n, on reaching
Gibraltar, became infected with the spirit of discouragement then
prevailing in the garrison, called a council of naval captains, and upon
their advice, which could in no wise lessen his own responsibility,
decided to return to England. This culpably unwarrantable act aptly
illustrates the distinction, rarely appreciated, between an error of
judgment and an error of conduct. Upon arrival, he was at once deprived
of his command, a step of unquestionable justice, but which could not
help Jervis. "We were all eyes, looking westward from the mountain
tops," wrote Collingwood, then a captain in the fleet, "but we looked in
vain. The Spanish fleet, nearly double our number, was cruising almost
in view, and our reconnoitring frigates sometimes got among them, while
we expected them hourly to be joined by the French fleet." "I cannot
describe to your lordship," wrote Jervis himself, "the disappointment my
ambition and zeal to serve my country have suffered by this diminution
of my force; for had Admiral Mann sailed from Gibraltar on the 10th of
October, the day he received my orders, and fulfilled them, I have every
reason to believe the Spanish fleet would have been cut to pieces. The
extreme disorder and confusion they were observed to be in, by the
judicious officers who fell in with them, leave no doubt upon my mind
that a fleet so trained and generally well commanded as this is would
have made its way through them in every direction."

Nelson shared this opinion, the accuracy of which was soon to be tested
and proved. "They at home," wrote he to his wife, "do not know what this
fleet is capable of performing; anything and everything. The fleets of
England are equal to meet the world in arms; and of all the fleets I
ever saw, I never beheld one, in point of officers and men, equal to Sir
John Jervis's, who is a commander-in-chief able to lead them to glory."
To a friend he wrote: "Mann is ordered to come up; we shall then be
twenty-two sail-of-the-line such as England hardly ever produced,
commanded by an admiral who will not fail to look the enemy in the face,
be their force what it may. I suppose it will not be more than
thirty-four of-the-line." "The admiral is firm as a rock," wrote at the
same moment the British viceroy of Corsica. Through all doubts and
uncertainties he held on steadily, refusing to leave the rendezvous till
dire necessity forced him, lest Mann, arriving, should be exposed alone
and los