ly effected, it was judiciously agreed, between
the naval and military commanders, to unite their forces, and proceed
immediately to the attack of Fort Omoa, Accordingly, on the 16th of
October, they stormed and carried the fort: taking, and carrying away,
the register-ships, on board of which were about three millions of
piastres; as well as two hundred and fifty quintals of quicksilver,
found on shore in the fortress. From the advantages of participating in
this brilliant enterprise, Captain Locker had been thus deprived by want
of health; and his second lieutenant, singular as it may seem, by an
excess of patronage.

While these transactions were taking place, however, Captain Nelson had,
on the 11th of June 1779, obtained his post-rank, through the same
generous influence as withdrew him from the now fortunate Lowestoffe. He
had, therefore, neither reason nor inclination to complain, for he had
not yet completed his twenty-first year. In the bloom and vigour of
youth, with an age of experience in the service, acquired within nine
years, he was well qualified for the situation to which he had been thus
liberally promoted.

The possession of Fort Omoa continued little more than a month. A
considerable body of Spaniards invested it, on the 28th of November; and
the garrison and crew of the Porcupine, left for it's protection, were
so reduced by a pestilential disorder which raged among them, that they
were constrained to evacuate the fort, after spiking the guns and
embarking the ammunition and stores.

The first ship to which Captain Nelson was appointed, after his
advancement to post rank, was the Hinchinbroke. Soon after which, in
July 1779, the report of an intended expedition against Jamaica, by
Count D'Estaigne, with a fleet of one hundred and twenty-five sail, men
of war and transports; and having, as it was said, twenty-five thousand
troops ready to embark, at the Cape; occasioned every exertion to be
used for the defence of the island: and, such was the general confidence
in the skill and bravery of Captain Nelson, that both the admiral and
the governor agreed to entrust him with the command of the battery of
Fort Charles, considered as one of the most important posts in Jamaica.

This threatened invasion, however, was never attempted: and, in the
month of January 1780, an expedition began to be prepared, from Jamaica,
against the Spanish territories in America.

Of this important undertaking, in which Ca