arriving at Hispaniola with a very large Fleet and Army from Martinico, an attack on Jamaica was expected. In this critical state, I was by both Admiral and General intrusted with the command of the batteries at Port Royal:* and I need not say, as this place was the key to the whole Naval force, the town of Kingston, and Spanish Town, the defence of it was the most important post in the whole Island

In January 1780, an Expedition being resolved on against St. Juan's, I was chosen to direct the Sea part of it. Major Polson, who commanded, will tell you of my exertions:5 how

▲ Vide p. 31 post.

5 In his official Dispatch, dated 30th April 1780, Colonel Polson said of Captain Nelson, "I want words to express the obligations I owe that gentleman. He was the first on every service whether by night or by day. There was scarcely a gun but what was pointed by him or Lieutenant Despard." General Dalling wrote a private letter to Lord George Germain, Secretary at War, pointing out his services, and "humbly entreating that his Majesty would be graciously pleased to manifest a satisfaction of Captain Nelson's conduct. Such minds, my Lord, are most devoutly to be wished, for Government's sake." In a note to Nelson, dated Kingston, May 30th, 1780, General Dalling said, "Thanks to you, my friend, for your kind congratulations: to you, without compliment do I attribute, in a great measure, the cause." [Original in the Nelson Papers.] His health suffered so severely from his exertions and from the climate, that he was compelled to quit his Ship, and return to Jamaica, attended by Mr. Tyson (afterwards his Secretary, and subsequently Clerk of the Survey in Chatham Dock Yard), in the Victor Sloop-of-War. Such was his debility from dysentery, that on his arrival he was obliged to be removed to the Lodging-house of Cuba in his cot.

Two Narratives of that Expedition have been published; one by Dr. Benjamin Moseley, in his "Treatise on Tropical Diseases," 8vo. London, 1803-4, and another by Dr. Thomas Dancer; entitled "A Brief History of the late Expedition against Fort St. Juan, so far as it relates to the Diseases of the Troops." 4to. Kingston, 1792. Early in 1803, Lord Nelson wrote the following remarks on this Expedition, for the second edition of Dr. Moseley's work :

"Had the expedition arrived at San Juan's harbour in the month of January, the violent torrents would have subsided, and of course the whole Army would not have had occasion, which was the case in April, to get wet three or four times a day in dragging the boats. They would then have arrived at the Castle by the middle of February, and had between two or three months of fair season to have established themselves, with all the stores, in the healthy country of Granada and Leon: and then, I think, a road for carriages might have been made from Bluefields harbour, a healthier place than San Juan's to the Lake Nicaragua. "The fever which destroyed the Army and Navy attached to that Expedition, was invariably from twenty to thirty days before it attacked the new-comers; and I cannot give a stronger instance, than that in the Hinchinbrook, with a complement of two hundred men, eighty-seven took to their beds in one night; and

I quitted my Ship, carried troops in boats an hundred miles up a river, which none but Spaniards since the time of the buccaneers had ever ascended. It will then be told how I boarded, if I may be allowed the expression, an out-post of the Enemy, situated on an Island in the river; that I made batteries, and afterwards fought them, and was a principal cause of our success. From this scene I was appointed to the Janus, 44, at Jamaica, and went to Port Royal in the Victor sloop.

My state of health was now so bad, that I was obliged to go to England in the Lion, the Honourable William Cornwallis, Captain; whose care and attention again saved my life. In August 1781, I was commissioned for the Albemarle; and, it would almost be supposed, to try my constitution, was kept the whole winter in the North Sea. In April 1782, I sailed with a convoy for Newfoundland and Quebec, under the orders of Captain Thomas Pringle. From Quebec, during a cruise off Boston, I was chased by three French Ships of the Line, and the Iris frigate: as they all beat me in sailing very much, I had no chance left, but running them amongst the shoals of St. George's Bank. This alarmed the Line-of-Battle Ships, and they quitted the pursuit; but the Frigate continued, and at sun-set was little more than gunshot distant: when, the Line-of-Battle Ships being out of sight, I ordered the main-top-sail to be laid to the mast; on this the Frigate tacked, and stood to rejoin her consorts.

of the two hundred, one hundred and forty-five were buried in mine and Captain Collingwood's time; and I believe very few, not more than ten, survived of that Ship's crew; a proof how necessary expedition is in those climates."

6 Extract from a letter from Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Parker to the Secretary to the Admiralty, dated Jamaica, 7th April 1780. The vacancy was caused by the death of Captain Glover of the Janus:

"I have moved Captain Nelson of the Hinchinbrook into the Janus, and appointed Captain Cuthbert Collingwood of the Badger Sloop, Captain of the Hinchinbrook, and Lieutenant Hood Walker, late first Lieutenant of the Niger, Commander of the Badger."-Admiralty Records.

The remaining part of Lord Nelson's Sketch of his Life, will be best illustrated by the Notes to his LEtters.

