678 



BRITAIN. 



Ma takes" 

 the com. 

 mandof 



Cadiz. 



Urilliant 

 victory off 



Nelson. 



Britain, large ships. The action, however, was not decisive, 

 " ~ and the British admiral was prevented by the foggy 

 ' weather and the state of his ships from renewing it 

 next day a disappointment to the sanguine hopes of 

 his country for which he dearly, and, perhaps, un- 

 justly, suffered, by receiving a reprimand from a 

 court martial, for an error of judgment. This court 

 took place on the 22d of July. On the 15th of Sep- 

 ternber, Lord Nelson put to sea, and arriving off 

 9 adiz ' received . tho command of the fleet on that sta- 

 t' " f rom Admiral Collingwood. About the middle 

 of October, having received certain information that 

 the fleet off he would be joined in a day or two by a reinforce- 

 a ment O f seven 8a ;i o f t j, e j; ne f rom j^gfe,,,^ h e bold. 



ly detached Admiral Louis with six ships of the line 

 upon a particular service, in so open a manner as to 

 be seen by the enemy. This manoeuvre deceived 

 Admiral Villaneuve, who, believing that the British 

 fleet was reduced to 21 sail of the line, while the 

 combined French and Spanish fleet counted 33, re- 

 solved to retrieve his fallen fame, by encountering 

 Nelson himself. He accordingly ventured out from 

 Cadiz with a light westerly wind. Lord Nelson ha- 

 ving received his expected reinforcement, immediate- 

 ly sailed in pursuit of him; and on the 21st of Octo- 

 ^ er ' Descried l ' le combined fleet about seven miles to 

 l ^! eastward of Cape Trafalgar. The commander in 

 Trafalgar chief immediately gave the signal for the fleet to bear 

 ained by up in two columns, as they formed in the order of 

 sailing. Lord Nelson in the Victory, led the weather 

 column ; Admiral Collingwood, in the Royal Sove- 

 reign, led that of the lee. Villaneuve had formed his 

 ships in one line ; but as the mode of attack was un- 

 usual, so the structure of his line was new, forming a 

 crescent, convexing to leeward. Nelson's last signal 

 was, " England expects every man to do his duty." 

 It was received with a shout throughout the fleet. 

 About noon the dreadful contest began by the lead- 

 ing ships of the British columns breaking through 

 the enemy's line, which was first effected by Admiral 

 Collingwood. The succeeding ships breaking through 

 in all parts astern of their leaders, engaged the enemy 

 at the muzzles of their guns. At twenty minutes 

 past twelve, the action became general. Lord Nel- 

 son ordered his ship, the Victory, to be run on 

 board the Redoubtable, while his second, the Teme- 

 raire, run on board the next adjacent ship, and in a 

 short time, the four contending vessels were closed 

 in one mass. After a general and furious engage- 

 ment, continued for several hours ; about three P. M. 

 Admiral Gravina, who carried the Spanish flag in the 

 rear, bore away to Cadiz. Five more of the head- 

 most of the enemy, under Admiral Dumanoir, tack- 

 ed and stood to the southward. They were engaged, 

 and the sternmost taken, and nineteen ships of the 

 line remained in all to the British. Of these, two 

 were first rates, and none were under 74 guns. At 

 forty minutes past four, all firing ceased, and a com- 

 plete victory was announced to Lord Nelson, who, 

 . having been wounded early in the action, survived 

 " just to hear the joyous tidings, and died, as he had 

 lived, with heroic foT-titude. It is fresh in every me- 

 mory, how much the public mind required such a 

 victory to console it, amidst the dismay and conster- 

 nation produced by the misfortunes of Austria ; yet 

 it was, perhaps with no great exaggeration of Nel- 

 son's merits, said of the battle of Trafalgar, that it 



" f 



did not recompense his country for his loss. Two 

 days after the engagement, ten ships of the enemy, 

 the remnant of their fleet which had suffered least in 

 the action, ventured out from Cadiz, in the hopes of 

 attacking some of the British ships which were da- 

 maged and scattered by the tremendous state of the 

 weather. But they were repulsed by CollingwoQd, 

 and one of their line was added to the captures. It 

 was necessary, however, to destroy sev.-ral of the 

 prizes; nine were wrecked; four were brought to 

 Gibraltar ; Dumanoir, who had escaped with four 

 ships, at the close of the action, fell in with Sir 

 Richard Strachan off Ferrol, and struck, after a hard 

 contest. 



After the capture of Tippoo Saib's capital, and 

 the death of that potentate, the East India Company 

 seemed for a time to be left without a rival in their 

 eastern empire. Yet in that extensive territory of the 

 Mahrattas, extending nearly a thousand miles, from 

 Delhi to the river Tumbudhra, and from the Bay of 

 Bengal to the Gulf of Cambay, nearly an equal 

 breadth, comprehending a population of 40 millions 

 of people, it might be naturally expected, that chief- 

 tains, of formidable power and consequence, should 

 view, with jealousy, the approach of European con- 

 querors. Among the Mahratta chiefs, the most 

 powerful at the commencement of the present centu- 

 ry, were Dowlut Rao Scindiah, and Jcswunt Rao 

 Holkar. With the former of these potentates, war 

 was commenced by the British in the beginning of 

 1803, and prosecuted with brilliant success. On the 

 north-western frontier of Oude,' general Lake suc- 

 cessively defeated the army of Scindiah, and over- 

 whelmed the forces of Mons. Perron, a French sol- 

 dier of fortune, who commanded a corps of Europe- 

 ans in the service of the Indian prince. In the Dec- 

 can, general Wellcsley followed up a splendid career 

 of victory. The result was to bring Scindiah, and 

 his ally the Rajah of Berar, to a treaty, by which the 

 Mahratta princes ceded a large territory to the com- 

 pany, and acknowledged the protection of the British 

 government. 



Scarcely had Scindiah been suppressed, when ano- 

 ther enemy equally formidable arose,, in the Mahratta 

 chieftain Holkar, formerly the inveterate rival of 

 Scindiah, but recently united with him by their com- 

 mon enmity to the British. General Frazer, on the 

 13th of Nov. 1804, attacked and defeated his in- 

 fantry and artillery, near one of his fortresses called 

 Deeg, and obtained a most important victory. Lord 

 Lake, in the November of the same year, surprized 

 the whole force of his cavalry, under the personal 

 command of Holkar, near the city of Ferrackabad, 

 with equal success, and the Indian prince escaped 

 with difficulty from the disastrous field. After these 

 successes, Lord Wellesley returned to Britain. His 

 government, though distinguished by many victories, 

 had been expensive and ambitious. When his suc- 

 cessor in the government, Lord Cornwallis, arrived 

 at Calcutta, he found the finances of the country in a 

 most deplorable state, and, without some great reduc- 

 tion of expenditure, quite unable to meet the contin- 

 gencies of war. The native princes, though defeated, 

 were still able to harass and employ our force. From 

 the extent of their territory, from the numbers of their 

 cavalry, and the hardy and wandering habits of their 

 irregular troops, they were able to survive defeats, 



Brit 



Affair 

 the Ei 



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with 



