ed ten
sail-of-the-line. The boats of the fleet, which had been rowing guard
off the harbor's mouth under the general supervision of the two senior
flag-officers, were ordered, shortly after Nelson's arrival, to report
to him; and upon him, indeed, devolved pretty nearly all the active
enterprises of the fleet. It was his practice to visit the line of
boats every night in his barge, to see by personal inspection of these
outposts that his instructions were fully observed. "Our inferiority,"
he wrote about this time, "is greater than before. I am barely out of
shot of a Spanish rear-admiral. The Dons hope for peace, but must soon
fight us, if the war goes on."

Another motive, perhaps even more imperative than the wish to force
the Dons out, now compelled Jervis to seek by all means to increase
the activity of his fleet, and to intrust the management of such
activities to his most zealous and capable subordinate. These were the
months of the great mutinies of the British Navy, in which the seamen
of the Channel fleet, and of the North Sea fleet, at the Nore, had
taken the ships out of the hands of their officers. The details of
Jervis's management, which was distinguished as much by keen judgment
and foresight as by iron-handed severity, that knew neither fear nor
ruth when it struck, belong to his biography, not to Nelson's; but it
is necessary to note the attitude of the latter, a man more
sympathetic, and in common life gentler, than his stern superior.
Always solicitous for everything that increased the well-being and
happiness of his crew,--as indeed was eminently the case with Jervis
also,--he did not withhold his candid sympathy from the grievances
alleged by the Channel fleet; grievances which, when temperately
presented to the authorities, had been ignored. "I am entirely with
the seamen in their first complaint. We are a neglected set, and, when
peace comes, are shamefully treated; but for the Nore scoundrels,"
passing on to those who had rebelled after substantial redress had
been given, and had made unreasonable demands when the nation was in
deadly peril, "I should be happy to command a ship against them."
Jervis's measures received full support from him, clear-headed as ever
to see the essentials of a situation. The senior vice-admiral, for
instance, went so far as to criticise the commander-in-chief for
hanging a convicted mutineer on Sunday. "Had it been Christmas Day
instead of Sunday," wrote Nelson, "I