sense of propriety for the first lieutenant's return. The master upon hearing these words instantly ran to the gangway that he might leap into the boat; but Nelson, suddenly stopping him, exclaimed, "It's my turn now; if I come back, it will be yours. He succeeded in getting aboard, and took possession of his first prize. The American vessel was however so water-logged that the boat completely passed over her, going over the deck with one swell of the sea, and passing off with the returning wave. About this time he lost his uncle. Captain Locker, however, who had perceived the excellent qualities of Nelson, and formed a friendship for him, which continued during his life, recommended him warmly to Sir Peter Parker, then commander-in-chief upon that station. In consequence of this recommendation he was removed into the Bristol flag-ship, and Lieutenant Cuthbert Collingwood, who had long been in habits of great friendship with him, succeeded him in the Lowestoffe. Sir Peter Parker was the friend of both, and thus it happened that whenever Nelson got a step in rank, Collingwood succeeded him. The former soon became first lieutenant; and, on the 8th of December, 1778, was appointed commander of the Badger brig, Collingwood taking his place in the Bristol. While the Badger was lying in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the Glasgow of twenty guns came in and anchored there, and in two hours was in flames, the steward having set fire to her while stealing rum out of the after-hold. Her crew were leaping into the water, when Nelson came up in his boats, made them throw their powder overboard, and by these salutary precautions only one life was lost from an accident threatening such dreadful consequences.

In 1779, Nelson obtained his post rank, and soon after his advancement was appointed to the Hinchinbroke, of 20 guns. An attack upon the island of Jamaica being apprehended, in consequence of the French fleet (one hundred and twenty-five sail) having arrived at Hispaniola from Martinico, under the command of that well known character Count d'Estaing, Nelson was appointed to command the important batteries which defended Port Royal. At the commencement of the ensuing year, all apprehension of a visit from the enemy having passed away, an expedition was planned by General Dalling against the Spanish settlements on the river St. John, in the gulf of Mexico.

This expedition was intended to cut off all communication of the Spaniards between their Northern and Southern American dominions, by El Rio San Juan -or, the river St. John-and the lake Nicaragua; from the interior boundary of which, to the South Sea, is only four or five leagues through a level country. Thus a connexion from the northern to the southern sea, was to have been kept up by us; a chain of ports established, and a communication opened, and protected, with an extensive coast, and all the richest provinces of South America. Though General Dalling's plan was well formed, many obstacles retarded its execution; the force from England did not arrive till August, though it ought to have been on the Spanish main in January; the season was thus too far advanced.

Early in the year 1780, five hundred men, destined for this service, were convoyed by Nelson from Port Royal to Cape Gracias a Dios, in Honduras. Not a native was to be seen when they landed. After a while, however, one of them ventured down, confiding in his knowledge of one of the party; and by his means the neighbouring tribes were conciliated with presents. The troops were encamped on a swampy and unwholesome plain, where they were joined by a party of the seventy-ninth, from Black River, who were already in a deplorable state of sickness. Having remained here a month, they proceeded along the Mosquito shore, to collect their Indian allies, who had undertaken to provide boats for the river, and to accompany them. They reached the river San Juan, March 24th, and here Nelson's services were to terminate; but not a man in the expedition had ever been up the river, or knew the distance of any

fortification from its mouth and he, not being one who would turn back when so much was to be done, resolved to carry the soldiers up. About two hundred, therefore, were embarked in the Mosquito shore craft, and in two of the Hinchinbrook's boats they began their voyage. It was the latter end of the dry season, and the river was consequently very shallow. The Indians made their way through the narrow channels; the men were compelled to leave their boats and convey them as well as their almost exhausted strength would allow. After this laborious work had lasted for several days they came to deeper water, and then had it not have been for the skill of the Indians, it would have been impossible for them to overcome the strong currents they had to contend with. On April the 9th, they reached the Island of San Bartolomeo, which the Spaniards had fortified with a few guns and manned with about twenty-five men. Nelson boldly leaped ashore, and in his own words, "boarded the battery."

Two days after the taking of San Bartolomeo, the English appeared before the Castle of Saint Juan, after a most fatiguing march. Ten days were afterwards consumed in making the necessary preparations for a siege, though, had Lord Nelson's advice been taken, the castle would, most probably, have been taken by assault.

On the 24th the castle surrendered: for five months the English obstinately persisted in retaining possession of the same, though undergoing every privation imaginable; at last, however, they were obliged to abandon their hard earned conquest, leaving a few of their countrymen in possession.

Out of eighteen hundred men sent upon this ill planned expedition, only three hundred and fifty returned.

