After the Battle I shifted my flag to the Euryalus frigate, that I might the better distribute my orders; and when the Ships were destroyed, and the Squadron in safety, I came here, my own Ship being totally disabled. She lost her last mast in the gale. All the northern boys, and Graydon, are alive; Kennicott has a dangerous wound in his shoulder; Thompson wounded in the arm, and just at the conclusion of the action, his leg was broke by a splinter; little Charles is unhurt, but we have lost a good many youngsters. For myself, I am in a forlorn state: my servants are killed; my luggage, what is left, is on board the Sovereign; and Clavell is wounded. I have appointed Sir Peter Parker's grandson and Captain Thomas, my old Lieutenant, Post-Captains; Clavell and the First Lieutenant of the Victory are made Commanders; but I hope the Admiralty will do more for them, for in the history of our Navy there is no instance of a Victory so complete and so great. The Ships that escaped into Cadiz are wrecks, and they have neither stores nor inclination to refit them. I shall now go as soon as I can get a sufficient Squadron equipped, and see what I can do with the Carthagenians; if I can get at them, the Naval war will be finished in this Country. Prize-money I shall get little or none for this business', for though the loss of the Enemy may be estimated at near four millions, it is most of it gone to the bottom. Don Argemoso, who was formerly Captain of the Isidro, commanded the Monarca, one of our captures; he sent to inform me he was in the Leviathan, and I immediately ordered, for our old acquaintance' sake, his liberty on parole. All the Spaniards speak of us in terms of adoration; and Villeneuve, whom I had in the Frigate with me, acknowledges that they cannot contend with us at sea. I do not know what will be thought of it in England, but the effect here is highly advantageous to the British name. Kind remembrances to all my friends. I dare say your neighbour, Mr. will be delighted with the history of the Battle. If he had been in it, it would have animated him more than all his daughter's chemistry; it would have new-strung his nerves, and made him young again. God bless you, my dear Sir, may you ever be happy! It is very long since I heard from home.

I have ordered all the boys to be discharged into this Ship: another such fight will season them pretty well. We had fortyseven killed, ninety-four wounded.

In a Letter to Mr. Blackett, dated on the 1st of January 1806, Lord Collingwood said, "I have had a great destruction of my furniture and stock; I have hardly a chair that has not a shot in it, and many have lost both legs and arms, without hope of pension. My wine broke in moving, and my pigs were slain in battle; and these are heavy losses where they cannot be replaced."Correspondence of Lord Collingwood, vol. i. p. 244.

TO ADMIRAL LORD BARHAM, FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY. [From the "Correspondence of Lord Collingwood," vol. i. p. 215.]

Queen, Gibraltar Bay, November 15th, 1805.

I beg to express my earnest hope that your Lordship will take into consideration the peculiar circumstances of the late Action, in which as much gallantry was displayed by the Fleet, and a powerful armament of the Enemy ruined in as short a time, as in any Action; but what distinguished it from all others is, that the usual reward to the Captains, arising from the sale of prizes, is almost all lost by the wreck and destruction of the Ships. What Government may please to do in this respect for the Fleet, I cannot say, but none was ever more worthy of its regard.

To the Officers, among whom are many young men who are qualified for Lieutenants, the most grateful reward would be promotion; and if your Lordship would enable me to dispense it to them, by commissioning the four Ships, and appointing the Officers serving in this Fleet, I should feel exceedingly gratified in having it in my power to reward so much merit as is now before me.

I have mentioned this subject in the full confidence that your Lordship feels the same disposition towards them with myself; and in doing it, I have only performed a duty which I owe to them.

I enclose to your Lordship a letter which was sent to me from the Victory. Captain Adair, I understand, was an Officer of highly estimable character; and in submitting the case of his family to the consideration and protection of your Lordship, I feel assured that I place it where due regard will be paid to their misfortunes." I am, &c., C. COLLINGWOOD.

To this letter Vice-Admiral Collingwood received the following chilling reply, and it may be hoped that it was not the only letter which he received from the First Lord of the Admiralty, after such a Victory:

"Admiralty, November 8, 1805.

