n sail of the line, six forty-four gun frigates, one
of twenty-six guns, three corvettes, and a brig. They were joined
afterwards by two new French line-of-battle ships, and one forty-four.
Nelson pursued them with ten sail of the line and three frigates. "Take
you a Frenchman apiece," said he to his captains, "and leave me the
Spaniards: when I haul down my colours, I expect you to do the same, and
not till then."

The enemy had five-and-thirty days' start; but he calculated that he
should gain eight or ten days upon them by his exertions. May 15th he
made Madeira, and on June 4th reached Barbadoes, whither he had sent
despatches before him; and where he found Admiral Cochrane, with two
ships, part of our squadron in those seas being at Jamaica. He found
here also accounts that the combined fleets had been seen from St. Lucia
on the 28th, standing to the southward, and that Tobago and Trinidad
were their objects. This Nelson doubted; but he was alone in his
opinion, and yielded it with these foreboding words: "If your
intelligence proves false, you lose me the French fleet." Sir W. Myers
offered to embark here with 2000 troops; they were taken on board, and
the next morning he sailed for Tobago. Here accident confirmed the false
intelligence which had, whether from intention or error, misled him. A
merchant at Tobago, in the general alarm, not knowing whether this fleet
was friend or foe, sent out a schooner to reconnoitre, and acquaint him
by signal. The signal which he had chosen happened to be the very one
which had been appointed by Col. Shipley of the engineers to signify
that the enemy were at Trinidad; and as this was at the close of the
day, there was no opportunity of discovering the mistake. An American
brig was met with about the same time, the master of which, with that
propensity to deceive the English and assist the French in any manner
which has been but too common among his countrymen, affirmed that he
had been boarded off Granada a few days before by the French, who were
standing towards the Bocas of Trinidad. This fresh intelligence removed
all doubts. The ships were cleared for action before daylight, and
Nelson entered the Bay of Paria on the 7th, hoping and expecting to make
the mouths of the Orinoco as famous in the annals of the British navy
as those of the Nile. Not an enemy was there; and it was discovered that
accident and artifice had combined to lead him so far to leeward, that
there could h