On the 31st, at six in the evening, being within two hundred leagues of
Barbadoes, the Amazon was sent forward for information.
On the 3d of June, at day-light, two Guinea ships, bound from Surinam to America, were seen to the westward; from whom intelligence was obtained, that they were told, the day before, by the Beaulieu frigate, that the French and Spanish squadrons had arrived at Martinico, but the African ships did not know the time of their arrival there. In the evening, a sloop of war was perceived, with the signal of intelligence to communicate; but, missing the Victory, his lordship would not shorten sail, as he knew nothing more could be communicated, than when the enemy's fleet had arrived at Martinico. Next morning, at day-light, Barbadoes was seen by the fleet, distant about ten leagues to the west; and, at eleven in the forenoon, his lordship received the salutes of Rear-Admiral Cochrane, and Charles Fort. The enemy's fleet, Lord Nelson was now informed, had arrived at Martinico on the 14th of May, with their men sickly: and, on the 28th, were seen to the windward of St. Lucia, standing to the southward; with the view, as was supposed, of attacking Tobago and Trinidada. General Sir William Myers, at Barbadoes, having very handsomely offered his lordship to embark with two thousand troops for the relief of those islands, the fleet anchored in Carlisle Bay; and, though very rainy, with squalls of wind, the embarkment immediately commenced, and was continued all night. In the morning, Le Curieux brig was sent forward, to look into Tobago; and Sir William Myers dispatched another vessel to General Prevost, at Dominica, to acquaint him with Lord Nelson's arrival.
The happy tidings of his lordship's approach expeditiously spread through all the West India islands. The enemy were not the last who heard this intelligence, which acted with double force against these marauders: it armed with resolution the defenceless inhabitants of even the least tenable situations, by inspiring them with hopes of a speedy and effectual aid to their own manly exertions; and filled with dread and horror those pusillanimous pillagers who had alone confided in their vast superiority of numbers, for the success of their plundering exploits, and now feared the avenging hand of our pursuing hero. Villeneuve, the Gallic fugitive from the Nile, no sooner gained intelligence that the victor on that occasion was likely soon to be once more at his heels, than he again made the most expeditious use of them in returning back from the scene of his paltry depredations; and, with his former good fortune, escaped the chastising hand of our hero, who continued every where seeking him in vain. His lordship, indeed, however aware of the dastardly disposition of the enemy, could scarcely think it possible for such a very superior force as the combined fleet thus timidly to fly before him.
Lord Nelson, in the mean time, having weighed; at eight in the evening, the fleet stood to the southward: and, at eight in the morning of the 6th of June, they saw Tobago. At two in the afternoon, abreast of Man of War Bay, Le Curieux joined; with information that an American had arrived at Scarborough the preceding day, the master of which said that he had been boarded, three days prior to his arrival, by the French fleet, then standing to the southward, and that they would, he supposed, pass Tobago as last night. This account, his lordship considered as a mere fabrication of the American: but, gaining no intelligence on which he could rely, he bore away to Trinidada; and, at midnight, bringing to off that island, sent the Pheasant to Toko for information. At four, next morning, his lordship bore up for the Bogasses; and, at sunset, anchored in the Gulf of Paria, but found that the enemy had not been heard of in the island. At day-light, an advice-boat brought letters from Captain Morrice at Barbadoes, giving an account of the capture of the Diamond Rock, with the little garrison by which it was defended: and stating, also, that the French and Spanish squadrons had not sailed from Martinico; but that, as the French commodore told him, the Ferrol squadron, of six sail of French, and eight of Spanish, arrived in Fort Royal on the 4th of June. This intelligence determined his lordship: who, at seven o'clock, sailed from Trinidada; and was at noon well out, clear of the Bogasses.
While his lordship was off Trinidad, with his usual gaiety and goodness of heart, he wrote to the governor, that he would rather he sent him a hogshead of limes, than a hogshead of Joes. With him, the health of his people was always the first object; his own individual wealth, ever the last.
