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and his brother William's honour to decide whether the snow was too heavy to enable them to struggle through to school, deep as it was and dangerous, Horatio urged on his brother-"We must go on, brother-we must--it was left to our honour."

Such was the child who, at the age of twelve years, though naturally weakly, and reduced from ague, petitioned his father to send him to sea with his uncle. A conflict with Spain seemed imminent in the year 1770, on account of the Falkland Isles; and, among other preparations, Captain Suckling commissioned the Raisonnable of sixty-four guns at Chatham. To him Horatio sought to go, and his father, appreciating his motive and his character, wrote to his brother-in-law for permission to send him to his ship. "What has poor Horatio done," wrote back Captain Suckling, "who is so weak, that he, above all the rest, should be sent to rough it at sea? But let him come, and the first time that we go into action a cannon ball may knock off his head, and provide for him at once." Unattended and alone the boy left his school at North Walsham on a cold spring morning, and found his way to London, and thence to Chatham by the stage, where he was left to discover his uncle's ship as best he might. Chance threw a friend in the boy's way, the ship was reached, but his uncle was not on board, no one seemed apprized of his coming, and for a whole day he paced the deck utterly uncared for. With the next day came a little more attention, and at length Horatio was borne on the books as a midshipman of his uncle's ship.

The rapid accommodation of our difference with Spain threw the Raisonnable out of commission, and removed Captain Suckling into the Triumph, then stationed as guardship at the mouth of the Thames. In this inactivity young Nelson was not permitted to remain, but early in June 1771 was sent out to the West Indies on board a merchant ship, commanded by one of his uncle's master's mates. Practical seamanship he learnt on this voyage; but at the same time imbibed a strong feeling of disgust at the king's service, and returned firmly impressed with the truth of the merchant seaman's proverb, " Aft the most honour, forward the better man." Many weeks passed before he could reconcile himself to his new position on board the Triumph,

to which he now returned, so strong was his prejudice, and so great the pains that had been taken to instil an erroneous impression in his mind. Fortunately his uncle knew well how to deal with him. As his ambition was to be a good seaman, it was always held out to him that he should go in the ship's cutter, and decked long-boat, and thus by degrees he became a good pilot for small vessels up and down the intricate navigation of the Thames, and acquired that self-confidence amongst rocks and sands that in after years contributed to the efficiency of his blockades, and to his successes at the Nile and Copenhagen.

In August 1773 the fitting out of the expedition to the North Pole under Captain Phipps, enticed Nelson from his quiet life on board the Triumph, and with his usual eagerness he obtained a place in the Carcass, under Captain Lutwidge, the second in command. The voyage was short, but dangerous, for the ice soon hemmed in the two ships,

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and reduced the crews to the hard labour of widening by manual labour the only passage left for their In exploring and widening, young Nelson was among the most active; and young as he was he commanded one of the ship's boats, and contributed greatly to their eventual

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success.

Surrounded as he was with perils, Nelson courted unnecessary danger. One night during the mid watch, he stole from the Carcass and set out over the ice with a young companion in pursuit of a bear. Rapidly a sea fog arose, and for several hours hid the adventurers from their anxious companions on ship-board. With the early-dawn, however, they were espied eagerly attacking a huge bear, depending on the butt ends of their muskets, as their ammunition had failed them. The signal to return was made and disregarded, and it was not until Captain Lutwidge fired a gun that the bear fled in fear, and the boys hastened back, not a little alarmed for the probable consequences of their trespass. To his captain's stern reprimand Nelson had but one reply, "I wished, sir, to kill the bear, in order to carry the skin to my father." At length the ice began to open, the wind sprang up, and at the very time when every preparation was made for taking to the boats, the ships gradually forced their way through the floe, and eventually returned to England without having accomplished any part of the object of their voyage.

