170 



NEGUS NELSON. 



into Egripos and Carysto, which were closely block- 

 aded by the Greeks. 



NEGUS; a drink, made of wine, water, sugar, 

 nutmeg, and lemon-juice ; so called from colonel 

 Negus, the inventor. 



NK II EM IAH; a distinguished and pious Jew, who 

 was born in captivity, but was made the cupbearer 

 of Artaxerxes Longimanus. He used his influence 

 for the welfare of his unhappy countrymen, and be- 

 came their benefactor. At his own request, he was 

 sent, as governor, to Jerusalem, with a commission to 

 rebuild the walls and gates of this city. He accom- 

 plished his purpose, but not without difficulties, 

 arising partly from the poverty of the lower classes 

 of the people, and partly from the opposition of the 

 Moabites and Ammonites. He then took measures 

 to raise the city to its former splendour, and to in- 

 crease its population. H e and Ezra were the proper 

 founders of the Jewish liturgy, and a collection of 

 the holy books was made under their inspection. 

 Nehemiah published an account of the same in a 

 book which is admitted into the Jewish canon, and 

 is supposed to be a continuation of the narration con- 

 tained in the book of Ezra. It includes a period of 

 forty-nine years. 



NEITH, or NEITHA; one of the later goddesses 

 of the Egyptians, whose worship flourished at Sais, in 

 Lower Egypt, and who was considered as its founder 

 and protectress. Plato calls her, in Timaeus, the 

 Athena of the Greeks. A colony from Sais is said to 

 have brought the worship of Neith to Athens. She 

 appears, in later times, to have become identified 

 with Isis. The splendid temple at Sais, which was 

 illuminated on her yearly festival, bore this sublime 

 inscription: " I am all that has been, that is, and 

 that will be; and no man hath ever lifted my veil. 

 The sun was my child." See Hieroglyphics, division 

 Egyptian Mythology. 



isELSON, HORATIO; a celebrated naval officer, 

 who was born, September 29, 1758, at Burnham 

 Thorpe, in Norfolk, of which parish his father was 

 rector. At the age of twelve, he entered the navy, 

 ns a midshipman, and, in 1773, accompanied com- 

 modore Phipps (see Mulgrave) in an expedition to- 

 wards the north pole. In 1777, he was made a 

 lieutenant, and, in 1779, raised to the rank of post- 

 raptain. He distinguished himself in an attack on 

 fort Juan, in the gulf of Mexico, and on other oc- 

 casions, and remained on the American station till 

 the conclusion of peace. He afterwards commanded 

 tlie Boreas frigate, and was employed to protect the 

 trade of the Leeward islands. On the commence- 

 ment of the war with the French republic, he was 

 made commander of the Agamemnon, of sixty-four 

 guns, with which he joined lord Hood in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and assisted at the taking of Toulon, and at 

 the siege of Bastia. At the siege of Calvi, he lost 

 an eye. In the battle off cape St Vincent, February 

 13, 1797, he commanded the Captain, on board of 

 which he attacked the Santissima Trinidada, of 13(3 

 guns ; and, passing to the San Nicholas, of eighty 

 guns, and the San Joseph, of 112, he obliged ooth 

 those ships to strike their flags. For his gallantry, 

 he was made a knight of the Bath, rear-admiral of 

 the blue, and appointed to the command of the inner 

 squadron at the blockade of Cadiz. His next service 

 was an attack on the town of Santa Cruz, in the 

 island of Teneriffe, in which he was unsuccessful ; 

 and, being severely wounded, his life was saved by 

 his son in-law, captain Nesbit, who, at great personal 

 hazard, conveyed him to a boat. He was obliged to 

 suffer the amputation of his right arm, in consequence 

 of which he obtained a pension of 1000 pounds. In 

 1798, he joined lord St Vincent (admiral Jervis), who 

 scut him to the Mediterranean to watch the progress 



of the armament at Toulon. Notwithstanding his 

 vigilance, the French fleet, which conveyed Hona- 

 parte to Egypt, escaped. Thither Nelson followed, 

 and, after various disappointments, he discovered the 

 enemy's fleet moored in the bay of Aboukir. Having, 

 by a well executed manoeuvre, obliged them to come 

 to action, he obtained a most complete victory, all 

 the French ships but two being taken or destroyed. 

 This achievement was rewarded with the title of 

 baron Nelson of the Nile, and a pension of 2000 

 pounds, besides the honours conferred on him by the 

 grand seignior. His next service was the restoration 

 of the king of Naples, which was accompanied with 

 circumstances of revolting cruelty, which may be 

 attributed to the influence of lady Hamilton (q. v.), 

 the wife of the English ambassador. His connexion 

 with that lady, with whom he lived publicly after the 

 death of her husband, occasioned his separation from 

 lady Nelson, on his return to England. In 1801, he 

 was employed on the expedition to Copenhagen, 

 under Sir Hyde Parker, in which he displayed his 

 accustomed gallantry, and effected the destruction of 

 the Danish ships and batteries. On his return home, 

 he was created a viscount, and his honours were made 

 hereditary in his family, even in the female line. 

 When hostilities recommenced after the peare of 

 Amiens, lord Nelson was appointed to command the 

 fleet in the Mediterranean; and for nearly two years he 

 was engaged in the blockade of Toulon. In spite of 

 his vigilance, the French fleet got out of port, March 

 30, 1805, and, being joined by a Spanish squadron 

 from Cadiz, sailed to the West Indies. The British 

 admiral hastily pursued them, and they returned to 

 Europe, and took shelter at Cadiz. On the 19th of 

 October, the French, commanded by Villeneuve, and 

 the Spaniards, by Gravina, ventured again from 

 Cadiz; and, on the 2 1st, they came up with the Brit- 

 ish squadron off cape Trafalgar. An engagement 

 took place, in which the victory was obtained by the 

 British, at the expense of the life of their commander, 

 who was wounded in the back by a musket ball, and, 

 shortly after, expired. His remains were carried to 

 England; and, after lying in state at Greenwich, he 

 was magnificently interred in St Paul's cathedral, 

 where a monument was erected to his memory. 

 Having left no issue by his wife, an earldom was 

 bestowed on his brother, and a sum of money voted 

 by parliament for the purchase of an estate, which is 

 to descend, with the title, to his collateral relatives. 

 His life has been written by Mr M'Arthur, doctor J. 

 Stanier Clarke, and doctor Soulhey. For an account 

 of the battle of Trafalgar, see Navy. 



NELSON, ROBERT; an English gentleman of for- 

 tune, which he employed in works of benevolence 

 and charity, and, from this circumstance, as well as 

 from the devotional works of which he was the 

 author, is generally distinguished by the epithet of 

 the pious. He was the son of a London merchant 

 engaged in the Levant trade, and was born in Lon- 

 don, 1656. Having gone through the customary 

 course of study, he proceeded to make a continental 

 tour, in company with his friend Edmund Hal ley. 

 On the accession of William, he remained a non- 

 juror, associating and communicating principally with 

 the recusant clergy. These opinions did not, how- 

 ever, interrupt his intimacy with archbishop Tillot- 

 son, whom he assisted in every work which had the 

 good of mankind for its object, till the death of the 

 worthy prelate, who expired in his arms, in 1694. lu 

 1709, the arguments of some of his clerical friends 

 had produced such a degree of conviction upon his 

 mind, that he became a member of the established 

 church, and continued in that communion till his 

 death, which took place at Kensington, January 16, 

 1715. There are few writers on devotional subjects 



