"It was a sad expedition this from beginning to end. The game, indeed, was hardly worth the candle; but Nelson was its real head. He not only landed with the men, and led them on to death or glory, but piloted them up the river, and took port after port from the astonished Spaniards, and all this in a climate so unhealthy, so rotten and malodorous, that pestilence was a greater foe to success than the resistance offered by the enemy. For on the march men fell dead in the ranks, others were poisoned by water, they were short of provisions, being forced to kill and eat monkeys, while several were killed by serpents. Not since the days of old Spanish buccaneering had any troops suffered as did those with bold Nelson. He says himself he carried troops a hundred miles up the river, he boarded the enemies' outposts situated on an island in the river, and made batteries and afterwards fought them, and was a principal cause of the success that attended our operations. "Was it any wonder that in a place so pestilential fever broke out? It was fearful, Tom. I should not talk about such things to-day, but in Nelson's ship of 200 men, 87 were seized and confined to their beds in one night, and 145 were buried there, only ten men surviving the terrible expedition. "Nelson himself was nearly dead, and but for the kindness of Sir Peter Parker, who appointed him to the 44-gun frigate _Janus_, at Jamaica, he would doubtless have succumbed. But even the tender nursing of Lady Parker and her little girl on shore was unable to restore my friend to health, and on the first of September, '80, he sailed for England with Captain Cornwallis. "He lay ill for a year at Bath, and was then sent on a winter's cruise to Elsinore to protect the homeward trade. This cruise was but little relished by Horace, who rightly thought that his service in the West Indies, where he fought so well and so nearly lost his life in the service of king and country, deserved higher recognition. "In '82 Horace sailed with a convoy of traders for Newfoundland, in his ship _Albemarle_. "One clever action out there can be laid to Nelson's credit. It should be remembered that he was a perfect sailor and pilot. When chased, therefore, by three of the French ships of the line and the _Iris_ frigate whilst cruising off Boston, and finding they were coming up with him hand-over-hand, he boldly sought the shoals. The frigate alone could follow, and Nelson made all preparation to fight her, but the _Iris_ refused to accept the challenge, and sheered off. "Horace next took a convoy to New York, and there he joined the fleet under Lord Hood. Here he was introduced to the Duke of Clarence--Prince William--and each found in the other a true-blue seaman and British sailor.