had lost all power of
commanding either respect or obedience at home, in consequence of the
civil wars which prevailed previously to the arrival of the Egyptians,
and the intrigues of Maurocordatos and Kolettis to obtain the sole
direction of affairs.

At this conjuncture, Lord Cochrane's name excited universal attention
in England, and he was engaged by the Greek deputies, and some friends
of the cause, to enter the Greek service. He received for his services
L37,000 sterling, in cash; and an additional sum of L20,000 was paid
into the hands of Sir Francis Burdett, to be given to Lord Cochrane
whenever the independence of Greece should be secured.

This transaction happened in the month of August 1825; but in the
month of March, a steam-vessel, called the Perseverance, of about four
hundred tons, had already been ordered; and Hastings had been named to
command her, and received authority to arm her with sixty-eight
pounders, according to the plan he had submitted to the Greek
government. When Lord Cochrane was appointed commander-in-chief of the
Greek fleet, five more steam-vessels were ordered to be built; but it
may be observed, that only two of these ever reached Greece. The
equipment of the Perseverance was then kept back, in order that the
whole squadron might sail together under the auspices of Lord
Cochrane. The news of the taking of Missolonghi by the Turks at last
threw the friends of Greece into such a state of alarm, and the outcry
against the dilatory manner in which the steam-boat expedition in the
Thames was fitting out, became so violent over all Europe, that the
Perseverance was hastily completed, and allowed to sail alone.

After a series of difficulties and disappointments, which it required
all the extraordinary perseverance and energy of Hastings to overcome,
he was hurried away from Deptford on the twenty-sixth of May 1826,
though the engine of the Perseverance was evidently in a very
defective state. The boiler burst in the Mediterranean; and the ship
was detained at Cagliari, reconstructing a boiler, until the
twenty-eighth of August. She arrived in Greece too late to be of any
use in the naval campaign of that year. The winter was spent in aiding
the operations of the army, which was endeavouring to raise the siege
of Athens.

The Karteria, which was the name of the Perseverance in the Greek
navy, was armed on the principle which Hastings had laid down as
necessary to place the Greeks with