fleet, you will pay a visit to the
Turkish admiral, and by saluting him (if he consents to return gun for
gun) and every other mark of respect and attention, gain his
confidence. You will judge whether he is of a sufficient rank to hold
a confidential conversation with." It is evident that Nelson's action
was precipitated by the news of the Russian movement, and its tenor
dictated by a wish to sow distrust between Turkey and Russia. The
omission of any mention of a Russian admiral is most significant.
"Captain Troubridge was absolutely under sail," he wrote to Spencer
Smith, "when I heard with sorrow that the Russians were there." His
eagerness in the matter is the more evident, in that he thus detached
Troubridge at the moment when he was about to start for Leghorn, where
his trusted subordinate and his ship would be greatly needed.

"I was in hopes that a part of the united Turkish and Russian squadron
would have gone to Egypt--the first object of the Ottoman arms," he
tells the Turkish admiral. "Corfu is a secondary consideration." To
Spencer Smith he writes: "I have had a long and friendly conference
with Kelim Effendi on the conduct likely to be pursued by the Russian
Court towards the unsuspicious (I fear) and upright Turk. The Porte
ought to be aware of the very great danger at a future day of allowing
the Russians to get footing at Corfu, and I hope they will keep them
in the East. Our ideas have exactly been the same about Russia....
Surely I had a right to expect that the united fleets would have taken
care of the things east of Candia. I never wished to have them west of
it." "The Russians seem to me to be more intent on taking ports in the
Mediterranean than destroying Bonaparte in Egypt."

It was well known at this time that the Czar was looking towards Malta
and the restoration of the Order of the Knights, of which he had been
elected Grand Master the previous October, immediately after
Bonaparte's seizure of the island became known. Nelson held that the
King of Naples was the legitimate sovereign, and he directed Captain
Ball, his own representative there, to have all the Maltese posts and
forces fly the Neapolitan flag; but he, with Hamilton, got a note from
the King, promising that Malta should never be transferred to any
other Power without the consent of England. "Should any Russian ships,
or admiral, arrive off Malta," he instructed Ball, "you will convince
him of the very unhandsome manner of trea