The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-07-27 00:00:00

r--

THE BRITISH PRESS.

.ON DON,
SATURDAY. Jut

LORD NELSON end to, CoMBINLD FLEET.

The AueVend Pgeket, with a mail from Lisbon,
from which place she sailed on the 12th, arrived on
Tuesday at Fa!mouth. The illastt,:gtaln packet
also arrived on the same day, although she did not
leave Lisbon until the 14th. The mails were de-
tained at Falmouth until they should have under-
gone the usual preventive process against ittfeetious
disease, but they are expelled in town this day. Im.
rueliately after the arrival of the Auckland, a mes.
aenger was sent offexpress, with dispatches, contain-
in+,• a letter to Government fiom the BRITISH CON-
svi at Lisbon. Shortly after his arrival in town
yesterday, the following interesting bulletin was
sent from the Admiralty to the other Public Offi-
ces, and to LLOYD'S Coffee House :

" Admiralty, July 26.
" His ltLitesty's ship Decade arrived in the Tagus on the
!oth instant with letters from Lord N:lsgri, dated at sea the
v.ith June. His Lordship, with the squadron under his cont.
mend, rinalnding the Soaniate), was on the 19th in Lat. 27,
N. Um( 60 We,t.
" The enemy's fleet had unfortunately fallen in with, end
captured seve-al shins of a convoy from Antigua, the day after
tt sailed, which was on the 7th of June, of which Lurd Nelson
was appr,,ed.
" The number captured is supposed to be thirteen er fourteen
sail, under convoy of Hit Majesty's ships Nutley and Barba-
does ^

We understand our Cot:sues letter, which is
dated the 12th, farther states, that Lord NELSON,
after landing at Antigua the 2,000 troops, which
.he took on board at Barbadoes, sailed from Anti-
gua on the 13th of Jane, at noon, in pursuit of the
Combined Fleet, which he conceived to be steering
dirett to the Streights of Gibraltar, in hopes of be-
te_ ing able to effeEt their retreat to Cadiz or Toulon.
' Us Lordship accordingly dispatched the Decade, of
35 gni*. Captain Rutstetivotto, to Lisbon, as a
. 41. convenient point from which the intelligence might
i be expeditiously communicated to our blockading
411
fleets, as well north as south of Lisbon. His Lord-
ship also dispatched on the same day, the Martin
sloop of war, of IS guns. Captain SAVAGE, to Gib-
' taltar. to apprise Sir RIEMAN° Bickerton of the
probable return of the Combined Fleet into the
Mediterranean, and of his progress in pursuit of
them. On the arrival of the Decade at Lisbon, our
Cossve hired a lugger, and sent her off on the
'13.11 with the news to Admiral COTTON off Ferrol.
The Wind was W. S. West, fair and strong, and
therefore the lugger probably reached her destina-
tion in good time. We understand, that to make
assurance double sure, he also sent off a vessel with
the intelligence to Ceuie and Gibraltar. Captain
ReTNERTORD, of the Decade, farther stated, that
prior to his departure from Lord NLLSON, one of
the frigates belonging to the Reet fell in with an
American vessel on the 17th of June, which gave
his Lordship intelligence of the enemy. The Decudr
having executed her mission to Lisbon, sailed again
on the 12th in the direelion of Cape St. Vincent, in
expeetation of rejoining the fleet. The reader
will observe, that the above official notice form
the Admiralty only brings dOwn the account
from Lord NILSON to the 15th of June, whereas
the Dreads, did not part from his Lordship until
the 19th. This is not extraordinary ; the na-
tural inference being, that his Lordship met with
nothing to communicate in the interval of any im-
portance. 'there is little Joule, however, hut that
his intelligence to Government comes down to the
very' day of the departine of the Decade. In fad.
we have heard, that there is a letter from his Lord•
ship, of the date the I Sth, in which he says, he shall
soon return to England, in case the Combined
Fleet shall succeed in effenieg their escape. This is
indeed only what we might expea. His Lordship
has had a long and severe cruise. After such a
ei.eitieetcd exertion, su,:h a stretch of unwinking
vigilance and anxio!:c stispener, a more vigorous
constitution would require some recreation and re-
pose. Such is the information brought to Europe
by the Decade. We consider it, upon the whole,
big'dy favourable, and well calculated to encourage
the sanguine expeaation so generally entertained,
that Lord NEI SON has been able to overtake the
enemy. '1 he Carif re left his Lordship on the 12th
of June at Antigua, proposing to land the Batbadoes
troops there, and resume the pursuit of the enemy, and
by following his Lordship's dire lions, she afterwards
passed the enemy nn tie 2Oth in lat. 32. I L. long. sd.
It appears now from the report of the Decade, that
his Lordship was not delayed by any accident at
Antigua I that he left it the very next day. the lath,
ad pursued tie enemy in the right track, having

'~.

