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vented the access of a single breeze, and the night fogs rose dense and fetid on every side. The event may be supposed; disease raged among the little force, and Nelson was soon numbered among the invalids. Happily he was summoned from the deadly place. The death of Captain Glover caused his appointment to the Janus of forty-four guns, and before the siege had lasted many days he left the San Juan river and sailed for Jamaica in the sloop which had brought the news of his appointment. Still the siege continued, the fort surrendered, the English garrison took possession, and then for five months struggled with the climate, until at last, hardly four hundred men returned from the fatal port, the shattered remnants of 1800 who had been gathered together for the fatal expedition. Of the Hinchinbrook's crew of 200, only ten survived, and in these the remnants of disease were permanent. Nelson himself struggled for a time against his disorder, but so rapid was its progress that he consented to be invalided, and returned to England in the Lion, under the care of his friend Captain Cornwallis. From April 1780, to August next year, Nelson remained on half-pay, residing chiefly at Bath, a miserable invalid. The use of his left arm was entirely lost, and his left leg and thigh almost paralysed.* Gradually he recovered, and his first wish was for service.

The

It was in the autumn of 1781 that Nelson again went into commission, as captain of the Albemarle, a small twenty-eight gun frigate, in which he was ordered to the Danish port of Elsineur, with two other small ships, to protect the fleet of naval store ships expected from the Baltic at that period. In this severe service the entire winter was consumed; and it was not until late in the year that he returned to the Downs to await fresh orders. 3rd of January, 1782, witnessed so severe a storm, that not a boatman would venture to sea. Nelson was on shore, visiting his senior officer, whilst his ship was battling with the storm off the Goodwin Sands, hampered by a store ship that had drifted on board of her, and in imminent danger of driving on to the sands. It was in vain that Nelson called for a boat; not a man would move. At last a bribe

*Letter to his brother, May, 1781.

of fifteen guineas procured the services of a seaman, and Nelson embarked on his perilous trip, reached his disabled ship, and saved her from any greater injury than a broken foremast and a disabled bowsprit.

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With every expectation of falling a sacrifice to the climate, Nelson now sailed to Quebec, and joined the squadron on the American station. Among his earliest captures was a small American fishing schooner, whose captain he ordered to act as pilot in Boston bay. His services were not forgotten. You have rendered us, sir, a very essential service," said Nelson, "and it is not the custom of English seamen to be ungrateful. In the name, and with the approbation of the officers of this ship, I return you your schooner, and with it this certificate of your good conduct. Farewell! and may God bless you!" Thus secured from capture, the American captain failed not to remember his benefactor. At the time when the want of fresh provisions had made the scurvy rage among the crew of the Albemarle, the little schooner put off with a cargo of fresh provisions, as a slight acknowledgment of the liberality of her former captor.

The information thus obtained from his American friend, added to the confidence amongst rocks and shoals, which he had gained under his uncle in the Triumph, rendered Nelson more than a match for the four sail of the line and frigate which chased him in Boston Bay in the August of 1782. Relying on his own skill and knowledge, he boldly ran among the shoals of St. George's bank, and prevented all but the frigate from pursuing him. At last she became detached from her friends: immediately Nelson backed his sails and hove to for his pursuer. But the Frenchman thought better of the matter, and sailed away in search of her comrades.

The American station was the place for prize money, but that of the West Indies the position for honour. To join Lord Hood on the latter station was Nelson's ardent wish, and much as his admiral regretted his loss, he could not but accede to Lord Hood's request that the Albemarle might sail with him. Short indeed was his stay under Lord Hood, and little chequered with fortune, so soon were the preliminaries of peace settled between England and

France. One gallant attempt Nelson made on the 6th of March 1783, which has, as yet, escaped the researches of his biographers. Turks Island had lately fallen to the French, and its recapture was Nelson's object. Aided by the Resistance, forty-four, and the La Coquette and Drake, brigs, Nelson sailed for the island, and landed Captain Dixon of the Drake, with 167 seamen and marines, whilst the ships threatened the island from the sea. For a time the attempt appeared successful, but soon the comparative strength of the enemy's force was discovered, and the small party were wisely withdrawn from a contest with nearly

2000 men.

