THE

DISPATCHES AND LETTERS

OF

VICE ADMIRAL

LORD VISCOUNT NELSON

WITH NOTES BY

SIR NICHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS, G.C.M.G.

"The Nation expected, and was entitled to expect, that while Cities vied with each other in consecrating Statues in marble and brass to the memory of our NELSON, a Literary Monument would be erected, which should record his deeds for the immortal honour of his own Country, and the admiration of the rest of the World." — QUARTerly Review.

THE FOURTH VOLUME.

SEPTEMBER 1799 TO DECEMBER 1801.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,

GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET

MDCCCXLV.

226.0.191.

PREFACE.

THE Letters of LORD NELSON in this Volume commence while he was still acting as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, and extend from September 1799, to December 1801, a period of two years and four months. His Correspondence, until the arrival of Lord Keith in that command, related principally to the blockade of La Valetta in Malta; to the business of his Squadron ; and to the affairs of Sicily, Turkey, Egypt, and the Roman States.

The appointment of Lord Keith so deeply mortified his feelings, (for he did not expect that any Officer would be placed over him in the Mediterranean, after the retirement of Earl St. Vincent,) that he determined to return to England, as soon as he had obtained the permission of the Admiralty. In the meantime, he joined Lord Keith at Leghorn, accompanied him to Palermo, and thence to Malta. On the 18th of February 1800, LORD NELSON, in the Foudroyant, with other Ships, captured "Le Généreux," of seventy-four