on 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 c