eral
ships will be ready to obey the earl's orders off Mahon; and that,
hoping the Russians are off Malta, he has requested some of that
admiral's ships may be sent to Minorca.

"In short," his lordship concludes this last letter, "you may
depend on my exertions, and I am only sorry that I cannot move to
your help; but, this island appears to hang on my stay. Nothing
could console the queen, this night, but my promise not to leave
them, unless the battle was to be fought off Sardinia. May God
Almighty bless and prosper you, is the fervent prayer of your
obliged and affectionate

"Nelson."

His lordship also wrote to Captain Ball, desiring him, if the Russian
squadron were before Malta, to proceed with all the line of battle
ships, and the Thalia frigate, off Port Mahon, under the orders of
Admiral Duckworth; laying his lordship's letter before Vice-Admiral
Uschakoff, as well as the Ottoman admiral, should he be there, and
procuring such ships as they could both spare for Minorca: but, if they
were not with him, to send the Audacious and Goliath to Mahon.

At nine o'clock in the evening of the 13th, the lieutenant of the
Petterel arrived, by land, at Palermo. The sloop not being able to get
up, owing to strong east winds, Captain Austin very properly sent the
lieutenant on shore. He brought intelligence, that the French fleet had
actually passed the Straits Mouth: and this news induced his lordship to
alter his intended plan of sending such ships as he could collect off
Mahon; instead of which, he now resolved to rendezvous with the whole of
them off the Island of Maritimo. Of this change he instantly sent to
apprize the commander in chief, as well as Admiral Duckworth; trusting
that the latter would send his squadron there, which might enable him to
look the enemy in the face. He hoped, indeed, that if the Russians and
Turks were off Malta, he should get a force, of different nations, equal
to the enemy; when it was his determination, that not a moment should be
lost in bringing them to battle.

Though the French fleet consisted of nineteen sail of the line, and that
of the Spaniards with which it was about to form a junction no less than
twenty-five, his lordship determined to sail, with all possible
expedition, for Maritimo.

On the 17th, the Culloden, Minotaur, Swiftsure, and St. Sebastian,
arrived off Palermo; but it blew so hard, from the east south-east, that
the s