The affair of Captain Hastings at Salona,
as one of the proximate causes of this great naval engagement,
acquires an historical importance far exceeding its mere military
results. In the eyes of the Greeks and Turks it very justly occupies a
prominent place in the history of the Greek war, as it is by them
always viewed as the link which connects their military operations
with the celebrated battle of Navarin.

The destruction of the Turkish and Egyptian fleets delivered Greece
from imminent peril; but in the exultation created by the assurance
that their independence was firmly established, the Greek government
began to forget the services which the Karteria had rendered in the
days of their despair. No supplies of any kind were forwarded to
Captain Hastings, who remained in the gulf; both Lord Cochrane and the
government allowed him to remain without provisions, and his crew
would have in great part quitted him, unless he had paid the men their
wages from his own fortune. On the 17th of November he wrote to Lord
Cochrane, urging the necessity of sending him some assistance. This
letter, which remained unanswered, contains the following
passages:--"I am now seven thousand pounds out of pocket by my
services in Greece, and I am daily expending my own money for the
public service. Our prizes are serving as transports for the army, and
we must either shortly abandon this position or be paid. Without money
I cannot any longer maintain this vessel. I will do all I can; but I
must repeat, that it is not quite fair I should end a beggar, after
all the labour, vexation, and disappointment I have experienced for so
many years."

The only body of troops available for any national purpose, which had
been kept together after the loss of Athens, with the exception of the
corps of regular troops under General Fabvier, was that assembled by
General Church on the southern shores of the Gulf of Lepanto. As soon
as the battle of Navarin had paralysed the movements of the Turks,
General Church determined to transport his troops from the Morea into
Acarnania, where the Greek captains, who had submitted to the Turks,
offered again to take up arms, if an adequate force appeared in the
province to support them. The principal object which detained the
Karteria in the gulf had been to assist the movements of General
Church, who now resolved to cross over to Acarnania from Cape Papas.
On the evening of the 17th of November, Captain Hastings r