On the 4th of May the squadron was off Tetuan, on the African coast, a little east of Gibraltar, and, as the wind was too foul for progress, Nelson, ever watchful over supplies, determined to stop for water and fresh beef, which the place afforded.  There he was joined by the frigate “Decade” from Gibraltar, and for the first time, apparently, received a rumor that the allied fleets had gone to the West Indies.  He complains, certainly not unreasonably, and apparently not unjustly, that Sir John Orde, who had seen the French arrive off Cadiz, had not dogged their track and ascertained their route; a feat certainly not beyond British seamanship and daring, under the management of a dozen men that could be named off-hand.  “I believe my ill luck is to go on for a longer time, and I now much fear that Sir John Orde has not sent his small ships to watch the enemy’s fleet, and ordered them to return to the Straits mouth, to give me information, that I might know how to direct my proceedings:  for I cannot very properly run to the West Indies, without something beyond mere surmise; and if I defer my departure, Jamaica may be lost.  Indeed, as they have a month’s start of me, I see no prospect of getting out time enough to prevent much mischief from being done.  However, I shall take all matters into my most serious consideration, and shall do that which seemeth best under all circumstances.”  “I am like to have a West India trip,” he wrote to Keats, one of his favorite captains; “but that I don’t mind, if I can but get at them.”

The wind hauling somewhat to the southward on the 5th, allowed the fleet to lay a course for Gibraltar.  The operation of getting bullocks was stopped at once, and the ships weighed.  In this brief stay, the water of the fleet had been completed and another transport cleared.  Next day Gibraltar was reached.  The wind, westerly still, though fair for this stretch, remained foul for beating out of the Straits against a current which ever sets to the eastward; and many of the officers, presuming on a continuance of the weather that had so long baffled them, hurried their washing ashore.  Nelson, however, keenly vigilant and with long experience, saw indications of a change.  “Off went a gun from the Victory, and up went the Blue Peter,[97] whilst the Admiral paced the deck in a hurry, with anxious steps, and impatient of a moment’s delay.  The officers said, ’Here is one of Nelson’s mad pranks.’  But he was right."[98] The wind came fair, a condition with which the great admiral never trifled.  Five hours after the anchors dropped they were again at the bows, and the fleet at last standing out of the Mediterranean; the transports in tow of the ships of war.  Nelson’s resolve was fast forming to go to the West Indies.  In fact, at Tetuan, acting upon this possibility, he had given conditional orders to Bickerton to remain in command of the Mediterranean squadron, assigning to that service half a dozen frigates and double that number of smaller cruisers, and had