One other event deserves notice, our hero's introduction to the late King William, then acting in Lord Hood's fleet as Captain Prince William Henry. When he first saw this merest boy of a captain, with his lank ungainly figure dressed in the full formal uniform, and old-fashioned long flapped waistcoat, and his hair tied in a long unpowdered Hessian tail, the prince hardly knew what to think of his new acquaintance. But when he began to converse with him, his address soon won upon the prince, and when he spoke on professional matters it was with a redundancy of information, and an enthusiasm that marked him out as no common being. The intimacy thus commenced never ceased but with death.

The West India cruise soon came to an end, On the 25th of June the Albemarle was at Spithead, and in a rew days her crew paid off, and dispersed. "I have closed the war," wrote Nelson, "without a fortune, but without a speck in my character. True honour, I hope, predominates in my mind above riches." A presentation at court, and a short visit to St. Omer with a naval friend, occupied Nelson's idle time; and though his letters from abroad present little of novelty, they are full of that strong and enduring contempt which he ever entertained for the French nation. To obey orders, to regard every one as his enemy who hated his king, and to hate a Frenchman, were Nelson's three canons of advice to every midshipman. On the two last he certainly acted, and though he was too ready to neglect the first when himself the subordinate, he never forgave such conduct in his own inferior officers.

CHAPTER II.

MARRIAGE.

1784-1793.

The Boreas.-Leeward Island Station.-American Seizures.-Threatened arrest, and the Navigation Act.-Frivolous Court-martials and Prince William Henry.-Frauds at Antigua.—Marriage.—Half-pay.—The Agamemnon.

EARLY in 1784 Nelson returned to Bath from his trip abroad, and soon became anxious to obtain employment in his profession. To his application Lord Howe acceded at once, and in March he commissioned the Boreas for the Leeward Islands station, with orders to convey out in her Lady Hughes and her family, the wife of the admiral who commanded on the station, and a supply of midshipmen for the ships. The authority of Lady Hughes furnishes a proof of the cleverness and goodness of the young captain towards his young charges. It might reasonably be supposed that among the number of thirty, there must be timid as well as bold: the timid he never rebuked, but always wished to show them he desired nothing of them that he would not instantly do himself; and I have known him to say, 'Well, sir, I am going a race to the mast-head, and beg I may meet you there. No denial could be given to such a wish, and the poor fellow instantly began his march. His lordship never took the least notice with what alacrity it was done, but when he met him in the top, instantly began speaking in the most cheerful manner, and saying how much a person was to be pitied that could fancy there was anything dangerous in the attempt. After this excellent example, I have seen the timid youth lead another, and rehearse his captain's words. How wise and kind was such a proceeding! In like manner he every day went into the

school-room and saw them do their nautical business, and at twelve o'clock he was the first upon deck with his quadrant. No one there could be behindhand in their business when their captain set them so good an example." "One other circumstance I must mention (continues Lady Hughes), which will close the subject, which was the day we landed at Barbadoes; we were to dine at the governor's. Our dear captain said, 'You must permit me, Lady Hughes, to carry one of my aides-de-camp with me,' and when he presented him to the governor, he said, 'Your excellency must excuse me for bringing one of my midshipmen, as I make a point of introducing them to all the good company I can, as they have few to look up to besides myself during the time they are at sea.' Such conduct endeared him to his ship's company; and whenever he left a ship, the crew unanimously volunteered to follow him to his next command."

Young as he was, on his arrival at Antigua, Nelson found himself senior captain on the station, and consequently second in command under the admiral. An immediate dispute was the consequence; authorised by the admiral, Mr. Commissioner Moutray had hoisted a broad pendant in the harbour, and claimed to act as superior officer on the station. Confident in his correctness, Nelson refused to acknowledge any civil officer as his superior, hauled down the commissioner's pendant to enforce his right, and at the same time claimed his friendship to show that personal motives were not involved in the dispute. It was in vain that the admiral contended he was right; the matter was referred home, and Nelson's conduct approved.

But a more serious dispute was beginning. By the Navigation Act no foreign ships were allowed to trade with our colonies; but the Americans, by using the old registers of their ships before their separation from this country, openly evaded the law, and were encouraged in their evasion by the islanders, and not prohibited by the admiral_on the station or the governors of the islands. Satisfied that the Americans were now foreigners, Nelson determined to put a stop to this evasion of the Navigation Act. Accom

* Letter of Lady Hughes, June 24, 1806.

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