effort of its
own--almost without funds. The small sum of 8000l. which he had brought
with him, as well as the money collected by the European committees and
transmitted to the Philhellenic Committee in Greece, composed of Colonel
Heydeck, Dr. Bailli, and Dr. Gosse, was nearly exhausted, and the
bankrupt Government was unable to provide him with any adequate
resources for carrying on his work. It had authorized him to buy ships
and stores and to employ labourers and seamen, and expected him to do
all without stint, but gave him no money for the purpose. In lieu it
authorized him to borrow upon the security of all the future revenue to
be derived from the islands; and every effort to utilize this mortgage
was made by his agent Dr. Gosse, but with very poor success. The credit
of the Greek Government was so low that the prospects of any
considerable revenue in the depressed state of commerce--likely to be
yet more depressed by the steady advances made by the Turks in regaining
their dominion over the insurgents--deterred capitalists from staking
their money thereupon. Lord Cochrane, as we shall see, had to apply half
his energies in performing the work of a financier, never anticipated by
him, and certainly not proper to his functions as First Admiral; and,
the result of all being feeble, his legitimate duties were grievously
crippled.

Money being absolutely needed, however, he did his best to procure it,
and with this view, as well as in order to make personal acquaintance
with the principal ports, and the ships and sailors contained in them,
he left Poros, three days after returning to it, on a tour among the
other important islands.

Starting on Sunday, the 13th of May, he reached Hydra on the following
morning. There, in the house of the brothers Konduriottes, its richest
and most influential inhabitants, he met several other leading primates,
and prevailed on them to take upon themselves the outfit of several
brigs and brulottes, the cost of which he had at present no means of
paying. Having, on the 15th, passed on to Spetzas, Lord Cochrane had a
similar interview with its chief residents. "I have been highly
gratified," he wrote on the 16th to the elder Konduriottes, "by the
spirit here manifested in following the noble example which you have
set, and I have no doubt but a sufficient force will be immediately
equipped to cut off all the resources by which the army of Reshid Pasha
is maintained, and so destroy th