in the procedure, by which the senior naval officer would have more
control over the purchases than simply to certify that so much money
was wanted. The Comptroller of the Navy replied that the old forms
were sufficient,--"a circumstance which hurt me," wrote Nelson; while
all the civil functionaries resented his interference with their
methods, and seem to have received the tacit support, if not the
direct sympathy, of the Navy Board, as the Civil Department was then
called. His disposition to look into matters, however, had become
known, and the long struggle over the contraband trade had given him
in the islands a reputation for tenacity and success. It was probably
in dependence upon these that two merchants came to him, two months
before he left the station, and told him of the existence of very
extensive frauds, dating back several years, in which were implicated
both civil officials of the Navy and private parties on shore. It is
possible that the informants themselves had shared in some of these
transactions, and they certainly demanded in payment a part of the
sums recovered; but, as Nelson truly said, the question was not as to
their character, but how to stop the continuance of embezzlements
which had then amounted to over two millions sterling.

The reports made by him upon this subject reached London about a month
before the return of the "Boreas;" but the war scare, and the urgent
call upon all departments of the Navy to mobilize the available force,
prevented any immediate steps being taken. His letters were
acknowledged, and the intention expressed to investigate the matter,
but nothing more was then done. October, however, the Prussian troops
occupied Amsterdam, reinstating the Stadtholder in all his privileges,
and restoring to power the partisans of Great Britain; while France
remained passive, her power for external action paralyzed by the dying
convulsions of the monarchy. The curtain had just risen upon the