During her first cruise on that station the _Albemarle_ captured a
fishing-schooner, which contained, in her cargo, nearly all the property
that her master possessed, and the poor fellow had a large family at
home, anxiously expecting him. Nelson employed him as a pilot in Boston
Bay, then restored him the schooner and cargo, and gave him a
certificate to secure him against being captured by any other vessel.
The man came off afterwards to the _Albemarle_, at the hazard of his
life, with a present of sheep, poultry, and fresh provisions. A most
valuable supply it proved; for the scurvy was raging on board: this was
in the middle of August, and the ship's company had not had a fresh meal
since the beginning of April. While here, Lord Hood introduced Nelson to
Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence, telling him 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. Another
characteristic act of Nelson occurred while he was cruising between
Puerto Cabello and La Guayra, under French colours, for the purpose of
obtaining information, when a king's launch, belonging to the Spaniards,
passed near, and, being hailed in French, came alongside without
suspicion, and answered all the questions asked concerning the number
and force of the enemy's ships. The crew, however, were not a little
surprised when they were taken on board, and found themselves prisoners.
One of the party went by the name of the Count de Deux Ponts. He was,
however, a prince of the German empire, and brother to the heir of the
Electorate of Bavaria: his companions were French officers of
distinction, and men of science, who had been collecting specimens in
the various branches of natural history. Nelson having entertained them
with the best his table could afford, told them they were at liberty to
depart with their boat and all that it contained; he only required them
to promise that they would consider themselves as prisoners, if the
commander-in-chief should refuse to acquiesce in their being thus
liberated: a circumstance which was not by any means likely to happen.
Tidings soon arrived that the preliminaries of peace had been signed;
and the _Albemarle_ returned to England, and was paid off.
Nelson's next appointment was to the _Boreas_, twenty-eight guns, bound
for the Leeward Islands as a cruiser on the peace establishment. Here
we have a happy picture of his treatment of the midshipmen who came
under his influence.
If he perceived that a boy was afraid at first going aloft, he would say
to him, in a friendly manner: "Well, sir, I am going a race to the
mast-head, and beg that I may meet you there." The poor little fellow
instantly began to climb, and got up how he could--Nelson never noticed
in what manner, but, when they met in the top, spoke cheerfully to him,
and would say how much any person was to be pitied who fancied that
getting up was either dangerous or difficult. Every day he went into the
school-room, to see that they were pursuing their nautical studies, and
at noon he was always the first on deck with his quadrant. Whenever he
paid a visit of ceremony, some of these youths always accompanied him.
The sense of duty, which was so strong an element in Nelson's character,
led him into much trouble at this period of his career. The Navigation
Act as then in existence had been allowed to become a dead letter in as
far as America and Nova Scotia were concerned, and Nelson felt that it
was the duty of the navy to enforce it. This led him into difficulties
with his superiors, who resented his dictation, and with the traders
whose interests he attacked. In the result he had to choose between
disobeying his superiors and disobeying acts of parliament. "I
determined," he says, "upon the former, trusting to the uprightness of
my intentions, and believing that my country would not let me be ruined
for protecting her commerce." For this he would probably have been tried
by court martial had not the spirit of the fleet been with him. As it
was he was subject to civil proceedings, which made it impossible for
him to leave his ship for a long time for fear of arrest and subjected
him to annoyance for years after. The government, however, ultimately
took up his defence and finally thanked the commander-in-chief for the
services rendered by Nelson against his orders.
Nelson's attempts at this time to put down the abuses whereby the
British Government were being defrauded by dishonest traders also made
him many enemies; but in this as in most of his enterprises, he was
ultimately successful; inducing the Government to introduce proper
systems of checking supplies.
About this time he found consolation for public worries in domestic
felicity, betrothing the daughter of Mr. Herbert, the President of
Nevis, then, though only in her eighteenth year, the widow of Dr.
Nisbet, a physician. She had one child, a son, by name Josiah, who
afterwards entered the navy. One day Mr. Herbert, who had hastened,
half-dressed, to receive Nelson, exclaimed, on returning to his
dressing-room, "Good God! if I did not find that great little man, of
whom everybody is so afraid, playing in the next room, under the
dining-table, with Mrs. Nisbet's child!" A few days afterwards Mrs.
