India; they became, at once,
reduced to depend on their own resources for even their subsistence, in
a distant land, without any other hope of ever returning home, than what
was afforded them by the remote prospect of a peace.

Though Admiral Nelson had written his dispatches for the commander in
chief immediately after this glorious victory, he was unable to send
Captain Berry, of the Vanguard, in the Leander of fifty guns, to the
Earl of St. Vincent, off Cadiz, till the 5th of August.

In a few days after, as if the admiral had foreseen the fate of the
Leander, which it will appear he certainly apprehended, he prepared a
copy of these dispatches to the Earl of St. Vincent; and transmitted it
to Evan Nepean, Esq. Secretary to the Admiralty, by the Honourable
Captain Thomas Bladen Capel, in La Mutine brig, to which he had just
been appointed on Captain Hardy's promotion to the Vanguard. In these
will be seen his own modest and pious account of a victory, perhaps,
without parallel, when duly considered in it's completeness and
consequences.

"Vanguard,
Mouth of the Nile, 7th August 1798.

"SIR,

"Herewith, I have the honour to transmit you a copy of my letter to
the Earl of St. Vincent, together with a line of battle of the
English and French squadrons; also, a list of the killed and
wounded. I have the honour to inform you, that eight of our ships
have already top-gallant yards across, and are ready for any
service: the others, with the prizes, will soon be ready for sea.
In an event of this importance, I have thought it right to send
Captain Capel, with a copy of my letter to the commander in chief,
overland; which, I hope, their lordships will approve: and I beg
leave to refer them to Captain Capel, who is a most excellent
officer, and fully able to give every information; and I beg leave
to recommend him to their lordships notice.

"I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,

"Horatio Nelson.

"P.S. The island I have taken possession of; and brought off the
two thirteen-inch mortars, with all the brass guns, and destroyed
the iron ones."

"Evan Nepean, Esq."

His celebrated letter to the Earl of St. Vincent was in the following
words--

"Vanguard,
off the Mouth of the Nile,
3d August 1798.

"MY LORD,

"Almighty God has blessed his majesty's arms, in