The service, on this station, was attended with difficulties which had, perhaps, been but little expected, either by the officers of the British navy, or those who sent them; and it was far more fortunate for government, than it was for Captain Nelson, that he had been employed on the occasion.
The Americans, while colonists of Great Britain, had enjoyed, as subjects, almost the entire trade between their country and our West India Islands. Having erected themselves into independent states, they had hoped that, on the return of peace, we should have permitted them again to enjoy the privileges of fellow-subjects, which they had, by withdrawing their allegiance, undoubtedly forfeited. This hope had not been indulged, by the Americans, through any want of political discernment on their part; they well knew themselves now to be, what on other occasions they loudly enough boasted, foreigners in every sense of the word. They were satisfied, however, at the same time, that the mother-country had not always been renowned for the highest degree of national sagacity; they felt, that they had themselves acquired, by force, the independence which they enjoyed; and they trusted that the British administration, through apprehensions of renewing an unpopular and disastrous war, would be induced to connive at, if not confirm, the privilege the Americans affected to claim under the very Navigation Act of Great Britain, the most beneficial effect of which they were thus artfully contriving to destroy.
The West Indians, themselves, who were prevented, by an immediate prospect of the return of their own interest, from contemplating it in a remote view, they well knew, would oppose no obstacle: these, in fact, readily fell into the snare, and were clamorous for their old customers. Those persons, too, who held official situations, generally more considerate of their ease and their emoluments, than of the duties proper to be performed, in a climate so enervating, and a country so luxurious, would naturally, it was not doubted, rather contend for, than against, such claims as seemed to favour these indulgences. Here, too, with very few exceptions, they met with equally zealous and still more powerful supporters.
The governors and custom-house officers, in fact, agreed that, by the Navigation Act, the Americans had a right to trade with all our West India islands; and the merchants and planters, who likewise found it for their present interest to embrace the same doctrine, pretended that they were of the same opinion.
Captain Nelson, in the mean time, ever as studious to acquire a due knowledge of the full extent of his professional duties, as zealously determined completely to perform the utmost that they could possibly require of him, unswayed by any sinister or selfish motive, viewed the business in a very different light; and felt that, as an executive naval officer, it was his business to enforce, on all occasions, the maritime laws of his country.
Accordingly, in November 1784, the hurricane months being over, and the squadron arrived at Barbadoes, where the ships were to separate for the different islands, with no other orders than those for examining anchorages, and usual enquiries after wood and water, as this did not appear to him the intent of placing men of war, in peaceable times, he asked Captain Collingwood to accompany him, their sentiments being exactly similar, and ask the commander in chief a few questions. They, accordingly, proceeded together, to Sir Richard Hughes; when Captain Nelson respectfully asked, whether they were not to attend to the commerce of their country, and to take care that the British trade was kept in those channels which the navigation laws pointed out? Sir Richard replied, that he had no particular orders, nor had the Admiralty sent him any acts of parliament. That, Captain Nelson remarked, was very singular, as every captain of a man of war was furnished with the Statutes of the Admiralty, in which the Navigation Act was included; which act was directed to admirals, captains, &c. to see it carried into execution. On producing and reading these laws to Sir Richard, to use Captain Nelson's own words, "he seemed convinced that men of war were sent abroad for some other purpose than to be made a show of;" and, the Americans then filling our ports, orders were issued for all the squadrons to see the Navigation Act carried into execution.
When Captain Nelson went to his station, at St. Kitt's, he sent away all the Americans; not chusing to seize them at that time, lest it should have appeared a trap laid for them.
In December, to his utter astonishment, he received an order from the commander in chief, stating that he had obtained good advice, and required that the Americans might not only be prevented from coming in, but permitted to have free egress and regress, if the governor chose to allow them. He inclosed, at the same time, a copy of the orders which he had sent to the governors and presidents of the islands. Some, on this, began by sending letters, not far different from orders, that they should admit them in such and such situations as they described: telling Captain Nelson, that Sir Richard had left it to them; but, that they thought it right to let him know it. These, however, he soon silenced. The commander in chief's was a more delicate business. He was under the necessity of either disobeying orders, or of disobeying acts of parliament which he conceived the latter was disobeying. He, therefore, nobly determined on the former: trusting to the uprightness of his intention; and fully confiding, that his country would not allow him to be ruined by protecting it's commerce. He sent to Sir Richard; expatiated on the navigation laws, to the best of his ability; and frankly told him, that some person, he was certain, had been giving him advice, which he would be sorry for having taken, against the positive directions of acts of parliament. He expressed his conviction, that Sir Richard had too much regard for the commerce of Great Britain, to suffer our worst enemy to take it from us; and that, too, at a time when Great Britain was straining every nerve to suppress illegal trade at home, which only affected her revenue: that he hoped we should not be so singular, as to allow of a much more ruinous traffic's being carried on under the king's flag. He added, in short, that he should decline obeying his orders, till he had an opportunity of seeing and talking to him; making, at the same time, an apology for any seeming impropriety.
Sir Richard Hughes was, at first, going to send a captain to supersede him: but, having mentioned the matter to his captain, was informed, that all the squadron seemed to think the orders sent were illegal; and, therefore, did not know how far Captain Nelson was obliged to obey them. Such being their sentiments, he could not have been there tried by a court-martial.
Captain Nelson now proceeded to inform the people of the custom-house, that he should, after such a day, seize all foreign vessels found in our islands; and, till then, keep them out to the utmost of his power. They fancied, however, that he could not seize, without a deputation; and, therefore, disregarded his threats.