posterity to discover.

"Whatever might be the decree of general satisfaction obtained from this
voyage; which was so liberally fitted out by his majesty's command, and
so ably conducted by those skilful and intrepid commanders, Lord
Mulgrave and Admiral Lutwidge: to such individuals as had undertaken it
for the attainment of nautical knowledge, scientific experience, or even
the gratification of laudable curiosity, it had afforded a very
considerable degree of profit and delight, to compensate the
difficulties and perils so successfully surmounted; and, to the youthful
Nelson, whose aspiring mind was desirous of embracing the whole of these
interesting objects, it proved a continued scene of pleasure.

At the dreadful period when they were so long fast in the ice, he had
earnestly solicited, and at length obtained, the command of a four-oared
cutter, with twelve men, ingeniously constructed for the purpose of
exploring channels, and breaking the ice: yet, while in this perilous
situation, such was the irresistible force of the large bodies of
floating ice, that several acres square were often seen lifted up
between two much larger pieces, and becoming, as it were, one with them;
and, afterwards, the piece, so formed, acting in the same manner on a
second and third; which would probably have continued to be the effect,
till the whole bay had been so filled with ice that the different pieces
could have had no possible motion, had not the stream taken an
unexpected turn, and providentially set the ice out of the bay.

An anecdote is related, as a proof of that cool intrepidity which this
young mariner possessed, even among scenes of such stupendous horror,
which seems well worthy of being also exhibited as a fine picture of
filial affection. During one of the clear nights common to these high