and disorganization of
the Greeks whom he was labouring to serve. They could hardly be
persuaded on the 16th to follow the _Hellas_ and the _Sauveur_, all
bearing Austrian colours, as far as the entrance to Alexandria, and when
twenty large Egyptian vessels were found to be there lying at harbour,
they lost heart altogether. Lord Cochrane knew from past experience
that, with proper support from his subordinates, he could easily capture
or disperse the enemy's shipping. He had made arrangements for attacking
them with the fireships and his explosion-vessel. But nearly all the
crews refused to serve. Kanaris alone among the Greeks was brave. Having
command of the fireships, he induced the sailors of two of them to bear
down upon the enemy, and at about eight o'clock in the evening one
man-of-war was burnt. So great was the effect of this small success that
the other ships of the enemy prepared to escape, and great numbers of
the inhabitants of Alexandria hurried out of the town and sought a
hiding in the adjoining villages. Seeing the Egyptian ships making ready
for flight, however, the Greeks supposed that they were coming out to
attack them, and themselves immediately turned sail, heedless alike of
their own honour and of Lord Cochrane's assurances that a splendid
victory was easy to them. All the night was vainly spent by the _Hellas_
and the _Sauveur_ in futile efforts to collect them, and on the morning
of the 18th they were found to be dispersed far out at sea over an area
of more than twenty miles.

In despite of his feeble allies, Lord Cochrane would have gone boldly
into port and attacked the enemy. But his own Greek sailors were as
timid as their comrades; and after a whole day spent in reconnoitring
the enemy, whose force of twenty-five sail dared not offer battle, but
had gained courage enough to abstain from actual flight, he was
compelled, on the 19th, also to put out to sea and to spend two other
days in signalling the brigs and fireships to join him. Not till the
afternoon of the 20th, by which time he had pursued his allies to a
distance eighty miles from Alexandria, was he able to bring them into
any sort of order, and then the bitter conviction was forced upon him
that further prosecution of his plan, for the present at any rate, was
useless.

The scanty store of provisions that had been sent with the fleet,
moreover, was nearly exhausted, and thus a new difficulty arose. Lord
Cochrane sent the most u