was ordered
to hoist his broad pendant on board the MINERVE frigate, Captain George
Cockburn, and with the BLANCHE under his command, proceed to Porto
Ferrajo, and superintend the evacuation of that place also. On his way,
he fell in with two Spanish frigates, the SABINA and the CERES. The
MINERVE engaged the former, which was commanded by D. Jacobo Stuart,
a descendent of the Duke of Berwick. After an action of three hours,
during which the Spaniards lost 164 men, the SABINA struck. The Spanish
captain, who was the only surviving officer, had hardly been conveyed on
board the MINERVE, when another enemy's frigate came up, compelled her
to cast off the prize, and brought her a second time into action. After
half an hour's trial of strength, this new antagonist wore and hauled
off; but a Spanish squadron of two ships of the line and two frigates
came in sight. The BLANCHE, from which the CERES had got off, was far
to windward, and the MINERVE escaped only by the anxiety of the enemy to
recover their own ship. As soon as Nelson reached Porto Ferrajo he sent
his prisoner in a flag of truce to Carthagena, having returned him
his sword; this he did in honour of the gallantry which D. Jacobo had
displayed, and not without some feeling of respect for his ancestry. "I
felt it," said he, "consonant to the dignity of my country and I always
act as I feel right, without regard to custom; he was reputed the best
officer in Spain, and his men were worthy of such a commander." By
the same flag of truce he sent back all the Spanish prisoners at Porto
Ferrajo; in exchange for whom he received his own men who had been taken
in the prize.

General de Burgh, who commanded at the Isle of Elba, did not think
himself authorised to abandon the place till he had received specific
instructions from England to that effect; professing that he was unable
to decide between the contradictory orders of government, or to guess at
what their present intentions might be; but he said, his only motive for
urging delay in this measure arose from a desire that his own conduct
might be properly sanctioned, not from any opinion that Porto Ferrajo
ought to be retained. But Naples having made peace, Sir John Jervis
considered his business with Italy as concluded; and the protection of
Portugal was the point to which he was now instructed to attend. Nelson,
therefore, whose orders were perfectly clear and explicit, withdrew
the whole naval establishment from tha