The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson | Page 8

neighbouring tribes were conciliated with
presents, and brought in. The troops were encamped on a swampy and
unwholesome plain, where they were joined by a party of the 79th
regiment from Black River, who were already in a deplorable state of
sickness. Having remained here a month, they proceeded, anchoring
frequently, along the Mosquito shore, to collect their Indian allies, who
were to furnish proper boats for the river, and to accompany them.
They reached the river San Juan, March 24th; and here, according to
his orders, Nelson's services were to terminate; but not a man in the
expedition had ever been up the river, or knew the distance of any
fortification from its mouth; and he not being one who would turn back
when so much was to be done, resolved to carry the soldiers up. About
two hundred, therefore, were embarked in the Mosquito shore craft and
in two of the HINCHINBROOK's boats, and they began their voyage.
It was the latter end of the dry season, the worst time for such an
expedition; the river was consequently low. Indians were sent forward
through narrow channels between shoals and sandbanks, and the men
were frequently obliged to quit the boats and exert their utmost strength
to drag or thrust them along. This labour continued for several days;
when they came into deeper water, they had then currents and rapids to
contend with, which would have been insurmountable but for the skill
of the Indians in such difficulties. The brunt of the labour was borne by
them and by the sailors--men never accustomed to stand aloof when
any exertion of strength or hardihood is required. The soldiers, less

accustomed to rely upon themselves, were of little use. But all equally
endured the violent heat of the sun, rendered more intense by being
reflected from the white shoals; while the high woods, on both sides of
the river, were frequently so close as to prevent any refreshing
circulation of air; and during the night all were equally exposed to the
heavy and unwholesome dews.
On the 9th of April they reached an island in the river, called San
Bartolomeo, which the Spaniards had fortified, as an outpost, with a
small semicircular battery, mounting nine or ten swivels, and manned
with sixteen or eighteen men. It commanded the river in a rapid and
difficult part of the navigation. Nelson, at the head of a few of his
seamen, leaped upon the beach. The ground upon which he sprung was
so muddy that he had some difficulty in extricating himself, and lost his
shoes: bare-footed, however, he advanced, and, in his own phrase,
BOARDED THE BATTERY. In this resolute attempt he was bravely
supported by Despard, at that time a captain in the army, afterward
unhappily executed for his schemes of revolutionary treason. The castle
of San Tuan is situated about 16 miles higher up; the stores and
ammunition, however, were landed a few miles below the castle, and
the men had to march through woods almost impassable. One of the
men was bitten under the eye by a snake which darted upon him from
the bough of a tree. He was unable to proceed from the violence of the
pain; and when, after a short while, some of his comrades were sent
back to assist him, he was dead, and the body already putrid. Nelson
himself narrowly escaped a similar fate. He had ordered his hammock
to be slung under some trees, being excessively fatigued, and was
sleeping, when a monitory lizard passed across his face. The Indians
happily observed the reptile; and knowing what it indicated, awoke him.
He started up, and found one of the deadliest serpents of the country
coiled up at his feet. He suffered from poison of another kind; for
drinking at a spring in which some boughs of the manchineel had been
thrown, the effects were so severe as, in the opinion of some of his
friends, to inflict a lasting injury upon his constitution.
The castle of San Juan is 32 miles below the point where the river
issues from the Lake of Nicaragua, and 69 from its mouth. Boats reach

the sea from thence in a day and a-half; but their navigation back, even
when unladen, is the labour of nine days. The English appeared before
it on the 11th, two days after they had taken San Bartolomeo. Nelson's
advice was, that it should instantly be carried by assault; but Nelson
was not the commander; and it was thought proper to observe all the
formalities of a siege. Ten days were wasted before this could be
commenced. It was a work more of fatigue than of danger; but fatigue
was more to be dreaded than the enemy; the rains set in; and could the
garrison