At six in the morning of the 9th, he got within sight of Grenada; and, at noon, arrived off St. George's Bay in that island. A letter from General Prevost now informed his lordship, that the combined squadron had passed Dominica on the 6th of June; and, having gone to Guadaloupe, for the purpose of landing the troops and stores taken from thence, had been seen standing to the northward. Lord Nelson, on receiving this intelligence, having dispatched the Nelly to Antigua, and the Jason to Montserrat, for farther information, immediately stood to the northward, under a press of sail. The next day, at noon, between St. Lucia and Martinique, he sent a schooner to General Prevost: and, at eight the following morning, Tuesday, June 11, saw Guadaloupe; and spoke an American, from Boston, who gave no intelligence. At noon, the fleet got within sight of Montserrat; and, at two o'clock, saw the Jason, at anchor. The news from Montserrat was, that they had, on Saturday morning, the 8th, being only three days before, seen sixteen sail under Guadaloupe, beating to windward. His lordship, now, also beating up to windward, all night and the following day, anchored in St. John's Bay, Antigua, at sunset; which island, he learned, had been passed, on the 8th, by the French fleet standing to the north. Having, in the evening, sent Le Curieux, with dispatches, to England, his lordship, next morning, at day-light, landed the troops for the protection of the islands; got ready for sea; and sailed, at noon, with eleven ships of the line, three frigates, and a sloop of war: when the Kitty schooner joined, with the unpleasing information, that the French fleet had, on the 8th instant, captured it's whole convoy, consisting of fourteen sail. From four in the afternoon, till sunset, his lordship was within sight of Barbuda, still standing to the northward. "If," writes his lordship, this day, "I should ask an opinion where the enemy's fleet are gone, I should have as many opinions as there were persons. Porto-Rico, Barbadoes, Newfoundland, Europe. My opinion, from all the circumstances drawn into one point of view, with the best judgment I can form, is this—I think, that the whole or part of the Spaniards will go to the Havannah; and the rest of the fleet, to Cadiz and Toulon: and, upon this opinion, I am going to the Straits Mouth; unless I should alter it, from information gained."
Thus determined, every exertion was used, though with little hope, to overtake them, if possible, on their return; and, on the 14th, at noon, the fleet had run a hundred and thirteen miles from the Island of Barbuda, and a hundred and thirty from St. John's Bay, Antigua.
On the 18th, the Amazon communicated with a schooner; which had, on the 15th, at sunset, seen a fleet of twenty-two ships of war steering to the northward. On a computation formed from an examination of the schooner's then latitude and longitude, it appeared that the French fleet were, the night before, about eighty-seven leagues distant. His lordship, next day, forwarded the Martin to Gibraltar, and the Decade to Lisbon, with information of the enemy's return to Europe. At midnight, on the 21st, Lord Nelson saw three planks floating; which, he thought, came from the French ships: and, on the 23d, at dusk, a piece of a large ship's topmast had also passed by the Victory, but was not observed till too late to be picked up. Sir John Laforey, next morning, informed his lordship that, three days after they left Antigua, he had passed close by a bucket; which he supposed, by the make and wooden handle, to be French: also, a large chest, painted red.
From this period, till the 5th of June, the wind proved tolerably favourable; but they now, to use his lordship's expression, barely "crawled" about thirty miles every twenty-four hours. "My only hope is," writes the hero, "that the enemy's fleet are near us, and in the same situation." By a Spanish log and chart, taken out of a small bark from La Guira to Cadiz, his lordship found that the combined fleets went in sight of Cape Blanco, and passed over to the Salvages.
On the 9th, light breezes springing up, the fleet run eighty-eight miles; in the succeeding twenty-four hours, a hundred; and, the day after, a hundred and nineteen. The wind, however, now coming foul, his lordship expressed himself dreadfully apprehensive that the enemy would have too greatly the start of him. The Amazon, on the 13th, was detached to Gibraltar; and, the fleet having got into the Portuguese trade-winds, they run, next day, a hundred and forty-six miles.