Captain Suckling, having obtained the command of the Raisonnable, of
sixty-four guns, one of the ships put into commission on the occasion,
immediately ordered his nephew from school, and entered him as a
midshipman.

The youth, after being properly equipped for this situation, was sent to
join the ship, then at Sheerness. It should seem, however, that his
uncle could not at that time be on board, or any person whatever who
knew of his coming: for he has been repeatedly heard to say, by one of
his oldest and most esteemed friends, that he paced the deck, after his
arrival from Greenwich, the whole remainder of the day, without being in
the smallest degree noticed by any one; till, at length, the second day
of his being on board, some person, as he expressed it, "kindly took
compassion on him." It was then discovered, for the first time, that he
was the captain's nephew, and appointed to serve on board as a
midshipman. What a primary reception was this, for such a youth to
experience! It did not, however, dispirit him; and he was, no doubt, now
heartily greeted and encouraged, with the golden hopes always inspired,
among young seamen, by the prospect of a Spanish war.

Whatever might be the extent of these hopes, they were destined to be
speedily dissipated. The Spaniards very readily made such concessions as
administration thought it expedient, at that juncture, to accept,
respecting this business; Mr. Harris, his majesty's minister at Madrid,
who had been recalled on the 21st of December 1770, was ordered to
return thither on the 18th of January 1771; and, of course, all the
ships which had been just commissioned for that service, were directed
to be immediately laid up in ordinary, and paid off.

This, on the whole, seemed no very auspicious commencement for the young