183Q-] King William the Fourth. 139 



and after a brief period the prisoners were sent to him. His Royal 

 Highness immediately in the greatest exultation wrote to the governor, 

 thanking him for a boon so valuable to his feelings as a man and a 

 Briton. 



" SIR,, I want words to express to your Excellency my just sense of 

 your polite letter, of the delicate manner in which you caused it to be 

 delivered, and of your generous conduct towards the unfortunate men in 

 your power. Their pardon which you have been pleased to grant on my 

 account, is the most agreeable present you could have offered me, and is 

 strongly characteristic of the bravery and gallantry of the Spanish 

 character. This instance increases, if possible, my opinion of your Excel- 

 lency's humanity, which had appeared on so many occasions during 

 the late war. Admiral Rowley is to despatch a vessel to Louisiana 

 for the prisoners. I am convinced they will ever think of your Excel- 

 lency's clemency with gratitude; and I have sent a copy of your 

 letter to the King, my father, who will be fully sensible of your 

 Excellency's attention to me. I request my compliments to Madame 

 Galvez, and that you will be assured that actions so noble as that of 

 your Excellency will ever be remembered by Your's sincerely, 



" WILLIAM P." 



Another letter, and a very characteristic one, is given, in which he 

 almost predicted Nelson's eminence; at least he formed his opinion 

 of the abilities of that first of naval heroes, at a period when Nelson was 

 comparatively unknown, and when the great warrior of the Mediter- 

 ranean was confined to the gulphs and straits of the West Indies. The 

 Duke of Clarence, speaking of his own service on the West India 

 station, gays, in a letter to a friend : 



" It was at this time that I particularly observed the greatness of 

 Nelson's superior mind. The manner in which he enforced the spirit 

 of the Navigation Act, first drew my attention to the commercial 

 interests of our country. We visited the different islands together; and 

 excepting the naval tuition which I had received on board the Prince 

 George, when the present Rear Admiral Keats was lieutenant of her, 

 and for whom we both entertained a sincere regard, my mind took its 

 first decided naval turn from this familiar intercourse with Nelson." . 



The Prince's intercourse with Nelson arose from a circumstance 

 which, in the beginning, seemed likely to have ruined that great 

 officer, but which, by the odd turns that apparent disasters sometimes 

 take, finally secured to Nelson both a wife and a friend. Nelson 

 happening to be senior captain on the Leeward Island station, in the 

 latter part of the war, had thought it his duty to see that British law 

 was attended to in all points, so far as the station was concerned. The 

 Navigation Law prohibiting all foreign ships from trading with the 

 islands, and Nelson not being inclined to discover any reason why 

 America, which had rendered herself a foreigner, should transgress the 

 law, immediately on his dropping anchor, gave notice that every foreign 

 vessel which did not quit the islands within forty-eight hours, should 

 be seized. The Americans/proud of their success, and fond of making 

 all the money they could in the British Islands, pretended to think the 

 proclamation not applicable to themselves. But they were yet to know 

 Nelson. He instantly swept the harbour of Nevis, and finding four 



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