e

winds, the liability to be Misled by false reportss
and that a king fleet leaves no trace of it in the
war-rs to dired the pursuer, it is a most satisfadory
circumstance that the expe&stion held out by the
Curios: has been adually accomplished. Of the
adual distance of Lord NELSON from the enemy
on the 19th, it is impossible, upon the date which
we have, to form an estimate that can he relied
upon as corred, or nearly approaching the truth.
It appears from the pies ious statement, that Lord
NELsos was left by the Lhc,,de, on the I .Ith, two
degrees to the west, and six degrees to the south of
the point in which the Combined Fleet were recut,-
noitred by the Curieux on the 20th. His Lordship
steered due north from tile time he left Antigua,
and it is probable he did not materially vary his
course the next day. He could not, therefore, be
considered as much less than six degrees or 150
leagues distant from the Combined Fleet on the I
morning of the 20th. Now Lord NELSON'S place
on the 19th is more than two-thirds of the whole
distance from Antigua to the point in which the
Combined Fleet were seen on the 20th. and the
latter pas' d Antigua on the Bth, while Lord N EL-
son did nut leave it until the 13th. Supposing then
each fleet to have sailed with an uniform velocity re-
spedively, it will be found, that his Lordship passed
over as great a space in six days as the enemy ac-
complished in nine. If then we allow his Lordship
to have been between two and three days sail of the
place in which the enemy were seen on the 420th,
and supposing the enemy to hold on their course at
the same rate ; Lord NELSON, gaining upon them
by one day in every three, could not by any
possibility have overtaken them until the 25th or
26th of June. This is indeed a very rough calcula-
tion, but it may serve to restrain the impatience of
those who, not considering the very quick passage
of the Curieur, and the great distance of Lord
NelsoN behind the enemy on the 12th of June,
indulge in fears and apprehensions, and anti-
cipate the escape of the enemy, because we
have not long since received an official aCCOUTt of
their defeat. Such expedations are extravagant and
childish. They are, however, very pardonable ;
for, what is there so difficult and glorious to
atchieve, that we have not been taught to expect
from a British fleet, commanded by Lord Nat.-
son? It is far from our wish to encourage
the too sannuine hopes of those wh• relied so
muds upon the slow sailing of the enemy in
their speculations upon the chance of their being
speedily overtaken. Exclusive, however, of the
rapid rate in which Lord NeLsors appears to
have been nearing them, and of the sound-
ness of the intelligence upon which he has
grounded his opinion of their being upon their
return to Europe, the circumstance of his Lordship
holding a more westerly course than the enemy is
at once worthy of his judgment, and peculiarly fa-
vourable to his fortune. Either the enemy are upon
their return to Europe, every accessible port of
which, unless indeed an English port, is blockaded
against them, or they proposed to seek shelter in an
American harbour, or to double back upon the
West Indies, and return to Martinique, where, if
such was their intention, considering their sickly
state and their cowardice, might be truly said of
them :

.4 Aid, u an hart whom hounds and !tomb pursue,
.' Pants to the place front whence at first she Clew,
" I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
" Here to return—and die at none at Latt.**--
Whichever of these may have been the objea of the
enemy, Lord NSASON'S course was chosen to meet
and defeat them all. If they were returning to Eu-
rope he was in the right track, and gaining upon
them at the rate of twelve hours in every thirty-►ix.
If they were bound for the Chesapeak, or meant
to double back upon the West Indies, he was on the
very line in which they would be most liable to fall
in with our fleet. We shall nut dwell longer upon
this subjea, than merely to observe, that the Com teas,
which left the Combined Fleet on the 20th, in long.
58. arrived at Falmouth on the 7th July ; and that '
the Decade, what parted Lord Nri.sote, in long. Go.
About two degrees more remote, on the I;yth, arrived
at Lisbon, on the 10th. The distance to Lisbou
is much shorter than the voyage of the Canter to
Falmouth ; and, therefore, if we suppose Lord Nat..
sots not to have overtaken the enemy until the
'2sth or 2,ith, it will be found, supposing his account
of the result to come with the same rapidity as the
Decade, we had no tight to expect its arrival in
London until about the present time.

A Telegraphic dispatch yesterday announced the
arrival of the homeward bound East India fleet off
the hie of Wight.

The Champion, of 20 guns, Captain liaout LT.
arrive) on Thursday, in the Downs, much damaged
in -air anion which, in company with the Gi..l,r
she

%p ,
!
i
i
1 1
i
, i
t 4
li
1 .
!
,a,
p
..,
i
, . ,
r„,
,
,
1
: )
I
•

reaelled, on the 19th, lat. 27, long. 60. It may be And Grader gun-brigs, and Franrss cutter, she sus-
said that the intelligence brought by the Cat ieur t.inzJ, a tew days since, between Dieppe and Doti-
gAve us a tiert to eapeZt this ; but, when we cern- I,igne, with foul teen or fifteen of the enemy's large
tide' the rails of the sea, the uncertainty of the s praAms and gun-wessets, that were %working their
•