Nelson, Horatio, Lord.

Autograph letter signed ("Horatio Nelson"), written with his right hand, to his sister Catherine Matcham, on his new command following the battle of cape st vincent 

 Matcham M. Eyre, The Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe, 1911 , pp.140-41.

This exultant letter was written in the weeks following the Battle of Cape St Vincent, where Nelson's daring behaviour (and his enthusiastic self-advertisement) marked his emergence as a public hero. He had been assigned to the Irresistible the day before this letter was written and was, as is mentioned in the letter, preparing to cruise off Cape St Vincent in search of Spanish treasure ships and the returning Viceroy of Mexico. Although clearly the rapid development of his career were uppermost in Nelson's mind, he still finds time to fill much of the letter to Catherine with family affairs such as the news concerning their older sister Susannah Bolton.