He had, however, already measured the capabilities of the Spanish Navy.

They have very fine ships, he admits, but they are shockingly manned,--so much so that if only the barges' crews of the six British vessels that entered Cadiz, numbering at the most seventy-five to a hundred men, but all picked, could have got on board one of their first-rates, he was certain they could have captured her, although her ship's company numbered nearly a thousand.

"If those we are to meet in the Mediterranean are no better manned," he continues, "much service cannot be expected of them." The prediction proved true, for no sooner did Hood find the Spanish admiral than the latter informed him he must go to Cartagena, having nineteen hundred sick in his fleet.

The officer who brought this message said it was no wonder they were sickly, for they had been sixty days at sea.

This excited Nelson's derision--not unjustly.