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The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson-Part3_Robert Southey(1774-1843)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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expedition had been amply provided with hospital stores, river craft

enough had not been procured for transporting the requisitebaggage; and



when much was to be left behind, provision for sickness was that which

of all things men in health would be most ready to leave. Now, when



these medicines were required, the river was swollen, and so turbulent

that its upwardnavigation was almost impracticable. At length even the



task of burying the dead was more than the living could perform, and the

bodies were tossed into the stream, or left for beasts of prey, and for



the gallinazos--those dreadful carrion birds, which do not always wait

for death before they begin their work. Five months the English



persisted in what may be called this war against nature; they then left

a few men, who seemed proof against the climate, to retain the castle



till the Spaniards should choose to retake it and make them prisoners.

The rest abandoned their baleful conquest. Eighteen hundred men were



sent to different posts upon this wretchedexpedition: not more than

three hundred and eighty ever returned. The HINCHINBROOK's complement



consisted of two hundred men; eighty-seven took to their beds in one

night, and of the whole crew not more than ten survived.



The transports' men all died, and some of the ships, having none left

to take care of them, sunk in the harbour: but transport ships were not



wanted, for the troops which they had brought were no more: they had

fallen, not by the hand of an enemy, but by the deadly influence of the



climate.

Nelson himself was saved by a timelyremoval. In a few days after the



commencement of the siege he was seized with the prevailing dysentery;

meantime Captain Glover (son of the author of LEONIDAS) died, and Nelson



was appointed to succeed him in the Janus, of forty-four guns; Colling-

wood being then made post into the HINCHINBROOK. He returned to the har-



bour the day before San Juan surrendered, and immediately sailed for

Jamaica in the sloop which brought the news of his appointment. He was,



however, so greatly reduced by the disorder, that when they reached Port

Royal he was carried ashore in his cot; and finding himself, after a



partial amendment, unable to retain the command of his new ship, he was

compelled to ask leave to return to England, as the only means of



recovery. Captain (afterwards Admiral) Cornwallis took him home in the

LION; and to his fare and kindness Nelson believed himself indebted for



his life. He went immediately to Bath, in a miserable state; so helpless

that he was carried to and from his bed; and the act of moving him



produced the most violent pain. In three months he recovered, and

immediately hastened to London, and applied for employment. After an



interval of about four months he was appointed to the ALBEMARLE, of

twenty-eight guns, a French merchantman which had been purchased from



the captors for the king's service.

His health was not yet thoroughly re-established; and while he was



employed in getting his ship ready, he again became so ill. as hardly to

be able to keep out of bed. Yet in this state, still suffering from the



fatal effect of a West Indian climate, as if it might almost be

supposed, he said, to try his constitution, he was sent to the North



Seas, and kept there the whole winter. The asperity with which he

mentioned this so many years afterwards evinces how deeply he resented a



mode of conduct equally cruel to the individual and detrimental to the

service. It was during the armed neutrality; and when they anchored off



Elsinore, the Danish Admiral sent on board, desiring to be informed what

ships had arrived, and to have their force written down. "The



ALBEMARLE," said Nelson to the messenger, "is one of his Britannic

Majesty's ships: you are at liberty, sir, to count the guns as you go



down the side; and you may assure the Danish Admiral that, if necessary,

they shall all be well served." During this voyage he gained a



considerable knowledge of the Danish coast and its soundings, greatly to

the advantage of his country in after-times. The ALBEMARLE was not a






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