On the untimely death of Captain Glover, Nelson was appointed to succeed him in the Janus, 44 guns. By this promotion the life of Nelson was saved. He immediately sailed to Jamaica, on board the Victor sloop, and hope began to invigorate his heart. The air of Jamaica (not always beneficial to European constitutions), instead of restoring him had a contrary effect. All the friendly attentions and medical advice he received proved ineffectual, and he was reluctantly compelled to depart for England. Accordingly, in a state of the most extreme debility, towards the close of the year he returned home in the Lion, commanded by the Honourable William Cornwallis, whose kind care and attention during the passage, contributed in no small degree to the re-establishment of the health of his passenger.

On his arrival in England he went directly to Bath, where, at first, he was under the necessity of being carried to the springs, and it was not till three months had elapsed that he regained the use of his limbs. Upon the restoration of his health, he paid a visit to his worthy and venerable father, at Burnham Thorpe, and in August, 1781, he received an appointment to the command of the Albemarle, of 27 guns, a merchant ship captured from the French and purchased into the King's service. His constitution was now subjected to a severe trial, the Albemarle being ordered to the North Seas, where she continued convoying and cruizing during the whole winter. Nelson experienced no small inconvenience from the unusual length of the masts of the ship, a circumstance which had several times nearly occasioned it to be overset.

In March, 1782, Captain Nelson was ordered to Quebec, in company with Captain Pringle, of the Dædalus. On the third day after their arrival, he was cruising off Boston, where the Albemarle had a narrow escape from falling into the hands of her original proprietors. Three French ships of the line and a frigate, which had come out of Boston harbour, gave chase to her. Nelson, finding they were gaining fast upon him, and that the case was desperate, resolved upon an equally desperate stratagem, and without hesitation he ran boldly for St. George's Bank, among the shoals of which he entertained hopes of entangling his enemies, or of inducing them to discontinue the chase, from

the apparent hazard of pursuing it any farther. He was not disappointed in his expectations, for the larger ships immediately shortened sail. The frigate, however, drawing less water, was not to be baffled so easily; she continued the chase till nearly the close of the day, when, being almost up with the Albemarle, Captain Nelson very resolutely ordered his ship to be hove to, for the purpose of bringing the contest to a speedy conclusion. This instance of firmness, unexpectedly displayed by an inferior opponent, struck the pursuer with immediate dismay; he instantly put about, and made sail from the Albemarle, which, though it might possibly, by the bravery of its commander and crew, have been preserved from again reverting into the hands of the foe, was, from her force and equipment totally, unfit to seek or court an engagement with so superior an antagonist.

It was at Quebec that Captain Nelson formed an acquaintance with Alexander Davison, at whose house he chiefly resided while on shore. While thus comfortably situated, directions were brought for the Albemarle to convoy a fleet of transports to New York. "This," he observed in a letter, "is a very pretty job, at this late season of the year; for our sails are at this moment frozen to the yards."

On arriving at New York, in the early part of November, where he found Lord Hood with a detachment of Rodney's victorious fleet, he requested that admiral would take him to the West Indies. Admiral Digby, commander-inchief on the New York station, reluctantly parted with him. Lord Hood's notice of Captain Nelson was in the highest degree flattering to so young a man ; and on introducing him to Prince William Henry (as the Duke of Clarence No. 2.

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was then called), told the prince, that if he wished to ask any questions respecting naval tactics, Captain Nelson could give him as much information as any officer in the fleet. The duke, who, to his own honour, became from that time the firm friend of Nelson, describes him as appearing the merest boy of a captain he had ever seen, dressed in a full laced uniform, an old fashioned waistcoat with long flaps, and his lank unpowdered hair tied in a stiff Hessian tail of extraordinary length; making, altogether, so remarkable a figure, "that," said the duke, "I had never seen anything like it before, nor could I imagine who he was, nor what he came about. His address and conversation were irresistibly pleasing; and when he spoke on professional subjects, he showed an enthusiasm that proved he was no common being."