Active service had changed the weakly child into the robust young man; but his next voyage brought back the original weakness, and fixed it for ever in his frame. From the Carcass he was removed to the Sea Horse, and for eighteen months experienced all the trials and hardships of the East India station. Disease rapidly preyed upon him, and at last his limbs began to lose their powers, and permanent lameness appeared his fate. At this juncture he was changed over to the Dolphin, and sent home in her; the change saved his life, and restored him to active exertions, but the disease was too surely seated to be eradicated. It was an important crisis in his career. In the East he had left his comrades pursuing their careers in the full enjoyment of health and hope, whilst his body and his hopes were broken down by sickness. The feeling of his difficulties weighed heavily on his mind, and he began to despair of ultimate success. "After a gloomy reverie, a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within him, and presented his king and his country as his patron. Well then, he exclaimed, I will be a hero, and confiding in Providence, will

brave every danger." In this enthusiasm he went on and prospered.

During his absence in the East, Capt. Suckling had been promoted to the comptrollership of the navy, and no sooner was Nelson paid off from the Dolphin, than he was raised to an acting lieutenancy on board the Worcester of sixty-four guns. In this capacity he went out to Gibraltar with convoy, and his captain assured him "that he felt as easy when he was on deck, as when any officer of the ship." Early in April 1777, Nelson returned to England, and hastened to undergo his examination for lieutenant. On the 8th of April he passed "his degree of M. A.," as he called it, to the satisfaction of his uncle who sat at the board, but who concealed his relationship until his nephew had satisfied his brother examiners. He well knew how good an examination his young protégé would pass, and to use his own words, "he did not wish the younker to be favoured." On the day of his examination Nelson's commission was made out for the Lowestoffe, a frigate of twenty-two guns, commanded by Captain Locker.

The West Indies was Nelson's destination in his new ship, the most active and dangerous station of our navy, so numerous were the French and American privateers in that quarter of the globe. Numerous small captures rewarded the exertions of Captain Locker, and perfected the skill and daring of all his crew; but in one instance the determination of Nelson to dare everything, shone forth conspicuously. During a heavy gale an American privateer had been captured, but relying on the tremendous sea that was running, had hoisted every inch of canvas she could carry, and was rapidly drawing away from her captor. The boat lay at the Lowestoffe's side, dashing perilously against her quarter, waiting for the first lieutenant, when Captain Locker came on deck. The dangerous situation of his boat, and the probable escape of the American, called for immediate action. Have I no officer who can board the prize?" exclaimed Locker indignantly. Unwilling to anticipate the first lieutenant, Nelson held back until the master volunteered, when he sprang into the boat. "It my turn now," he said, "and if I come back, then it is yours." Back, however, he did not come until he had

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boarded the American, so water-logged with the press of sail she had carried, that his boat rowed over her deck.

The death of his uncle, the comptroller, left Nelson apparently friendless at this juncture. But Captain Locker too well appreciated his worth to neglect his interests, and his earnest recommendations of the youth to Sir Peter Parker obtained for him promotion into the flag ship at Jamaica, and afterwards to the command of a small brig on the station. It was during this time that Nelson volunteered his services on shore, and took the command of the batteries of Port Royal, at the time when the huge fleet of D'Estaing, with its 25,000 troops, threatened a descent on the island of Jamaica. Happily it was but a threat, and the seven thousand defenders had the satisfaction of believing that their bold front had saved England one of her most choice possessions.

Freed from any fear of D'Estaing, the governor of Jamaica determined to turn the tide of war against the enemy, and to endeavour to seize the Spanish fort of San Juan on the lake of Nicaragua. The convoying of this expedition from Port Royal to the mouth of the San Juan river fell to Nelson, who was now posted as captain of the Hinchinbrook, an enemy's merchant ship converted into a vessel of war of twenty-eight guns. On the 24th the river's mouth was reached, and of right Nelson's duty ceased. No one, however, knew the river, and Nelson therefore went on with the soldiers in the ship's boats. It was the dry season, the river was low, and impeded with banks and shallows, the Indian allies were all but useless, the soldiers could hardly contend with the heat, and on Nelson and his sailors fell the labour and danger of the toilsome passage. At length a small fortified out-fort was reached, where on an island a semicircular battery of ten small swivels commanded the approaches. At the head of a few seamen Nelson leapt on shore, left his shoes in the tenacious mud, and bare-footed boarded the battery. San Juan was still sixteen miles further up the river, and two days more hard labour elapsed before its fortifications were reached. An immediate attack was Nelson's advice, but it was not followed, and the slow formalities of a siege commenced in a low, heated place, where the sun shone with intense brilliancy, the woods pre

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