was found impossible to stifle the joy which broke forth, and pervaded all ranks of people, at seeing the son of their beloved Monarch among them.
In the course of November in the same year, he proceeded to the Leeward Island station, where he continued some months under the orders of the late Lord Nelson, at that time Captain of the Boreas frigate, whom he joined, and sup-ported in correcting the abuses in the dock-yard at Antigua, as well as among the contractors, prize-agents, &c. The friendship that had before subsisted between these officers, had been kept up by an occasional correspondence[1]; and they now contracted that permanent regard for each other, which became so highly honourable and beneficial to both. “It was at this era,” says the Prince, “that I particularly observed the greatness of Nelson’s superior mind. The manner in which he enforced the spirit of the Navigation Act, first drew my attention to the commercial interests of my country. We visited the different islands together; and as much as the manoeuvres of fleets can be described off the headlands of islands, we fought over again the principal naval actions in the American war. Excepting the naval tuition which I had received on board the Prince George, when the present Rear-Admiral Keats[2] was Lieutenant of her, and for whom both of us equally entertained a sincere regard, my mind took its first decided naval turn from this familiar intercourse with Nelson[3].”
The high opinion which that great man entertained of the Prince, is illustrated by the following extract from a letter to his early friend, Captain Locker. “You must have heard long before this reaches you, that Prince William is under my command. I shall endeavour to take care that he is not a loser by that circumstance. He has his foibles, as well as private men;
- ↑ A large portion of Clarke and M‘Arthur’s splendid Life of Lord Nelson is compiled from the correspondence the hero kept up with his Royal Highness.
- ↑ The present worthy Governor of Greenwich Hospital.
- ↑ During the time the Prince remained on the Leeward Island station, H.R.H. and Nelson dined alternately with each other. A piece of the mast of the Victory, before which Nelson fell, has been consecrated to his memory by the Duke of Clarence, in a Naval Temple at Bushy Park, which also contains a bust of the noble Admiral.
