of
September, under the command of Brigadier General Pignatelli; and that
they were a very fine body of men, in perfect health, and well
appointed. The second division of Neapolitans, consisting of two
thousand men, arrived on the 5th of October; and the last two thousand
were to leave Naples on that very day. His Sicilian majesty, Lord Hood
added, had manifested the greatest readiness and zeal in fulfilling the
treaty; and confided his ships and troops solely to his lordship's
discretion, as that sovereign had made known to him in writing under his
own hand.

Such was the success of Captain Nelson's services at Naples, where the
king and queen treated him with no less attention and regard than Sir
William Hamilton and his lady, and witnessed his departure with similar
regrets.

The Neapolitan troops thus obtained, greatly signalized themselves, on
several occasions, while at Toulon: but Captain Nelson, almost
immediately on his arrival, received orders to join a squadron under
Commodore Linzee; who had been detached by Lord Hood, at the request of
General Paoli, to protect Corsica. He could, therefore, scarcely be said
to have at all participated in the occurrences which took place at
Toulon, farther than in thus procuring military aids.

Captain Nelson, indeed, appears to have had little concern with this
unfortunate business: not the less so, perhaps, on that very account.
Notwithstanding all the blood and treasure which this expedition cost
Great Britain, on Toulon's being evacuated the 19th of December
following, Lord Hood was only able to carry away three ships of the line
and five frigates; after burning there nine ships of the line, and one
at Leghorn.

About the period of these transactions, Captain Nelson was with
Commodore Linzee, at Tunis, negotiating for a French convoy under an
eighty-gun ship and a corvette. The English, however, he observed, never
yet succeeded in a negotiation against the French. "We have not," says
he, in a letter to Captain Locker, dated off Sardinia, December 1, 1793,
"contradicted our practice at Tunis, for the Monsieurs have completely
upset us with the bey; and, had we latterly attempted to take them, I am
certain he would have declared against us, and done our trade some
damage."

In this letter he also mentions, that Lord Hood has, in a very handsome
letter, ordered him from Commodore Linzee's command, to take the command
of a squadron of frigates off Corsica and the adjo