The first ship to which Captain Nelson was appointed, after his advancement to post rank, was the Hinchinbroke.  Soon after which, in July 1779, the report of an intended expedition against Jamaica, by Count D’Estaigne, with a fleet of one hundred and twenty-five sail, men of war and transports; and having, as it was said, twenty-five thousand troops ready to embark, at the Cape; occasioned every exertion to be used for the defence of the island:  and, such was the general confidence in the skill and bravery of Captain Nelson, that both the admiral and the governor agreed to entrust him with the command of the battery of Fort Charles, considered as one of the most important posts in Jamaica.

This threatened invasion, however, was never attempted:  and, in the month of January 1780, an expedition began to be prepared, from Jamaica, against the Spanish territories in America.

Of this important undertaking, in which Captain Nelson bore so distinguished a part, a most interesting account has been given by Dr. Moseley, Physician to Chelsea Hospital, in his celebrated Treatise on Tropical Diseases, on Military Operations, and on the Climate of the West Indies.  This gentleman was then Surgeon-General of the Island of Jamaica; and, from his intimacy with Captain Nelson, had every opportunity of knowing all such particulars as did not come under his own immediate observation.  It’s uncommon excellence, notwithstanding it’s extreme length as an extract, will prevent it’s seeming tedious.

“This expedition,” says Dr. Moseley, “was directed by General Dalling, at that time Governor of Jamaica.  The plan, wherever it originated, was judiciously designed; and highly approved by Lord George Germaine, then Secretary of State for the American Department.

“The intent was, to cut off the communication of the Spaniards, between their Northern and Southern American dominions, by El Rio San Juan—­or, the River St. John, as it is called by us—­and the Lake Nicaragua; from the interior boundary of which, to the South Sea, is only four or five leagues, through a level country.  Thus, a connection from the northern to the southern sea, was to have been kept up by us; a chain of posts established; and a communication opened, and protected, with an extensive coast, and all the richest, provinces of South America.

“Every person acquainted with the geography of the Spanish territories, of the defenceless state of this approach to them, and of the insurrections that had then actually taken place in Santa Fe, Popayan, and many parts of Peru, formed the most sanguine expectations.  Happy was every man who had hopes of bearing any part in the enterprise.  Enthusiasm was never carried to greater height, than by those who had promised to themselves the glory of shaking Spain to her foundation.  The colours of England were, in their imagination, already even on the walls of Lima.