n'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.

On Wednesday, the 17th of July, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, they
saw Cape St. Vincent, distant about nine leagues. By a friendly vessel
from Rochfort, his lordship learned that the French squadron, of five
sail of the line and four frigates, which had sailed from thence the
18th of January, returned from the West Indies on the 21st of May:
having left Martinico about the middle of April; after taking several
ships, and levying contributions at Dominica, St. Kitt's, Nevis, and
Montserrat. The last twenty-four hours, the fl