having Spanish property on board – British sailors reported that they had been forcibly detained, and made to fight against the allies of their country Masters and Supercargoes of ships said they had been plundered on the high seas, under the form of local usage and regular duties. – Englishmen represented themselves as being unjustly imprisoned – each party charged us with favoring their opponents – the crews of ships, taking advantage of the general state of confusion, mutinied and refused to do their duty:– in short, all was out of order, nothing was flowing in its natural course, every thing being, in fact, under the guidance of men whose bad passions were at their height, and whose minds were in such a frame, that they interpreted every thing in the worst language it would bear. This dislocation of society was not confined to a single port, or a single state, but extended, with more or less distraction, over the whole continent, threatening all social order and security of persons, as well as destruction to the great mass of commerce which, notwithstanding the forbidding aspect of affairs, was always ready to flow in at every casual opening, in spite of all prudence and experience.
At a time when very few, if any other man, saw his way clearly through this dark and troubled prospect, Sir Thomas Hardy appears never to have faltered, or been at a loss; and this confidence, as he sought on every occasion to impress on the minds of his officers, consisted principally, he told them, in their being totally pure and disinterested personally in all that was going on – in maintaining themselves, above all, free from political party spirit on every hand; and whatever seeming provocation might arise, never to consider that any disrespect was intentional, unless it were obvious; to be slow, in short, to take offence, national or personal, unless it could not be mistaken; and in every consequent explanation to recollect, that voluntary acknowledgment, however trifling, was always better than any whatsoever that was compulsory. When decision and firmness, however, became necessary, as they sometimes did, the different governments and their servants, speedily learnt that nobody could be more immoveably resolute than he was; and yet the sentiment which his private habits and public conduct had inspired, not only amongst the Spaniards and the native powers, but
