinson, and is a very shrewd sensible man. Higgins is likewise a man of business. Wilkinson has been in various Departments of Government, in St. Lu, cia, Barbadoes, &c. and assures me, he can discover all the Frauds committed there, as easy as these, if Government think proper to reward them. Indeed they do not seem to be playing the fool ; for if nothing is recovered, they desire nothing, and of what is actually recovered, only a certain per centage. The business of Negro hire is yet not conducted in the manner you wish. If, Sir, when I arrive in England, you choose to have any conversation upon this subject, I shall be happy to give you every information in my power. I have been merely a temporary Commanding Officer here, and have been expecting, since October, a Senior Officer; therefore I The Original communications from Messrs. Wilkinson and Higgins respecting these Frauds, which were the subject of so many Letters from Captain Nelson, are still preserved among the Nelson Papers. On the 16th of August 1787, shortly after the Boreas' return to England, Sir Charles Middleton wrote to Captain Nelson in reply to this Letter, in which he said he had before written to request Captain Nelson would do everything in his power to collect evidence of those Frauds; that he had been in communication with Lord Howe on the subject; that the business should be taken up on bis arrival in Town, when he wished to see him; and that he hoped he would, in the mean time, use every means to substantiate the charge which he had little doubt was well founded.-Original, in the Nelson Papers. did not choose to enter into the minutiae of the Yard, which, as Commander-in-Chief, I certainly should have done. I have the honour to be, &c. HORATIO NELSON. TO VISCOUNT HOWE, FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY. [Autograph draught, in the Nelson Papers. The date is not given, but it was probably written in May 1787.] My Lord, The subject of this Letter, I am sure, will require no apology for my addressing myself immediately to your Lordship, and not to the Board. Frauds upon Government there is no man who is not most thoroughly sensible of; but how to detect them has hitherto been a matter to be accomplished, but a door is opened here, which I hope will, if not the means of recovering back large sums of money, at least be the means of preventing Frauds in future. On the 13th of April, a Mr. Higgins and Wilkinson came to English Harbour, and delivered me a Letter similar to the one enclosed to his Royal Highness, which was given me to present. His Royal Highness desired me to do what I thought proper and right on this occasion: in consequence, I have had several meetings with these gentlemen, and have examined the books and papers of Mr. Whitehead, (I must observe, these gentlemen were partners of Whitehead's, and have possessed themselves of all his books, papers, &c.,) by which I am most thoroughly convinced of the Frauds, and that to a very large amount. You will perceive these gentlemen expect to gain by this discovery. However, I suppose it matters but little the motive, if the business can be accomplished. I have got the Account of the Storekeeper for one quarter, which I inclose. Vouchers are looked upon in general as a sufficient check against Frauds. There is not a merchant in the Town of St. John's but will not tell you he never knows the Vouchers he signs; and what they tell me is the reason for their not looking at them is, that in this Country a thing is worth what it will bring, and every man is to sell for the most he can get. The fictious name of Cornelius Cole |