illyar, though a brave and experienced officer, a favorite with Nelson,
whose esteem could not be won without high professional merit, was
reputed to have shown scanty scruples about neutral rights on a previous
occasion, when the disregard of them procured an advantage to the
enterprise he had in hand. Being sent with several armed boats to attack
two Spanish corvettes lying in the port of Barcelona, in the year 1800,
he had pulled alongside a neutral vessel, a Swede, which was standing
into the harbor; and after examining her papers in the due exercise of
his right as a belligerent, his boats hooked on to her, thus using a
neutral to tow them into the enemy's port, so that his men reached their
scene of exertion unfatigued by the oar, and for a great part of the way
protected by such respect as the Spanish batteries might show to a
neutral coerced into aiding a hostile undertaking. "Having approached
within about three quarters of a mile of the nearest battery," says the
British naval historian James, "and being reminded by two shots which
passed over the galliot that it was time to retire from the shelter of a
neutral vessel, Captain Hillyar pulled away." Both the Spanish and
Swedish Governments complained of this act, and their complaints
delayed the promotion which Hillyar's gallantry would otherwise have
won. Whatever the strict propriety of his conduct in this case, it was
sufficiently doubtful to excite a just suspicion that Hillyar would not
be deterred, by over-delicacy about the neutrality of the port, from
seizing any advantage offered him by the unwariness of his enemy; and so
the event proved.

On the 7th of February a dance was given on board the Essex, which
lasted till midnight. In order that her officers might share in the
entertainment, the Essex Junior was allowed to anchor, though in a
position to have a clear view of the sea; but, when the guests began to
depart, her commander went on board and got under way to resume his
station outside. Before the decorations of the ball-room had been taken
down, a signal was made from her that two enemy's ships were in sight. A
whole watch--one third of the Essex's crew--were then on shore, but were
quickly recalled by a gun. The ship was at once cleared for action, and
the men at their quarters, with all the rapidity to be expected from the
careful drilling they had had during their long commission. Porter
himself had gone to the lookout ship to reconnoitre the