The most striking feature in this highly important victory is the boldness that prompted the attack. Another commander might have paused ere, with 15 sail of the line, he ran into the midst of 25; and then the separated ships would have closed, and the enemy's line been too compact to be attempted with any hope of success. But Sir John Jervis, relying upon the firmness of his band, and viewing with the eye of a practised seaman the loose and disordered state of the foe, resolved at once to profit by it : he rushed on and conquered. That, as usually asserted, he broke the enemy's line, cannot be said ; for there was no line to be broken. An acknowledgment, which the gallant admiral himself was more ready to make than any of his commentators ; for, in one of his letters relative to some charge that had been made against a Spanish rear-admiral engaged in the fleet, Sir John says, "I am ignorant in what part of the Spanish line, if it can be called one, Moralez served." * Sir John, in fact, chose the proper moment for advancing : he had a leader who knew not what it was to flinch or hang back ; and he had all about him emulous to follow the example set them by Captain Troubridge.

On the other hand, the very front put on by the British was enough to sink the hearts of the Spaniards ; for it is one of the characteristics of true valour, to daunt by its intrepidity, and to begin to subdue, ere it begins to combat. If the Spaniards were in confusion at the commencement, they were still more so during the progress of the action. Their ships were so huddled together, that, if a shot did not strike one, it was almost sure to strike another ; and many of the ships were unable to fire at all, without firing, as they frequently did, into their comrades. All this disorder infused additional confidence into the British ; and they "rattled through" the business, more as if it were a game of harmless sport, than one in which the hazard thrown was for life or death. At length the separated divisions got together, and the Spanish admiral formed his ships in line. Instantly the British admiral assembled his scattered ships, and soon formed them in equal, if not better order. Each party then drew off, the one to lament, the other to exult, over the occurrences of the day.

The acknowledged crippled state of the Santisima-Trinidad, and of one or two other ships of the Spanish fleet, at the close of the action, renders it doubtful whether more might not have been done, had the British fleet continued in pursuit. Night, it is true, was coming on ; but it was that very night which would have brought the two fleets nearer to an equality. The greater the difficulties of manoeuvring, the greater were the

* Clarke and M`Arthur's Life of Nelson, vol. ii., p. 15:

^ back to top ^