Their superiority was greater in size and weight of metal than in numbers.

They had four thousand troops on board; and the best riflemen who could be procured, many of them Tyrolese, were dispersed through the ships.

Little did the Tyrolese, and little did the Spaniards, at that day, imagine what horrors the wicked tyrant whom they served was preparing for their country.
Soon after daylight Nelson came upon deck.

The 21st of October was a festival in his family, because on that day his uncle, Captain Suckling, in the DREADNOUGHT, with two other line-of-battle ships, had beaten off a French squadron of four sail of the line and three frigates.

Nelson, with that sort of superstition from which few persons are entirely exempt, had more than once expressed his persuasion that this was to be the day of his battle also; and he was well pleased at seeing his prediction about to be verified.