assisting the allies on shore, of overawing the
Barbary powers, which were then peculiarly restless and insolent, and
of upholding the general supremacy of England, from Smyrna to
Gibraltar.

The French campaign opened on the 9th of April 1797, and the Austrians
were beaten on the following day at Montenotte, and in a campaign of a
month Bonaparte reached Milan. The success of the enemy increased to
an extraordinary degree the difficulties of the British admiral. The
repairs of the fleet, the provisioning, and every other circumstance
connected with the land, lay under increased impediments; but they
were all gradually overcome by the vigilance and intelligence of the
admiral.

A curious and characteristic circumstance occurred, soon after his
taking the command. Nelson had captured a vessel carrying 152 Austrian
grenadiers, who had been made prisoners by the French, and actually
sold by their captors to the Spaniards, for the purpose of enlisting
them in the Spanish army. His letter to Jackson, the secretary of
legation at Turin, on this subject, spiritedly expresses his
feelings:--

"SIR,--From a Swiss dealer in human flesh, the demand made
upon me to deliver up 152 Austrian grenadiers, serving on
board his Majesty's fleet under my command, is natural enough,
but that a Spaniard, who is a noble creature, should join in
such a demand, I must confess astonishes me; and I can only
account for it by the Chevalier Caamano being ignorant that
the persons in question were made prisoners of war in the last
war with General Beaulieu, and are not deserters, and that
they were most basely sold by the French commissaries to the
vile crimps who recruit for the foreign regiments in the
service of Spain. It is high time a stop should be put to this
abominable traffic, a million times more disgraceful than the
African slave-trade."

But other dangers now menaced the British supremacy in the
Mediterranean. The victories of Bonaparte had terrified all the
Italian states into neutrality or absolute submission; and the success
of the Directory, and perhaps their bribes, influenced the miserably
corrupt and feeble Spanish ministry, to make common cause with the
conquering republic. Spain at last became openly hostile. This was a
tremendous increase of hazards, because Spain had fifty-seven sail of
the line, and a crowd of frigates. The difficulty of blockading Toulon
was now incre