st often used, and which more accurately expresses his
desire for fame; honor, which is to glory what character is to
reputation,--the same hard fortune persisted in denying to him, during
the War of the American Revolution, the opportunities for distinction
which he so ardently coveted. In the "Badger" and in the
"Hinchinbrook," during the year 1779, his service was confined to
routine cruising about Jamaica and along the Mosquito coast of Central
America. A gleam of better things for a moment shone upon him in
August of that year, when the French fleet, under Count D'Estaing,
appeared in Haiti, numbering twenty-two ships-of-the-line, with
transports reported to be carrying twenty thousand troops. All Jamaica
was in an uproar of apprehension, believing an attack upon the island
to be imminent; for its conquest was known to be one of the great
objects of the enemy. Nelson was at the time living on shore, the
"Hinchinbrook" seemingly[4] not having returned to the port since his
appointment to her, and he eagerly accepted the duty of commanding the
land batteries. The odds were great,--"You must not be surprised to
hear of my learning to speak French," he wrote, laughingly, to Locker
in England,--but if so, the greater the honor attendant, whether upon
success or defeat. D'Estaing, however, passed on to America to
encounter disaster at Savannah, and Nelson's hopes were again
disappointed.

In January, 1780, an opportunity for service offered, which ended in
no conspicuous or permanent result, but nevertheless conferred
distinction upon one who, to use his own expression, was determined to
climb to the top of the tree, and to neglect no chance, however
slight, that could help him on. War with Spain had then been about
seven months declared, and the British governor of Jamaica had
sagaciously determined to master Lake Nicaragua, and the course of the
river San Juan, its outlet to the Caribbean Sea. The object of the
attempt was twofold, both military and commercial. The route was
recognized then, as it is now, as one of the most important, if not
the most important, of those affording easy transit from the Pacific
to the Atlantic by way of the Isthmus. To a nation of the mercantile
aptitudes of Great Britain, such a natural highway was necessarily an
object of desire. In her hands it would not only draw to itself the
wealth of the surrounding regions, but would likewise promote the
development of her trade, both north and