Of this naval hero's life no historical record will or can be exempted from that pride of the historian who knew him the best, which the hero deprecated in the partialities of those he loved, and who loved him.

Pride he certainly possessed, but it was of the noblest kind: it prompted him to disdain a mean act, or a selfish thought. But no gallant spirit was ever more elevated above the vanity of self-applause. He was even so modest as to give himself no credit for the sentiment, or the habit, of that modesty itself, as a virtue.

It shall be my ambition to give a picture of him, and from the life, under the discipline of this check upon my own pride; though such a love as I bore to him neither hopes nor wishes to be disinterested. But zeal for the memory of a character so dear to me would be miscalculated, if it could violate those principles of honour which it was the uniform habit of his life to revere.