Nisbet herself was first introduced to him, and thanked him for the
partiality which he had shown her little boy.
They were married on March 11th, 1787; Prince William Henry, who had
come out to the West Indies the preceding winter, being present, by his
own desire, to give away the bride. Nelson took his wife to his father's
parsonage, meaning only to pay him a visit before they went to France; a
project which he had formed for the sake of acquiring a competent
knowledge of the French language. But his father could not bear to lose
him thus unnecessarily. Mr. Nelson had long been an invalid, suffering
under paralytic and asthmatic affections, which, for several hours after
he rose in the morning, scarcely permitted him to speak. He had been
given over by his physicians for this complaint nearly forty years
before his death, and was, for many of his last years, obliged to spend
all his winters at Bath. The sight of his son, he declared, had given
him new life. "But, Horatio," said he, "it would have been better that I
had not been thus cheered, if I am so soon to be bereaved of you again.
Let me, my good son, see you whilst I can. My age and infirmities
increase, and I shall not last long." To such an appeal there could be
no reply. Nelson took up his abode for a time at the parsonage, and
amused himself with the sports and occupations of the country.
ON BOARD THE _AGAMEMNON_.
THE SIEGE OF BASTIA.--THE SIEGE OF CALVI.--THE ANNEXATION OF
CORSICA.--THE CAPTURE OF THE "ÇA IRA" AND THE "CENSEUR."
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY.
On January 30th, 1793, by the united interest of Prince William, now
Duke of Clarence, and Lord Hood, Nelson was appointed to the _Agamemnon_
of sixty-five guns and was ordered to the Mediterranean to serve under
Lord Hood. While here, he was sent with despatches to Sir William
Hamilton, our envoy at the court of Naples, and thus formed the
acquaintance of Sir William and his wife. When returning from this
mission, he fell in with five sail of the enemy and gave chase. He came
near enough to one frigate to engage her, but after inflicting and
receiving much damage was unable to follow up his advantage. Shortly
after, he was detached with a small squadron to co-operate with General
Paoli and the anti-Galician party in Corsica, an expedition--the
immediate object of which was the conquest of the city of Bastia, then
held by the French--in which Nelson showed what a determined sailor can
do on shore.
Lord Hood submitted to General Dundas, who commanded the land forces, a
plan for the reduction of this place; but the general declined
co-operating, thinking the attempt impracticable without a reinforcement
of two thousand men, which he expected from Gibraltar. Upon this Lord
Hood determined to reduce it with the naval force under his command,
and leaving part of his fleet off Toulon, sailed with the rest to
Bastia. General d'Aubant, who succeeded General Dundas in the command of
the land forces, held the same opinion as his predecessor and refused to
furnish his lordship with a single soldier, cannon, or any stores. Lord
Hood could only obtain a few artillerymen; so ordering on board the
troops who, having been embarked as marines, were borne on the ships'
books as part of their respective complements, he began the siege with
eleven hundred and eighty-three soldiers, artillerymen, and marines, and
two hundred and fifty sailors. "We are but few," said Nelson, "but of
the right sort; our general at St. Fiorenzo not giving us one of the
five regiments he has there lying idle."
These men were landed on April 4th, under Lieutenant-Colonel Villettes
and Nelson, who had now acquired from the army the title of brigadier.
Guns were dragged by the sailors up heights where it appeared almost
impossible to convey them; a work of the greatest difficulty, and one
which Nelson said could never, in his opinion, have been accomplished by
any but British seamen. The soldiers, though less dexterous in such
service, because not accustomed, like sailors, to habitual dexterity,
behaved with equal spirit. "Their zeal," said the brigadier, "is almost
unexampled. There is not a man but considers himself as personally
interested in the event, and as deserted by the general. It has, I am
persuaded, made them equal to double their numbers."
La Combe St. Michel, the commissioner from the national convention, who
was in the city, replied to the summons of the British admiral in these
terms: "I have hot shot for your ships, and bayonets for your troops.
When two-thirds of our men are killed, I will then trust to the
generosity of the English." The siege, however, was not sustained with
the firmness which such a reply seemed to augur. On May 19th a treaty of
capitulation was begun, and that same evening the troops from St.
Fiorenzo made their appearance on the hills; and, on the following
morning, General d'Aubant arrived with the whole army to take possession
of the town.
