TO VICE-ADMIRAL BLIGH. [From Marshall's "Naval Biography," Supplement, part i. p. 431.] Victory, October 12th, 1804. Your kind present of Newspapers of August 13th and 21st arrived safe, for all which, accept my sincere thanks. Your son has never done wrong—that I can answer for, since he sailed in the Victory, and I wish I could promote him, but I see no prospect: the Admiralty fill all vacancies except death, and nobody will die; therefore, I recommend you to ask Lord Melville to let him be put upon the Admiralty list, and then I may be able to give him the step, which will afford great satisfaction to, my dear Admiral, yours, &c., NELSON AND BRONTE. TO LIEUTENANT CUTHBERT ADAMSON, R.N., NEWCASTLE UPON-TYNE. [Autograph, in the possession of his son, Lieutenant John Adamson, R.N.] Dear Sir, Victory, October 12th, 1804. I have only just received your letter of June 26th, respecting your nephew Mr. Hathwaite, on board the Canopus. Without a Battle and Victory complete, it may not be in my power, from the very few vacancies which occur in this healthy climate, and from the Admiralty List being so long, independent of those naturally looking up to me from serving in the same Ship; but I will place him upon my list, and in the event of such a Victory, as I may expect from the services of the Fleet under my command, I will not forget your relation. I remember you most perfectly well in the Racehorse, and my wonder has often been excited at your remaining a Lieutenant, and when all your living shipmates have rose to high rank in the Service. I am, dear Sir, your most obedient servant, NELSON AND Bronte. 8 Lieutenant Cuthbert Adamson was Second Lieutenant of the Racehorse in the Expedition to the North Pole, in 1773, when Lord Nelson was a Midshipman of the Carcass, Captain Lutwidge, (vide vol. i. p. 2.) Failing to obtain promotion, Mr. Adamson retired on half-pay, and died in November 1804, a few days before this letter reached Newcastle. A Mr. William Haithwaite was made a Lieutenant in September 1806, and died in that rank, in 1814. TO VISCOUNT MELVILLE, FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY. My Lord, [Original, in the Admiralty.] Victory, at Sea, 12th October, 1804. I have the honour to transmit your Lordship a Memorial from several of the Surgeons belonging to his Majesty's Ships under my command; and as the particular case of so valuable and so respectable a body of men is no doubt well known to your Lordship, it is not necessary for me to make any comments on the justness of their request as mentioned in the said Memorial. I am, &c., NELSON AND BRONTE. TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL, BARCELONA. [Autograph draught, in the possession of Miss Bolton, of Burnham.] Sir, Victory, October 12th, 1804. Gibert, the English Vicewhich he states to me that I have just received from Mr. Consul at Barcelona, a letter, in your Excellency has received an account of a bad fever having broke out at Gibraltar since the 15th of September. I have this day, viâ Barcelona and Madrid, received letters from Gibraltar, in which no mention whatever is made of such a dreadful circumstance, nor will your Excellency give the smallest credit to the report. As far as we know yet, from what I am going to relate, his Majesty's Ships Conqueror and Tigre sailed from England September 2nd, arrived at Gibraltar September 21st, sailed from thence the 22nd, and joined the Fleet a few days ago. The Captains, before I allowed them to communicate, declared that Gibraltar was in perfect health; and I had letters from Sir Thomas Trigge, the Governor and Sir Robert Barlow, the Commanding Sea-Officer, not mentioning a word of any fever. Since the Termagant joined this day, the Childers Brig, who I had sent with dispatches to Sir Robert Barlow, of His Majesty's Ship, Triumph, on the 22nd of September, arrived, with dispatches from Sir Robert Barlow, cruizing off Europa Point, dated October 1st, ten o'clock at night —that since the 26th, all his Majesty's Ships had left Gibraltar, and only communicated through the Lazarettothat a fever similar to that at Malaga had broke out and carried off a number of the lower class of people, but that the Troops were very healthy; that they were all encamped, and that a Lazaretto camp was formed upon the Neutral Ground, and that from the precautions taken it was hoped that the disease would not spread. From the care which your Excellency takes of the health of the Province of Catalonia, and from your Excellency's liberal conduct towards his Britannic Majesty's Ships, I think it is right to inform you of every circumstance; and I therefore beg leave this day to inform your Excellency upon my sacred word of honour that not one man is confined in the whole Fleet, by either sickness or accident. And at the same time, I assure your Excellency, on the word of an Officer, that when the Fleet is sickly that I will inform you, for this sickness is in its nature the curse of Europe. I have the honour to be, with high respect, your Excellency's most obedient