Some time after Captain Nelson had joined Lord Hood, in the West Indies, the admiral, expecting an attempt would be made on the Bahamas by the French, and having received several contradictory accounts of the number of the enemy's ships at the Havannah, he was desirous of sending, for the requisite information, one on whom he well knew he might depend. Lord Hood selected Nelson for this duty, remarking to him—“I suppose, sir, from the length of time you were cruizing among the Bahama Keys, you must be a good pilot there." He replied that he was well acquainted with them himself, but that in that respect his second lieutenant was far his superior. Captain Nelson was dispatched upon this business, which he executed with his usual success. He reflected that the Albemarle, from its once being a French ship, might easily be taken for one on this occasion. Having therefore sailed for the Spanish main, he hoisted French colours, and lay off the Havannah harbour. While he remained in this situation, a king's launch, belonging to the Spaniards, and filled with scientific gentlemen, in search of specimens in the various branches of natural history, passed near, and being hailed in French, came alongside without suspicion, and answered all the questions that were asked respecting the number and force of the enemy's ships. The astonishment of the crew is not to described, when they found themselves prisoners of war, on board an English frigate. The worthy captain soon satisfied them that they had not fallen into the hands of freebooters; and in consideration of the scientific pursuits in which they were engaged, the manner in which they had been captured, and the requisite information with which they had furnished him, he told them (after having entertained them with the best his table could afford) that they should be at liberty to depart whenever they pleased, with their boat and all it contained, on their parole of honour, to be considered as prisoners, if his commander-in-chief should refuse to acquiesce in their being thus liberated, a circumstance, which he did not think likely to happen. One of the party, who went by the name of the Count de Deux Ponts, was a Prince of the German empire and brother to the Electorate of Bavaria, and of the Palatinate.

Captain Nelson continued actively employed in the West Indies till peace was proclaimed in 1783. Lord Rodney's famous victory, on the 12th of April, 1782, had so completely damped the ardour of the enemy, that the flame of war was sunk into smoking embers, which served only to point out the devastation it had formerly caused; these, however, were eventually extinguished. Tidings soon arrived that the preliminaries of peace had been signed; and Nelson, after attending the Duke of Clarence on a visit to the Governor of Havannah, returned in the Albemarle to England, and was paid off. Nelson's first business when he got to London, even before he went to see his relations, was to attempt to get the wages due to his men, for the various ships in which they had served during the war. "The disgust of seamen to the navy," he said, was all owing to the infernal plan of turning them over from ship to ship; so that men could not be attached to the officers, nor the officers care the least about

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the men." Yet he himself was so beloved by his men, that his whole ship's company offered, if he could get a ship, to enter for her immediately. He was now, for the first time, presented at Court. After going through this ceremony, he dined with his friend Davison, at Lincoln's-inn. As soon as he entered the chambers, he threw off what he called his iron-bound coat; and putting himself at ease in a dressing-gown, passed the remainder of the day in talking over all that had befallen them since they parted on the shore of the River St. Lawrence.

"I have closed the war," said Nelson, in one of his letters, "without a fortune; but there is not a speck in my character. True honour, I hope, predominates in my mind far above riches." He did not apply for a ship, because he was not wealthy enough to live on board in the manner which was then become customary. Finding it, therefore, prudent to economise on his half-pay during the peace, he went to France, in company with Captain Macnamara, of the navy, and took lodgings at St. Omer's.

The death of his favourite sister, Anne, who died in consequence of going out of the ball-room, at Bath, when heated with dancing, affected his father so much, that it had nearly occasioned him to return in a few weeks weeks. Time, however, and reason, overcame this grief in the old man.

One great inducement for this journey was, his wish to perfect himself in the . French language, of which he had at that time, little or no knowledge. He continued long enough at St. Omer's to fall in love with an English clergyman's . daughter. Nelson, however, was wise enough to leave France, making a feigned excuse to his friends, rather than entangle himself in a matrimonial alliance. It may be of interest to state, that during his stay in France, he received a letter from the Count de Deux Ponts, expressive of the kind attention which had been paid to him when on board the Albemarle, and containing a very pressing invitation to Paris, of which the captain would doubtless have availed himself, had not the love affair occasioned a sudden exit.

CHAPTER II.

ON Nelson's return to England in March, he received an appointment to the Boreas frigate, of 28 guns; a ship then under orders of equipment for the Leeward Islands, as a cruiser on the peace establishment. Unfortunately he was attacked by the ague and fever the same day he received his commission; for a fortnight he continued a subject of these terrible complaints. Soon after the ship left the river, he mentioned in a letter to Captain Locker, some disagreeable adventures which had happened to him.

"April 21st, 1784. The morning I left you, we sailed at daylight, just after high water. The d-d pilot (it makes me swear to think of it) ran the ship aground, where she remained, with so little water, that the people could walk round her, until the next flood tide. That night, and part of the next day, we lay below the Nore, with a hard gale of wind and snow. Tuesday, I got into the Downs. Wednesday, I got into a quarrel with a Dutch Indiaman, who had Englishmen on board, which we settled, though with some difficulty: the Dutchman has made a complaint against me, but fortunately the Admiralty have approved of my conduct in the business, a thing they are not very guilty of, when there is a likelihood of a scrape. And yesterday, to complete me, I was riding a blackguard horse, that ran away with me at Common, carried me round all the works at Portsmouth, by the London Gates, through the town, out at the gate that leads to Common, where there was a waggon in the road, which is so narrow, that a horse could barely pass. To save my legs, and