offer my services." He did see Lord Howe, at that time First
Lord, asking him for a ship; and he renewed his cordial relations with
Hood, then living in London. On the 18th of March Howe appointed him
to the command of the frigate "Boreas." Occupation in peace, with a
reduced establishment, was not easy to get, and his brother, an
inveterate wirepuller, must needs know to whose favor Nelson owed it.
"You ask," replied the hero, "by what interest did I get a ship? I
answer, having served with credit was my recommendation to Lord Howe.
Anything in reason that I can ask, I am sure of obtaining from his
justice." The statement was no more than fair to Howe; but in his
knowledge of the merits of Nelson, whose claim lay rather in evident
promise than in conspicuous performance, we can probably trace the
friendly intervention of Lord Hood.

Nelson's wish was that the "Boreas" should go to the East Indies. To
this he inclined, apparently, because the station was to be under the
command of Commodore Cornwallis, in whose ship he had returned from
Jamaica as an invalid in 1780, and to whom on that occasion he was
indebted for the most friendly care. He was not long allowed to
indulge this hope, for five days after receiving his appointment he
wrote that the ship was bound to the Leeward Islands, and that he had
been asked to take as passengers the wife and family of the
commander-in-chief, Sir Richard Hughes, who had already gone out. In a
small vessel, for such the "Boreas" was, the request, which he could
not well refuse, gave Nelson cause of reasonable discontent, entailing
crowding and a large outlay of money. "I shall be pretty well filled
with _lumber_," he wrote; and later, on the voyage out, "I shall not
be sorry to part with them, although they are very pleasant, good
people; but they are an incredible expense." The incident, annoying
though it was, was not without compensations. After arriving on the
station, he soon became involved in a serious difference with Sir
Richard Hughes; and the latter, though a weak man and in the wrong,
might have acted more peremptorily, had he not laid himself under such
obligations. On the other hand, Lady Hughes, many years later, shortly
after Nelson's death, committed to writing some recollections of his
personal traits and actions during the passage, so characteristic,
even though trivial, that we could ill have spared them.

"I was too much affected when we met at Bath," wrote she t