Nelson himself saw the soundings made and the buoys laid down, boating it upon this exhausting service, day and night, till it was effected.

When this was done he thanked God for having enabled him to get through this difficult part of his duty.
"It had worn him down," he said, "and was infinitely more grievous to him than any resistance which he could experience from the enemy." At the first council of war, opinions inclined to an attack from the eastward; but the next day, the wind being southerly, after a second examination of the Danish position, it was determined to attack from the south, approaching in the manner which Nelson had suggested in his first thoughts.

On the morning of the 1st of April the whole fleet removed to an anchorage within two leagues of the town, and off the N.W.end of the Middle Ground; a shoal lying exactly before the town, at about three quarters of a mile distance, and extending along its whole sea-front.
The King's Channel, where there is deep water, is between this shoal and the town; and here the Danes had arranged their line of defence, as near the shore as possible: nineteen ships and floating batteries, flanked, at the end nearest the town, by the Crown Batteries, which were two artificial islands, at the mouth of the harbour--most formidable works; the larger one having, by the Danish account, 66 guns; but, as Nelson believed, 88.

The fleet having anchored, Nelson, with Riou, in the AMAZON, made his last examination of the ground; and about one o'clock, returning to his own ship, threw out the signal to weigh.

It was received with a shout throughout the whole division; they weighed with a light and favourable wind: the narrow channel between the island of Saltholm and the Middle Ground had been accurately buoyed; the small craft pointed out the course distinctly; Riou led the way: the whole division coasted along the outer edge of the shoal, doubled its further extremity, and anchored there off Draco Point, just as the darkness closed--the headmost of the enemy's line not being more than two miles distant.