THE LIFE m COREESPOMIEHCE or ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES NAPIER, K. C. B., FEOAf PEHSONAL EFA’OLLECTIONS, LETTERS, AND OFFKTAL DOCUArENTS. in AIAJOR-GENEEAL ELEKS NAPIER, AUTUOI* 0> ‘sCL'NPS and SPOIMS IN lOUIION LANDS/* ‘ IILMIM^CI N( 1Ol S^UIA' Ac IN TWO VOLS. VOL 1. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCEhSI)KS TD HENRY COLBURN, 13, GKKAT MAKLnOUOUGU STltJEEr. 1862. Tilt nyht of iian^Uihon i« ytvrrrd THIS MEMOIR OF ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES NAPIER |s ^jcbxjcnt^ir TO TUB BIUTlSIl NATION, AND TO HER NAVY ; TO THE BKlTISn SAIIORS AND MARINES; BECAUSE HIS LIFE WAS DEVOTED TO THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY, TO THE HONOUR AND INTERESTS OF HIS PROFESSION ; AND BECAIJSB- HE WAS THE FRIEND AND CHAMPION OF THE SEAMAN, AND AIRWAYS ADVOCATEI> HIS INTERESTS AND HIS RIGHTS PREFACE. I UNDERTOOK to Write tlic Life and to edit the Correspondence of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, as it appeared to me that events and actions, ex¬ tending over more than sixty years passed in the service of his sovereign and his country, could not •fail to he interesting to the public. Respect to the Admiral’s memory, and an ardent desire to do justice to his services, combined with a deep sense of gratitude for the many kindnesses expe¬ rienced at his hands from my earliest years, were also the motives that induced me to contribute my best efforts towards commemorating the achieve¬ ments of a long and brilliant career. The subject was doubtless worthy of an abler pen; but intimate relations with Sir Charles Napier during five-and-forty years, together with access to much of his correspondence, afforded me facilities which others, though perhaps far more qualified VI PREFACE. for the undertaking, had not the opportunity of possessing. The task, however, was .not unattended with difficulty, for although a great portion of Sir Charles Napiers papers were placed at my dis¬ posal, the circumstance of his not having habitually kept any memoranda or journal, forced me to depend chiefly upon my own recollections, and the journal and letters of my motlier, the late Lady Napier, for the particulars of his private life. With regard to his correspondence, the greatest difficulty I have experienced has been to condense within the required limits of this memoir the im¬ portant and interesting documents at my command. It was my intention, had the compass of the work admitted, to liave given, in a preliminary chapter, an account of what is perhaps not gene¬ rally known, respecting the origin and history of the ancient family from whence Sir Charles Napier traced his descent and derived his name—a name said to have been earned at a remote period of Scottish history, on the field of battle, by one of his ancestors, on whom, for his gallant conduct, the reigning King of Scotland bestowed—as the story goes—the appellation of “ nae peer,” having no peer or equal; whilst the motto of “Ready, PREFACE. VII aye Ready,” was granted in 1542, by James V., to one of the family, who, amidst a general desertion of that monarch by his barons, faithfully followed his sovereign with a “ plump of spears,” in a foray over the border. “ And hence, in fair remembrance worn, Yon sheaf of spears his crest h<is borne; Hence his high motto shines reveal’d, ‘ IlKAny, AYE Ready’ for the field.” * In compiling this Memoir, I have introduced occasional extracts from Sir Charles Napier’s pub¬ lished Avorks, because these pourtray, in his own words, some of the ])rincipal actions of his life. I have also availed myself of much information con¬ tained in Mr. Earp’s volume of the “ Baltic Cam- paign of 1854,” and likewise of those records respecting the earlier portion of the Admiral’s career to be found in James’s and Marshall’s Naval Histories. I take this opportunity of acknoAvledging the obligations I am under to various members of Sir Charles Napier’s family, and to the many friends who have assisted me with information, letters, and other documents; as well as to several officers who, having served with Sir Charles Napier on different occasions, have supplied me with many interesting • From Scott’s “ Lay of the Last Minstrel.” vm rEEFACE. particulars as to his professional achievements, and who will he able best to appreciate how far I have succeeded in combining justice to his memory with an impartial adherence to the truth. E. ELERS NAPIER, Major- GeneiM. West IIiel, Shanklin, IsEE OF Wight. CONTENTS OF VOL I. CHAPTER I. Infancy and Boyhood, 1786-1799—Early Service, 1799-lBOG * 1 CHAPTER II. First Command, 1807—Return to England, 1809—Campaigning, Busaco, 1810 - - - - - - - -15 CHAPTER HI. Aj>j»oiuted to the “Thames,” 1811—Palinuro, Sapri, Ponza, 1811-1813.38 ClIAI^'ER TV. The “Evuyaliis,” 1813*1815—Expedition up the Potomac, 1814 —?llctnrn to England, 1815 ----- C5 CHAPTER V. Foreign Tour and Residence Abroad—Steam Navigation, 1815-1820 - -. 