proach it.

The gale, hauling gradually to the westward, lasted in its force until
the morning of January 25th. During these three days Nelson received
no news, but he did much thinking and had made up his mind. The French
might be intending to land in Cagliari, to windward of which they had
been during these four days that he had been to leeward. With
Cagliari, therefore, he must communicate; the Viceroy of Sardinia
would know if any landing had been attempted or threatened. If
Sardinia was safe, he would next go or send to Palermo for news, and
thence push for the Faro of Messina, where he would cover both that
important fortress and the approaches to Naples from either side of
Sicily. "You will believe my anxiety," he wrote to Acton in Palermo,
on the 25th. "I have neither ate, drank, or slept with any comfort
since last Sunday" (the 20th). "I am naturally very anxious," he tells
Ball, "therefore you must forgive my short letter. We have a dead foul
wind and heavy sea. I cannot, for want of frigates, send off this
letter." The lack of small cruisers; so often lamented in quieter
days, now embarrassed him cruelly. The few he had were dispersed in
all directions in search of news, and to communicate with Acton he had
to detach one of his fastest ships-of-the-line, the "Leviathan,"
intending himself to follow her with the fleet to Palermo. At the
latter point he could obtain all the intelligence of the common enemy
which might have reached any Sicilian port, before he carried out his
already formed purpose of chasing to leeward, to the Morea and Egypt.
With firm grip, though in agony of mind, he held himself in hand,
determined, burning as he was to pursue somewhere, not to yield the
advantage of the wind till he had reached a reasonable certainty--as
in 1798--that the circumstances justified it. "I hope," he says to
Acton, "that the governor of Augusta[84] will not give up the post to
the French fleet; but if he does, I shall go in and attack them; for I
consider the destruction of the enemy's fleet of so much consequence,
that I would gladly have half of mine burnt to effect their
destruction. I am in a fever. God send I may find them!" Throughout
the long chase which followed, all, so to say, slept on their arms. On
the 11th of March he wrote: "Ever since January 21st we have been
prepared for battle: not a bulkhead[85] up in the fleet. Night or day,
it is my determination not to lose one moment in attacking them."