“We took a convoy to Cadiz, and while waiting there to collect one for England, it was understood that a Spanish seventy-four was upon the point of sailing for Falmouth with money; as an indemnification of the Nootka Sound affair, in 1790. I eagerly caught at the opportunity of seeing the system of the Spanish navy; and my wish being made known to the Spanish commander, he immediately invited me to take my passage to England with him, in the St. Elmo, where I was treated with the greatest hospitality, and marked attention. We sailed for Ferrol on the following day, and from that port the 24th December, and arrived at Falmouth early in January. “This ship had been selected as one in the best state of discipline in the Spanish navy, to be sent to England. She was commanded by Don Lorenzo Goycochca, a gallant seaman, who had commanded one of the junk ships destroyed before Gibraltar, in 1781. I had during this voyage an opportunity of appreciating Spanish management at sea. When the ship was brought under double reefed topsails, it was considered superfluous to lay the cloth for dinner; and when I remonstrated, I was told by the captain, that not one officer would be able to sit at table, being all sea-sick; but that he had directed dinner to be got in his own cabin for himself and me. It was the custom in the Spanish navy for the captain and all the officers to mess together in the wardroom, which was appropriated to this purpose. We had henceforth a very comfortable meal together, whenever the weather prevented a general meeting. “As the safe arrival of this ship was deemed of great importance, an English pilot from Falmouth was sent into Ferrol, for the purpose of enabling her to approach the coast of England with safety. A few nights before our arrival at Falmouth, the ship having whole sails and topping sails, was taken aback in a heavy squall from the N.E. and I was awoke by the English pilot knocking at my cabin door, calling out, ‘Mr. Brenton, Mr. Brenton, rouse out, Sir; here is the ship running away with these Spaniards.’ When I got upon deck, I found this was literally the case. She was running away at the rate of twelve knots, and every thing in confusion: she was indeed, to use the ludicrous simile of a naval captain, ‘all adrift like a French post-chaise.’ It required some hours to get things to rights, and the wind having moderated and become fair, we then resumed our course, and safely reached Falmouth. The Spanish Inns, (the Posadas) are proverbially bad, wretched in the extreme; and great was the astonishment of the officers of the St. Elmo on reaching Williams’s Hotel at Falmouth, by no means at that time a first rate inn. Still, such was the effect produced by the carpet, the fire, and the furniture in general, that it was some time before they could be persuaded that I had not conducted them to some nobleman’s house, in return for their hospitality to me; the _bill_ however dispelled this pleasant delusion.”