o seek them
nearer home. On the 26th, the Spartiate got on board the Victory; but,
fortunately, neither ship suffered any material damage. Having traversed
the Bay of Biscay, without discovering any thing of the enemy, his
lordship, on the 28th, at day-light, came abreast of Cape St. Vincent;
from whence, with faint hopes of finding them, he pursued his northerly
course toward the north-west of Ireland, By foul winds, and very
unfavourable weather, this proved a most tediously vexatious voyage.
Unable, after all, to fetch Ireland, on account of the northerly winds,
his lordship, in the afternoon of August 12, was informed by the Niobe,
Captain Scott, three weeks from the channel fleet, that there had not,
at that time, been the smallest intelligence of the enemy's arrival in
any of the ports. He also learned, that they had not been heard of on
the Irish coast. Having exhausted every rational conjecture with regard
to their situation, he resolved on reinforcing Admiral Cornwallis with
his squadron; lest the combined fleet of France and Spain should, by
approaching Brest, either facilitate the escape of the squadron so long
confined by this commander's blockade of that port, or place him
aukwardly between two fires.

Accordingly, on the 15th, at six in the morning, Lord Nelson got within
eighteen leagues of Ushant; and, at half past eleven, saw a fleet. At
two in the afternoon, they exchanged private signals with the channel
fleet; and, in the evening, his lordship, having detached the rest of
his fleet, received orders from Admiral Cornwallis, as commander in
chief, to proceed with the Victory and Superb to Portsmouth. His
lordship now first gained information of Sir Robert Calder's having
defeated the combined fleet from the West Indies, on the 22d of July,
sixty leagues west of Cape Finisterre; which, at length, relieved him
from the anxiety of suspence, though the action had been too indecisive
compleatly to satisfy his lordship's mind. He regretted, exceedingly,
that it had not been his own good fortune to encounter them; and felt
less comforted, than he ought to have done, by the consideration, that
this squadron, under Sir Robert Calder, had been sent out to intercept
their return, in consequence of his, lordship's suggestions, judiciously
transmitted to the Admiralty for that purpose, the moment he was
satisfied that the combined French and Spanish fleet were on their
return from the West Indies.

On the 17th, a