The events of the siege had justified the confidence of the sailors; but
they themselves excused the opinion of the generals, when they saw what
they had done. "I am all astonishment," said Nelson, "when I reflect
upon what we have achieved: one thousand regulars, fifteen hundred
national guards, and a large party of Corsican troops, four thousand in
all, laying down their arms to twelve hundred soldiers, marines, and
seamen! I always was of opinion, have ever acted up to it and never had
any reason to repent it, that one Englishman was equal to three
Frenchmen. Had this been an English town, I am sure it would not have
been taken by them."
The _Agamemnon_ was now despatched to co-operate at the siege of Calvi
with General Sir Charles Stuart. Nelson had less responsibility here
than at Bastia, and was acting with a man after his own heart, who was
never sparing of himself, and slept every night in the advanced battery.
But the service was not less hard than that of the former siege. "We
will fag ourselves to death," said he to Lord Hood, "before any blame
shall lie at our doors. I trust it will not be forgotten that
twenty-five pieces of heavy ordnance have been dragged to the different
batteries, mounted, and all but three fought by seamen, except one
artilleryman to point the guns." The climate proved more destructive
than the service; for this was during the period of the "lion sun," as
they there call our season of the "dog days." Of two thousand men above
half were sick, and the rest like so many phantoms. Nelson described
himself as the reed among the oaks, bowing before the storm when they
were laid low by it. "All the prevailing disorders have attacked me,"
said he, "but I have not strength enough for them to fasten on." The
loss from the enemy was not great; but Nelson received a serious injury:
a shot struck the ground near him, and drove the sand and small gravel
into one of his eyes. He spoke of it slightly at the time: writing the
same day to Lord Hood, he only said that he got a little hurt that
morning, not much; and the next day, he said, he should be able to
attend his duty in the evening. In fact, he suffered it to confine him
only one day; but the sight was lost.
After the fall of Calvi, his services were, by a strange omission,
altogether overlooked and his name was not even mentioned in the list of
wounded. Nelson felt himself neglected. "One hundred and ten days," said
he, "I have been actually engaged, at sea and on shore, against the
enemy; three actions against ships, two against Bastia in my ship, four
boat actions, and two villages taken, and twelve sail of vessels burnt.
I do not know that any one has done more. I have had the comfort to be
always applauded by my commander-in-chief, but never to be rewarded;
and, what is more mortifying, for services in which I have been wounded
others have been praised, who, at the same time, were actually in bed,
far from the scene of action. They have not done me justice. But, never
mind. I'll have a _Gazette_ of my own." How amply was this prediction
realised!
As the result of this expedition, Corsica was annexed to the British
Crown with the consent of the majority of the people, and received a
constitution as free as our own. Some, however, favoured French
occupation, and soon after France taking advantage of the discontent,
sought the reconquest of the island. Corsica was now loudly threatened.
The French had a superior fleet in the Mediterranean, and they sent it
out with express orders to seek the English and engage them.
Accordingly, the Toulon fleet, consisting of seventeen ships of the
line, and five smaller vessels, put to sea. Admiral Hotham, who had
succeeded Lord Hood, received this information at Leghorn, and sailed
immediately in search of them. He had with him fourteen sail of the line
and one Neapolitan seventy-four; but his ships were only half manned,
containing but seven thousand six hundred and fifty men, whereas the
enemy had sixteen thousand nine hundred. He soon came in sight of them:
a general action was expected; but after manoeuvring for a day in sight
of the English fleet, they allowed themselves to be chased. Nelson
followed the _Ça Ira_ for several hours, inflicting and receiving
considerable damage, the result of which was that seven of the
_Agamemnon_ men were hurt, while the _Ça Ira_ lost one hundred and ten,
and was so cut up that she could not get a top mast aloft during the
following night.
