.

It was at the period while this brave and good man was thus honourably
and actively engaged, that a circumstance occurred, which seems to
indicate that he must have been under the peculiar protection of
Providence.

Having, one night, as was usual with him, while proceeding by land to
the scene of action, had his cot slung between two trees, he slept very
soundly till the morning; when he was early awakened, and not a little
startled, by a lizard's passing over his face. He now suddenly arose;
and, on hastily turning down the bed-cloaths, a large snake was
discovered lying at his feet, without having offered him the smallest
injury, though it was of a well known venomous species. The surrounding
Indians, who beheld this singular spectacle with astonishment--like the
barbarians of Melita, when the Apostle Paul shook off the viper--began
to consider him as a sort of divinity, and determined to follow him
wherever he went. They now, in fact, eagerly flocked after him, in
crowds, with the idea that no harm could possibly come to them while
they were in his presence. This occurrence, therefore, independent of
it's extreme singularity, had an effect very favourable to the purposes
of the expedition.

Though, however. Captain Nelson providentially escaped not only the
venom of the snake, but the pestilential catastrophe which afterwards
befel almost every individual of his unfortunate ship's company, as well
as the land forces with whom he entered Fort Juan; he was, nevertheless,
in a few days, violently seized with the contagion: and, fatigued and
disappointed as he had been, in the attainment of what now manifestly
appeared to him of little or no consequence, for even the treasure of
the castle had been removed before it's surrender, he was sinking fast
to the grave; with scarcely a hope, or even a wish, to survive the brave
fellows who were every day falling around him.

While he lay in this deplorable state, the reinforcement of troops which
had immediately been sent from Jamaica, on the first news of the
surrender of Fort Juan, brought intelligence that Captain Bonnovier
Glover, the commander of the Janus of forty-four guns, died on the 21st
of March, and that Sir Peter Parker had appointed Captain Nelson to
succeed him. This kind promotion, he has been often heard to say,
certainly saved his life. He immediately sailed to Jamaica, on board
the Victor sloop, that he might take possession of the Janus; and hope,
th