It is stated that Admiral Lobo has been reinstated in
his command, and certainly his defence is complete. When he left Gibraltar, he told his Government that, with the Vittoria in her then condition and only wooden ships he could not sustain a battle, for the Numancia would run down his -whole fleet,—a fact subsequently demonstrated by the tap which sent down El Fernando Catolico. The Government in reply sent him assurances that the commandant of the Numancia had pledged himself to surrender, and confiding in -that assurance Lobo went to Cartagena, and accepted a battle at
long bowls, and saw the Insurgent fleet run away. Next day they came out again, and he waited for them; but the command of the Numancia had meanwhile been given to a determined sea- dog, an old pilot, who previously commanded the Tetuan, and who, as Lobo instantly saw, meant mischief. He thereupon ran away, as he was bound by every code, even the English, to run away, and not sacrifice a fleet to his own vanity. It will be well throughout this struggle to remember that Nelson held Spanish sailors to be far the most dangerous fighters he had to encounter.
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