The next morning the French fleet was observed about five miles off the
_Ça Ira_, and the _Censeur_ which had her in tow being about three and a
half miles distant. All sail was made to cut these ships off, and a
partial engagement of the two fleets ensued. The _Agamemnon_ was again
engaged with her yesterday's antagonist; but she had to fight on both
sides the ship at the same time. The _Ça Ira_ and the _Censeur_ fought
most gallantly: the first lost nearly three hundred men, in addition to
her former loss; the last, three hundred and fifty. Both at last struck,
and Lieutenant Andrews, of the _Agamemnon_, hoisted English colours on
board them both. As soon as these vessels had struck, Nelson went to
Admiral Hotham, and proposed that the two prizes should be left with the
_Illustrious_ and _Courageux_, which had been crippled in the action,
and with four frigates, and that the rest of the fleet should pursue the
enemy and follow up the advantage to the utmost. But his reply was--"We
must be contented: we have done very well." "Now," said Nelson, "had we
taken ten sail, and allowed the eleventh to escape, when it had been
possible to have got at her, I could never have called it well done.
Goodall backed me: I got him to write to the admiral; but it would not
do. We should have had such a day as, I believe, the annals of England
never produced."
Nelson's next expedition was to Genoa to co-operate with the Austrian
and Sardinian forces; but his allies were unworthy of him and by their
irresolution and delay continued to frustrate his best laid schemes. In
an engagement between the Austrians and the French, General de Vins, the
Austrian general, gave up the command in the middle of the battle,
pleading ill-health. "From that moment," says Nelson, "not a soldier
stayed at his post: it was the devil take the hindmost. Many thousands
ran away who had never seen the enemy; some of them thirty miles from
the advanced posts. Had I not--though, I own, against my
inclination--been kept at Genoa, from eight to ten thousand men would
have been taken prisoners, and, amongst the number, General de Vins
himself; but, by this means, the pass of the Bocchetta was kept open.
The purser of the ship, who was at Vado, ran with the Austrians eighteen
miles without stopping: the men without arms, officers without soldiers,
women without assistance. The oldest officer, say they, never heard of
so complete a defeat, and certainly without any reason. Thus has ended
my campaign."
The defeat of General de Vins gave the enemy possession of the Genoese
coast from Savona to Voltri; and it deprived the Austrians of their
direct communication with the English fleet. The _Agamemnon_, therefore,
could no longer be useful on this station, and so Nelson sailed for
Leghorn to refit. When his ship went into dock, there was not a mast,
yard, sail, or any part of the rigging but what stood in need of repair,
having been cut to pieces with shot. The hull was so damaged that it had
for some time been secured by cables, which were served or thrapped
round it.
THE EVACUATION OF CORSICA AND THE BATTLE OF CAPE ST. VINCENT.
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY.
Sir John Jervis now became commander of the Mediterranean fleet, and
Nelson joined him in Fiorenzo Bay. The manner in which Nelson was
received is said to have excited some envy. One captain observed to him:
"You did just as you pleased in Lord Hood's time, the same in Admiral
Hotham's, and now again with Sir John Jervis; it makes no difference to
you who is commander-in-chief."
Had Nelson consulted his own inclinations at this time, he would have
returned for a short period of rest, but as Sir John Jervis put it, "We
cannot spare you, either as captain or admiral," and so he resumed his
station in the Gulf of Genoa.
The French had not followed up their successes in that quarter with
their usual celerity. Scherer, who commanded there, owed his advancement
to any other cause than his merit, was removed from a command for which
his incapacity was afterwards clearly proved, and Bonaparte was
appointed to succeed him. Bonaparte, with a celerity which had never
before been witnessed in modern war, pursued his advantages to the
uttermost; and, in a very short time, dictated to the court of Turin
terms of peace, or rather of submission, by which all the strongest
places of Piedmont were put into his hands.
On one occasion, and only on one, Nelson was able to impede the progress
of this new conqueror. Six vessels, laden with cannon and
ordnance-stores for the siege of Mantua, sailed from Toulon for St. Pier
d'Arena. Assisted by Captain Cockburn, in the _Meleager_, he drove them
under a battery, pursued them, silenced the batteries, and captured the
whole. Military books, plans, and maps of Italy, with the different
points marked upon them where former battles had been fought, sent by
the Directory for Bonaparte's use, were found in the convoy. The loss of
this artillery was one of the chief causes which compelled the French to
raise the siege of Mantua.