"I have been so much engaged for some days past, that I have not had it in my power to turn my attention to the state of the Fleet under your command. We have this day sent you a commission of the same extent as Lord Nelson's; and I shall be glad to be informed fully, and as soon as you are acquainted with the situation of the Enemy at Cadiz, and of the number of line-of-battle Ships which you think is necessary for blockading the Ports, and covering the Convoys to, from, and in the Mediterranean. To this arrangement I shall readily conform, because I am sure you will ask no more than is sufficient for the services of your command, and that you will consider the very extensive demands that are made upon us from every quarter of the globe. On the subject of promotion, I will endeavour to comply with your request, though in one instance not strictly regular; and in order to prevent disappointment to individuals, I must beg that you will strictly conform to the rules laid down by the Admiralty, by which they leave deaths and court-martial vacancies to the Commanding Officer, and reserve all others to themselves. I am the more particular on these subjects, because the neglect of them has created much disappointment to individuals, as well as to their friends here. I shall trouble you, through my Secretary, with a list of such persons as I wish to fill the Admiralty vacancies."-Correspondence of Lord Collingwood, vol. i. p. 221.

Lord Collingwood's answer ought not to be omitted." I assure your Lordship, that in all the appointments I have made I intended to be as regular as circumstances would permit. After the Action, several of the Ships were

TO MRS. MOUTRAY.

[From the "Correspondence of Lord Collingwood," vol. i. p. 224.]

Queen, off Carthagena, December 9th, 1805.

One of the sweetest fruits of my good fortune is the kind and sincere congratulation of those I love and esteem. I know the delight that my success would give you and dear Kate, and I thank you both in my heart. I have had a most fatiguing and anxious time of it. That unfortunate gale of wind distressed me exceedingly, and has worn me almost to a shadow. After such a Battle, such a glorious fight, having nineteen of their Ships in our possession, to be so completely dispersed by that unhappy gale, that for three days I had every reason to fear that not one of them would have remained to us, but many be driven into their own Port! The condition of some of our own Ships, too, was such, that it was very doubtful what would be their fate. Many a time would I have given the whole group of our captures, to have ensured our own. But affairs were managed better for us. We saved four from the general wreck, and the loss of the Enemy is greater than it would have been without the gale; for of the Ships which came out to try their fortune a second time, two were wrecked, which made us amends for the Santa Anna and Algeziras, which were driven into Cadiz. Such a triumph as the whole would have been coming into Port in England, might have made us proud and presumptuous; and we ought to be content with that good fortune which Providence has thought sufficient. I was afraid the people of England might have attributed our misfortunes to a want of skilful management. I can only say that in my life I never saw such exertions as were made to save those Ships; and would rather fight another Battle, than pass such a week as followed it. It more astonished the Spaniards than the beating they got; and one of them said, when I assured him that none of our Ships were lost, How can we contend with such a people, on whom the utmost violence of the elements has no effect?' It would have been great indeed, had it pleased God that our dear friend had survived it. It was about the middle of the Action when an Officer came from the Victory, to tell me he was wounded. He sent his love to me, and desired me to conduct the Fleet. I asked the Officer if the wound was dangerous, and he by his look told what he could not speak, nor I reflect upon now, without suffering again the anguish of that short of Lieutenants, when the duty was hard upon them. The Sovereign had only six besides my Flag-Lieutenant, the First Lieutenant being dangerously wounded; and the Ship needed all the assistance that could be given her. To supply those vacancies I gave acting orders to young men who were recommended for their activity, and among them to a Mr. Dickenson, whom I found in the Dreadnought, and removed with me into the Sovereign, because he had more knowledge of his profession than is usual, and seemed to be the spirit of the Ship when any thing was to be done. The Victory's Midshipmen are most of them on board the Queen, and they are persons for whom I feel peculiar interest, because they were the Victory's."-Ibid. p. 122.

Mrs. Moutray was one of the oldest friends both of Lord Nelson and Lord Collingwood.-Vide vol. i. p. 110, et seq.

moment. You, my dear Madam, who know what our friendship was, can judge what I have felt. All the praise and acclamations of joy for our Victory only bring to my mind what it has cost.

I am to be created a Peer, they tell me; and in making my title I hear considerable difficulty arose in finding where my estate lay, and what it was called. I thought that all the world knew that I was no Land-Lord.

God bless you, my dear friend; and give my kindest love to kind Kate. May all that is good, and to be wished for in this world, be hers, and yours. I am, &c.,

C. COLLINGWOOD.

me.

TO ADMIRAL LORD RADSTOCK.

