high-minded cockswain; who, pouting his lip, as he was wont to
do when agitated, replied, 'Sir, I wished to kill the bear, that
I might carry its skin to my father.'"

Upon his return to England from the Arctic Seas, Nelson again by his
own choice determined his immediate future. Within a fortnight of
leaving the "Carcass," he was, through his uncle's influence, received
on board by the captain of the "Seahorse," of twenty guns, one of the
ships composing a squadron that was just then fitting out for the East
Indies. To quote himself, "Nothing less than such a distant voyage
could in the least satisfy my desire of maritime knowledge." During an
absence of three years he for much of the time, as formerly in his
West India cruise, did the duty of a seaman aloft, from which he was
afterwards rated midshipman, and placed, this time finally, upon the
quarter-deck as an officer. In the ordinary course of cruising in
peace times, he visited every part of the station from Bengal to
Bussorah; but the climate, trying even to vigorous Europeans, proved
too much for his frail health. After a couple of years he broke down
and was invalided home, reaching England in September, 1776. His
escape from death was attributed by himself to the kind care of
Captain Pigot of the "Dolphin," in which ship he came back. At this
period we are told that, when well, he was of florid countenance,
rather stout and athletic; but, as the result of his illness, he was
reduced to a mere skeleton, and for some time entirely lost the use of
his limbs,--a distressing symptom, that returned upon him a few years
later after his Central American expedition in 1780, and confirms the
impression of extreme fragility of constitution, which is frequently
indicated in other ways.

During this absence in the East Indies Captain Suckling, in April,