lan to keep the fleet close to Toulon. When he
took command, he found it so stationed, but he soon removed to a
position thirty to forty miles west of the harbor's mouth, which seems
to have been his general summer rendezvous. "Lord Nelson," wrote a
young officer of the fleet,[61] "pursues a very different plan from
Sir Richard Bickerton. The latter kept close to the harbour, but Lord
Nelson is scarce ever in sight of the land, and there is but one
frigate inshore." "I chose this position," Nelson said, "to answer two
important purposes: one to prevent the junction of a Spanish fleet
from the westward; and the other, to be to windward, so as to enable
me, if the northerly gale came on to the N.N.W., to take shelter in a
few hours under the Hieres Islands, or if N.N.E., under Cape San
Sebastian." "It is not my intention to close-watch Toulon, even with
frigates," he wrote, and his dispositions were taken rather with a
view to encourage the enemy to come out; although, of course, he took
every precaution that they should not get far without being observed,
and assured himself by frequent reconnoitring that they had not left
port. "My system is the very contrary of blockading," he told Admiral
Pole. "Every opportunity has been offered the enemy to put to sea,"
he says again, "for it is there we hope to realize the hopes and
expectations of our Country." There was also the obvious advantage
that, if habitually out of sight, the enemy could not know his
movements, nor profit by his occasional absences in any direction.

From Madalena he extended his observations over the whole island of
Sardinia, upon the holding of which he thenceforth laid the greatest
stress, and entertained most anxious fears lest the French should
snatch it out of his hands. "If we could possess Sardinia, we should
want neither Malta nor any other. It is the most important island, as
a naval and military station, in the Mediterranean. It possesses at
the northern end the finest harbour in the world [Madalena]. It is
twenty-four hours' sail from Toulon; it covers Italy; it is a position
that the wind which carries the French to the westward is fair for you
to follow. In passing to the southward they go close to you. In short,
it covers Egypt, Italy, and Turkey." He was anxious that the British
Government should buy it. "If we, from delicacy, or commiseration of
the unfortunate king of Sardinia, do not get possession of that
island, the French will. If I