nd; but Mr. Pellew told him that he was
the only naval officer on board, and must himself fight the ship. The
Major acquiesced; and under Mr. Pellew's command, the transport engaged,
and beat off the privateer.

It is scarcely necessary to state that immediately on his arrival he
received the promotion which his services had so well deserved.

CHAPTER II.

HIS SERVICES FROM 1778 TO 1791.

There are circumstances which in a few weeks or months may give the
experience of years; and when these occur in early life, they make a
permanent impression on the character. In the honours and misfortunes of
the late campaign, its toils, and its anxieties, Mr. Pellew had very
largely shared; and if rashness would have been the natural fault of a
mind like his, a more effectual corrective could not have been desired.
The quick conception, and the forethought, which enabled him in after
life so well to combine caution with daring, must have greatly depended
upon natural character, but he certainly owed much of it to the severe
discipline of his early service.

He had now completed his twenty-first year. Tall, and with a frame of
strength and symmetry, nerved by the hardships of two severe campaigns,
his personal activity and power were almost unrivalled. The spot was
shown for many years at Truro, where he sprang over the high gate of an
inn-yard at the back of one of the hotels, when, hastening across the
court to assist on the sudden alarm of a fire, he found the gate fast.
The consciousness of superior strength, while it made him slow to
offend, enabled him to inflict suitable punishment on offenders, and
some incidents of a ludicrous character are still remembered.

The water was as a natural element to him, and he often amused himself
in a manner which, to one less expert, would have been attended with the
utmost danger. He would sometimes go out in a boat, and overset her by
carrying a press of sail. Acts of daring like these must find their
excuse in the spirit of a fearless youth. But he often found the
advantage of that power and self-possession in the water which he
derived from his early habits, in saving men who had fallen overboard,
and especially in the happiest of all his services, his conduct at the
Dutton. More than once, however, he nearly perished. In Portsmouth
harbour, where he had upset himself in a boat, he was saved with
difficulty, after remaining for a considerable time in the water. On
another