[From the "Correspondence of Lord Collingwood," vol. i. p. 236.]

Queen, off Carthagena, December 12th, 1805.

Most sincerely do I thank you for all your kindness to me, and particularly for your congratulations on our Victory, in which we gained and lost so much. His Majesty has, indeed, been very gracious to me, and I feel a gratitude to him which I cannot well express; but you, my Lord, can conceive the sort of delight that a man feels in arriving at the summit of his ambition; and mine has ever been the approbation of my Sovereign and my Country. A letter which His Majesty ordered to be written by Colonel Taylor is so highly honourable to me, and so expressive of His Majesty's approbation of my service, that nothing can be more gratifying to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence has not been less gracious to me; and, indeed, all persons, known or unknown to me, are doing me honour. I confess I feel a considerable degree of pride in having deserved their praise; and I hope it is the only kind of pride that will ever trouble me. I am here with six Ships watching the Spanish Squadron, eight beauties. The Real Carlos and Raynà Louisa are Spanish perfections, like the Santa Anna; and she towered over the Royal Sovereign like a castle. No Ship fired a shot at her but ourselves, and you have no conception how completely she was ruined. Oh! had Nelson lived! how complete had been my happiness-how perfect my joy! Now, whatever I have felt like pleasure, has been so mixed with the bitterness of woe, that I cannot exult in our success as it would be pardonable to do.

Admiral Villeneuve is a well-bred man, and, I believe, a very good Officer: he has nothing in his manners of the offensive vapouring and boasting which we, perhaps too often, attribute to Frenchmen. I am, &c., C. COLLINGWOOD.

7 This Letter will be found in a subsequent page.

TO H.R.H. THE DUKE OF CLARENCE.

[From the "Correspondence of Lord Collingwood," vol. i. p. 234.]

Queen, off Carthagena, December 12th, 1805.

I cannot express how great my gratitude is to your Royal Highness", for the high honour which you have done me by your letter, congratulating me on the success of His Majesty's Fleet against his Enemies.

This instance of condescension, and mark of your Royal Highness's kindness to one of the most humble, but one of the most faithful of His Majesty's servants, is deeply engraven in my heart. I shall ever consider it as a great happiness to have merited your Royal Highness's approbation, of which the Sword which you have presented to me is a testimony so highly honourable. I beg your Royal Highness will accept my best thanks for it, and the assurance that, whenever His Majesty's service demands it, I will endeavour to use it in support of our Country's honour, and to the advancement of His Majesty's glory.

The loss which your Royal Highness and myself have sustained in the death of Lord Nelson, can only be estimated by those who had the happiness of sharing his friendship. He had all the qualities that adorn the human heart, and a head which, by its quickness of perception and depth of penetration, qualified him for the highest offices of his profession. But why am I making these observations to your Royal Highness who knew him? Because I cannot speak of him but to do him honour.

Your Royal Highness desires to know the particular circumstances of his death. I have seen Captain Hardy but for a few minutes since, and understood from him, that, at the time, the Victory was very closely engaged in rather a crowd of Ships, and that Lord Nelson was commending some Ship that was conducted much to his satisfaction, when a musket-ball struck him on the left breast. Captain Hardy took hold of him to support him, when he smiled, and said, 'Hardy, I believe they have done it at last.' He was carried below, and when the Ship was disengaged from the crowd, he sent an Officer to inform me that he was wounded. I

The Duke of Clarence's letter was in the following words:

"Dear Sir,

"St. James's, November 9th, 1805. "As a brother Admiral, and as a sincere well-wisher to my King and Country, permit me to congratulate you on the most important Victory gained on the 21st October by your gallant self, and the brave Officers, Seamen, and Royal Marines, under your command, and formerly under my lamented and invaluable friend Lord Nelson. The Country laments the hero, and you and I feel the loss of our departed friend. Five-and-twenty years have I lived on the most intimate terms with Nelson, and must ever, both publicly and privately, regret his loss. Earl St. Vincent and Lord Nelson, both, in the hour of Victory, accepted from me a Sword, and I hope you will now confer on me the same pleasure. I have accordingly sent a Sword, with which I trust you will accept my sincere wishes for your future welfare. I must request that you will let me have the details of the death of our departed friend; and I ever remain, dear Sir, yours unalterably, WILLIAM."-Correspondence of Lord Collingwood, vol. i. p. 220.