considerable body of Spaniards invested it, on the 28th of November; and
the garrison and crew of the Porcupine, left for it's protection, were
so reduced by a pestilential disorder which raged among them, that they
were constrained to evacuate the fort, after spiking the guns and
embarking the ammunition and stores.

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.