In October I sailed from Quebec with a convoy to New York, where I joined the Fleet under the command of Lord Hood; and in November I sailed with him to the West Indies, where I remained till the Peace; when I came to England, being directed in my way to attend H. R. H. the Duke of Clarence on his visit to the Havannah; and was paid off at Portsmouth on July 3rd, 1783. In the autumn I went to France, and remained there till the spring of the year 1784; when I was appointed to the Boreas frigate, of 28 guns, and ordered to the Leeward Island station.

This Station opened a new scene to the Officers of the British navy. The Americans, when colonists, possessed almost all the trade from America to our West India Islands: and on the return of Peace, they forgot, on this occasion, that they became Foreigners, and of course had no right to trade in the British Colonies. Our Governors and Custom-house officers pretended, that by the Navigation Act they had a right to trade; and all the West Indians wished what was so much for their interest.

Having given Governors, Custom-house Officers, and Americans, notice of what I would do, I seized many of their vessels, which brought all parties upon me; and I was persecuted from one Island to another, so that I could not leave my Ship. But conscious rectitude bore me through it; and I was supported, when the business came to be understood, from home: and I proved, (and an Act of Parliament has since established it,) that a Captain of a Man of War is bound to support all the Maritime Laws, by his Admiralty commission alone, without becoming a Custom-house officer.

In July 1786, I was left with the command till June 1787, when I sailed for England. During the winter H. R. H. the Duke of Clarence visited the Leeward Islands in the Pegasus frigate, of which he was Captain. And in March,

this year, I married Frances Herbert Nisbet, widow of Dr. Nisbet, of the Island of Nevis; by whom I have no children.

The Boreas being paid off at Sheerness, on November the 30th, I lived at Burnham Thorpe, county of Norfolk, in the Parsonage-house. In 1790, when the Affair with Spain, relative to Nootka Sound, had nearly involved us in a war, I made use of every interest to get a Ship, ay, even a boat, to serve my Country, but in vain: there was a prejudice at the Admiralty evidently against me, which I can neither guess at, nor in the least account for . . . 7

... ·

On the 30th of January 1793, I was commissioned in the handsomest way for the Agamemnon, 64 guns; and was put under the command of that great man and excellent officer, Lord Hood, appointed to the command in the Mediterranean. The unbounded confidence on all occasions placed in me by his Lordship, will show his opinions of my abilities; having served in the command of the seamen landed for the sieges of Bastia and Calvi. His Lordship, in October 1794, left the Mediterranean to Admiral Hotham, who also honoured me with the same confidence. I was in the Actions of the 13th and 14th of March 1795, and 13th of July in the same year. For the share I had in them, I refer to the Admiralty letters. I was then appointed by Admiral Hotham to cooperate with the Austrian General, De Vins, which I did all the time Admiral Hotham retained the command, till November; when he was superseded by Sir John Jervis, now Earl Vincent.

In April 1796, the Commander-in-chief so much approved my conduct, that he directed me to wear a Distinguish

7 Some words evidently occurred here, which Dr. Clarke and Mr. M'Arthur thought fit to suppress, (a proceeding which they adopted on many other occasions,) and as the original MS. has not been found, it is impossible to supply the omission. Nelson's Letters at this period leave no doubt that a prejudice existed against him at the Admiralty, if not in higher quarters.

ing Pendant. In June 1 was removed from the Agamemnon to the Captain; and on the 11th of August had a Captain appointed under me. Between April and October 1796, I was employed in the blockade of Leghorn, taking Porto Ferrajo, the Island of Caprea, and finally in the evacuation of Bastia: when having seen the troops in safety to Porto Ferrajo, I joined the Admiral in St. Fiorenzo Bay, and proceeded with him to Gibraltar; whence in December I was sent in La Minerve frigate, Captain George Cockburn, to Porto Ferrajo, to bring down our Naval stores, &c. On the passage we captured a Spanish Frigate, La Sabina, of 40 guns, 28 eighteen pounders on her main deck, as will appear by my Letter.

For an account of what passed from our sailing from Porto Ferrajo on the 29th of January 1797, to the finish of the Action, on the 14th of February, I refer to the account published by Colonel Drink water. The King for my conduct gave me a gold Medal, and the city of London a gold Box.

In April 1797, I hoisted my Flag as Rear-Admiral of the Blue, and was sent to bring down the garrison of Porto Ferrajo: which service performed, I shifted my Flag from the Captain to the Theseus on May the 27th, and was employed in the command of the inner Squadron at the blockade of Cadiz. It was during this period that perhaps my personal courage was more conspicuous than at any other part of my life. In an attack of the Spanish gun-boats, I was boarded in my barge with its common crew of ten men, Cockswain, Captain Fremantle, and myself, by the Commander of the gunboats; the Spanish barge rowed twenty-six oars, besides Officers, thirty men in the whole. This was a service hand to hand with swords, in which my Cockswain, John Sykes, now no more, twice saved my life. Eighteen of the Spaniards being killed and several wounded, we succeeded in taking their Commander.