servant, NELSON AND Bronte. TO CAPTAIN JOHN GORE, H. M. SHIP MEDUSA. [Autograph, in the possession of the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker.] Victory, October 13th, 1804. Sir, I am most exceedingly sorry for the bad account you give of the Medusa, and as Gibraltar is entirely out of the question, I have no alternative than, if it is necessary, that you must take the Medusa to England; and until I can get the Anson to relieve you, you must direct Captain Graham Moore to take your station; for our Runners from Newfound land, and Convoys from England, &c., must not be left at the mercy of the French Ships in Cadiz. This is the only order I can give you, for I can say nothing about either Gibraltar or Cadiz. I am, &c. NELSON AND Bronte. TO WILLIAM MARSDEN, ESQ., ADMIRALTY. [Autograph, in the possession of the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker.] Sir, Victory, October 13th, 1804. Last night I received from Captain Gore of his Majesty's Ship Medusa, the inclosed letter and order from Admiral Cornwallis to Captain Graham Moore. I own myself filled with astonishment; for if the orders for Admiral Cornwallis's proceedings came from England, similar orders, it is natural to suppose, would have been sent to me ;' and if the proceeding of Admiral Cornwallis emanated from himself thinking it was a Spanish War, I should, with all deference for his better judgment, have expected that he would have rather thought of giving the information to the Commander-in-Chief of this Station, than to have sent a Frigate to cruize off Cadiz, for the purpose of intercepting money. I must leave the whole of the order and transaction for their Lordships' judgment. I am most exceedingly puzzled how to act; for if Admiral Cornwallis acted by the orders of the Admiralty, I am confident that similar orders would have been sent to me; for it was much more necessary for me to know that the War was to commence upon the Station entrusted to my direction, than to send orders for an Admiral upon another Station, to send a Frigate to commence the War upon the Station under my direction, and no orders even to acquaint me with it. I am this day sending to Captain Gore, the letter of which I inclose a copy, by which their Lordships will see that I could form no idea of a War being likely to break out with Spain. I have the honour to be, Sir, &c. NELSON AND Bronte. A copy of the Admiralty's Instructions to Admiral Cornwallis, with similar Orders for his own guidance, were sent to Lord hours after this and the next letter were written. Nelson, and reached him a few (Vide p. 241, post.) The above letters to Mr. Marsden and Captain Gore, were consequently not forwarded, and on the cover which enclosed it, Lord Nelson wrote, "N.B. John Bull Cutter arrived the same day, with orders similar to Admiral Cornwallis's." TO CAPTAIN JOHN GORE, H. M. SHIP MEDUSA. [From a Copy in the possession of the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker.] Victory, October 13th, 1804 Sir, Last night I received your letter of October 1st, with a copy of Captain Graham Moore's orders from Admiral Cornwallis, which has filled me with astonishment; but without presuming to set myself in opposition to the Honourable Admiral's orders, there is a duty which I owe my Country that, although I risk the most precious thing to me in the world— my Commission,-I feel it my duty to give you my full opinion of the line of conduct you ought to pursue on this most extraordinary occasion; and to enable you to form a complete judgment of the conclusion I shall draw for your guidance, I shall detail to you what I think may have led Admiral Cornwallis to have given this most extraordinary order of sending a Frigate to cruize upon this Station. , It is reported to me by Mr. Hunter, Consul-General at Madrid, that September the Spanish Squadron at Ferrol, dropped down the Harbour, having on board a number of Spanish Troops, intending to carry them to the Province of Biscay, then in insurrection. (N.B. The passes by land into Biscay are very difficult, and probably in the hands of the insurgents.) On the 14th September, Admiral Cochrane wrote the Spanish Admiral, that as the French openly declared that they should sail with the Spanish Squadron, that he should attack [them], and that he hoped nothing would happen to interrupt the Neutrality, &c. Admiral Cochrane, in his letter to Mr. Hunter, of the 15th [said], 'the pretext to carry Troops to Biscay, is too flimsy to go down,' (I use Mr. Hunter's own words.) Mr. Hunter goes on to say, in consequence of what he has written by the Naiad, and what, of course, Mr. Frere will represent personally, the Admiral expects instructions and a reinforcement. This letter is dated Madrid, September 22nd. On the 26th, Mr. H. writes Admiral Cochrane's letter seems to have had an almost instantaneous effect.' It was dated the 14th, and on the 17th the Ships returned to the Arsenal, or Inner Harbour, and the Troops were landed, and ordered to go by land. Now, supposing the Naiad left Ferrol |