182
LETTERS.
[1800.
am, [were] I never to sec prize-money. Lord Keith is nowhere, and I have only to obey. Make my best respects accept-able to Mrs. Davison, and ever believe me your most obligedfriend,
Bronte Nelson.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL SPENCER, K.G.
[Letter-Book.]
My dear Lord,
I came here in order to meet Lord Keith, and we are goingtogether to Palermo and Malta . If Sir James St. Clair orGeneral Fox had felt themselves authorized to have given ustwo thousand troops, I think Malta by this time would havefallen, and our poor Ships released from the hardest ser-vice I have ever seen. The going away of the Russians hasalmost done me up, but the King of Naples has ordered twothousand six hundred troops from Sicily to assist Graham,and they are to be under our command. It is true they arcnot good soldiers, but they will ease ours in the fatiguesof duty. The feeding the inhabitants of Malta and payingtwo thousand of the people who bear arms, has been a con-tinued source of uneasiness to my mind, llis Sicilian Majestyhas done more than it was possible to expect he had the abilityof performing; for the revenues of his Kingdom are hardlyyet come round, and his demands arc excessive from allquarters of his Dominions. Lord Keith will now be able tojudge with his own eyes and ears, and your Lordship willsee his report.
The loyalty and attachment of their Sicilian Majesties toour King and Country is such, that I would venture tolay down my head to be cut off, if they would not ratherlose their Kingdom of Naples than hold it on terms fromAustria and the French , by a separation from their alliancewith England. There is not a thing which his Majestycan desire, that their Majesties of the Two Sicilies will nothave the greatest pleasure in complying with. I have be-fore ventured an opinion on the character of their Sicilian Majesties. The King is a real good man but inclined to be