The successes of Bonaparte on land led the British government to order
the evacuation of Corsica, and Nelson undertook to protect the
embarkation of British property. The viceroy, Sir Gilbert Elliott,
deeply felt the impolicy and ignominy of this evacuation, and Nelson
exclaimed, when he heard that the fleet was to leave the Mediterranean,
"Do His Majesty's ministers know their own minds? They do not know what
this fleet is capable of performing--anything and everything. Much as I
shall rejoice to see England, I lament our present orders in sackcloth
and ashes, so dishonourable to the dignity of England, whose fleets are
equal to meet the world in arms." Sir Gilbert Elliott believed that the
great body of the Corsicans were perfectly satisfied with the British
government, but when they found that the English intended to evacuate
the island, they naturally and necessarily sent to make their peace with
the French. The partisans of France found none to oppose them. A
committee of thirty took upon them the government of Bastia, and
sequestrated all the British property; armed Corsicans mounted guard at
every place, and a plan was laid for seizing the viceroy. Nelson, who
was appointed to superintend the evacuation, frustrated these projects.
At a time when every one else despaired of saving stores, cannon,
provisions, or property of any kind, and a privateer was moored across
the mole-head to prevent all boats from passing, he sent word to the
committee that if the slightest opposition were made to the embarkment
and removal of British property, he would batter the town down. The
privateer pointed her guns at the officer who carried this message, and
muskets were levelled against his boats from the mole-head. Upon this
Captain Sutton, of the _Egmont_, pulling out his watch, gave them a
quarter of an hour to deliberate upon their answer. In five minutes
after the expiration of that time, the ships, he said, would open their
fire. Upon this the very sentinels scampered off, and every vessel came
out of the mole. A ship-owner complained to the commodore that the
municipality refused to let him take his goods out of the custom-house.
Nelson directed him to say that unless they were instantly delivered he
would open his fire. The committee turned pale; and without answering a
word gave him the keys. Their last attempt was to levy a duty upon the
things that were re-embarked. He sent them word that he would pay them a
disagreeable visit if there were any more complaints. The committee then
finding that they had to deal with a man who knew his own power and was
determined to make the British name respected, desisted from the
insolent conduct which they had assumed, and it was acknowledged that
Bastia never had been so quiet and orderly since the English were in
possession of it. In less than a week private property and public stores
to the value of £200,000 had been safely removed.
The French, favoured by the Spanish fleet, which was at that time within
twelve leagues of Bastia, pushed over troops from Leghorn, who landed
near Cape Corse on the 18th, and, on the 20th, at one in the morning
entered the citadel, an hour only after the British had spiked the guns
and evacuated it. Nelson embarked at daybreak, being the last person who
left the shore; having thus, as he said, seen the first and the last of
Corsica.
Having thus ably effected this humiliating service, Nelson was ordered
to hoist his broad pennant on board the _Minerve_ frigate, Captain
George Cockburn, and, with the _Blanche_ under his command, proceed to
Porto Ferrajo, and superintend the evacuation of that place also. On his
way he fell in with two Spanish frigates, the _Sabina_ and the _Ceres_.
The _Minerve_ engaged the former, which was commanded by Don Jacobo
Stuart, a descendant of the Duke of Berwick. After an action of three
hours, during which the Spaniards lost a hundred and sixty-four men, the
_Sabina_ struck. The Spanish captain, who was the only surviving
officer, had hardly been conveyed on board the _Minerve_, when another
enemy's frigate came up, compelled her to cast off the prize, and
brought her a second time to action. After half an hour's trial of
strength, this new antagonist wore and hauled off; but a Spanish
squadron of two ships of the line and two frigates came in sight. The
_Blanche_, from which the _Ceres_ had got off, was far to windward, and
the _Minerve_ escaped only by the anxiety of the enemy to recover their
own ship. As soon as Nelson reached Porto Ferrajo, he sent his prisoner
in a flag of truce to Carthagena, having returned him his sword; this he
did in honour of the gallantry which Don Jacobo had displayed, and not
without some feeling of respect for his ancestry. By the same flag of
truce he sent back all the Spanish prisoners at Porto Ferrajo, in
exchange for whom he received his own men who had been taken in the
prize.
Nelson now sailed from Porto Ferrajo with a convoy for Gibraltar, and
thence proceeded westward in search of the admiral. Off the mouth of the
Straits he fell in with the Spanish fleet, and on February 13th, 1797,
reaching the station off Cape St. Vincent, informed Sir John Jervis of
its proximity.