98 CHAPTER VI. Applies for a Ship-Appointment to the “ Galatea/* 1821-1829 125 CHAPTER Vn. Service in the “ Galatea,” 1830-1832 ----- 140 X ’ CONTENTS. CHAPTER vm. Canvagees the Borough of Portsmouth, 1832—Negotiations for the Command of the Portuguese Constitutional Fleet, January-to 1833 ------ 160 CHAPTER IX. Takes the Command of the Constitutional Fleet, and gains the Victoiy of Cape St Vincent, June and July, 1833 - 178 CHAPTER X. Effects of the Victory of St. Vincent—Congratulations and liouoiirs—llecognition of Donna Maria, July and August, 1833 - -- -- -- - 211 CHAl’TER XI. Affairs in Portugal, September, 1833, to May, 18-14 - - 211 CHAPTER XIT. Close of the Civil War—Inetfoctual attempts to Reform the Portuguese Navy—Resigns his Commaml, May to October, isjl- - - - - - - - 281 CHAPTER XIIT. Chiims on the Portugiiebc Covernment—Visit to Lisbon, 1835- 1837 . 304 CHAPTER XIV. Application for a Shijj—Appoiiite<l t(» the “ Poweiiul,” 1838 - 336 CHAPTER XV. The ^‘Powerful” CommiwJoned, 1830 ----- 361 CH/VPTER XVI. The “ Powerful” at Vourla and Beyrout, January to July, 1840 806 Awjexdix .483 / THE LIFE AND COIIRESPONDENCE or ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES ^^APIER, K.C.B. CHAPTER I. INFANC'Y AND BOYHOOD, 1786-1799—EAKLY SERVICE, 1799-1806. Charles Napier, the subject of this memoir, was second son of the IIou, Captain Charles Napier, R.N., and grandson of Francis, the fifth Lord Napier-. He was born on the Gth of March, 178G, at his father’s residence, Merchiston Hall, near Falkirk, in the county of Stirling, Scotland. There is now extant an old family picture, in which the embryo naval hero is represented in his mother’s arms; opposite to this stood a full-sized portrait of the admiral, taken in the prime of life, when, as Count Cape St. Vincent, he returned from the scene of his glorious achievement on the waters of Nelson and St. Vincent—emblazoned ^\ith fame and honours— the acknowledged “lion” of the day; and between these two portraits, taken in the intervening space of VOL. I. B 2 FAMILY CIRCLE. half a century at least, a striking resemblance can readily be traced, sufficient to stamp this “ infant puling in its mother’s arms ” as identical with the bronzed, determined — though, at the same time, good-natured looking sailor, apparently smiling at this juvenile representation of himself. No particular circumstances are recorded as having marked the early years of Charles Napier; but his childhood appears to liave passed haj)pily away amidst a large and united family—in the summer months at Merchiston Hall, and during the winter at the town residence in George’s Square, Edinburgh. * By his first wife, the daughter of Sir John War- render, the Hon. Captain Napier had no family ; but by his second marriage Avith the daughter of Gabriel Hamilton, Esq., of Westburn, he had six children. Francis, the eldest son, born in 1778, subsequently received a civil appointment in the East India Corii- pany’s service, and died at Madras in 1798. The younger brother, Thomas Erskine (now Lieutenant- General Sir Thomas Napier, K.C.B., and late Com- mander-in-Chief of the Forces in Scotland), junior to Charles by four years, was born in 1790, entered the Army at an early age, and lost an arm in the Peninsular War. Three sisters, one of whom still survives, completed the family circle. Charles is thus described by one who knew him well at that period:— “ I well remember Charles Napier’s kind and affectionate heart—-his temper, the best I ever knew—liis love of fun and frolic—his good-nature, and his dutiful obedience to his ■parents, an instance of which the following ,anecdote will illastrate. He always, from his earliest infancy, had the EARLY PREDILECTION. 3 strongest predilection for boats and ships; at the foot of the garden ran a canal, on which barges were constantly in the habit of plying to and fro; these it was his greatest delight to watch, but he was forbidden when alone, even for this pur¬ pose, to pass the boundary of the garden gates, and this pro¬ hibition he always most religiously observed. On one occa¬ sion his nurse, Mary Miller, having placed him on the bank of the canal to look at a barge which was passing by, one of the sailors hailed him as a ‘ bonnie bairn, and a true-built sailor to boot! ’ ” I am indebted to a relative of Sir Charles (the Rev. J. Hamilton Gray), for several particulars as to his early years. His education appears to have been then intrusted to a worthy clergyman of the Established Church of Scotland, William McCall, who is de¬ scribed as an original, replete with fun and good humour, and who, moreover, whilst instructing his pupil in the rudiments of Latin, assisted Mrs.