Lord Hood assists the Corsicans to expel the French. co-operation of his brave Corsicans to drive the French from their strongholds. Shortly afterwards, Lord Hood, having received certain information that the French had embarked at Nice 8,000 troops, which were to proceed at all risks to Corsica, detached three more frigates to join Captain Nelson, who was kept cruizing off the island, the more effectually to line the coast and to intercept supplies destined for the enemy. Meanwhile, Toulon had been invested by a republican army, (in which Bonaparte acquired his first military distinction as commander of the artillery,) and compelled to surrender. On its evacuation, Lord Hood repaired to Corsica, with his fleet, having on board upwards of two thousand unfortunate inhabitants of Toulon, who dreaded the vengeance of the republican conquerors too much to remain behind.

Lord Hood had previously despatched Lieutenantcolonel (afterwards Sir John) Moore, and Major Köhler, who were accompanied by Sir Gilbert Elliot, to concert a plan of operations with General Paoli ; and it had been arranged that, in consideration of the assistance afforded to the Corsicans in clearing the island of the French, it should be delivered into the possession of his Britannic Majesty, and engage to adopt such a form of government as he should approve. Preparations were accordingly commenced for the reduction of St. Fiorenzo, Bastia, and Calvi, the principal towns of the island, which were occupied by the enemy. Close to the first mentioned place, the French had a magazine of flour near their only mill. Nelson, seizing a happy moment, landed sixty seamen and the like number of soldiers, who burned the mill, threw all the flour into the sea, and returned on board without the loss of a man, in spite of the gun-boats and a force of a thousand men sent against them by the French. A few days afterwards

Nelson destroys Shipping at Regliani.

he was in another affair, of which he gives the following account. "I anchored off Regliani, and sent on shore to say that I was come to deliver them from the republicans, and wished to be received as a friend; but that, if a musket was fired, I would burn the town.' The answer from the commandant was: We are republicans; that word alone ought to satisfy you. It was not to a place without defence you ought to address yourself. Go to St. Fiorenzo, to Bastia, or Calvi, and they will answer you according to your wishes. As to the troops whom I command, they are ready to show you that they are composed of French soldiers.' On receiving this answer, I landed and struck the national colours, with my own hand, on the top of an old castle, and ordered the tree of liberty in the centre of the town to be cut down, not without great displeasure from the inhabitants. The military commandant retired to a hill about two miles distant, where he paraded the troops and kept the national flag flying all day. We destroyed about 500 tuns of wine ready to be shipped, and ten sail of vessels."

While Nelson was thus employed in preventing succours from reaching Bastia or any of the villages to the northward of that capital, the troops brought by Lord Hood from Toulon, under the command of General Dundas, were landed in the bay of St. Fiorenzo, and, assisted by the seamen, commenced operations for the reduction of that place. The works by which it was defended, having been stormed one after another, on the 19th of February the French retreated from St. Fiorenzo to Bastia, having first sunk one of their frigates and burned another in the bay. The English of course took possession of the town, and the frigate which had been sunk was afterwards weighed and named the St. Fiorenzo. On the same day Nelson landed at

F

Preparations for reducing Bastia by the Naval Force.

Avisena, took the tower of Miomo, and drove the French force opposed to him within gun-shot of the walls of Bastia.

The reduction of Bastia was now resolved on by Lord Hood, who submitted his plans to General Dundas. The general declined to co-operate in them, as being visionary and impracticable, without a reinforcement of 2000 men, which he expected from Gibraltar. Lord Hood therefore resolved to reduce Bastia with the unaided naval force under his command. Nelson, in examining the defences of the city, approached so close that the enemy opened their fire from a battery of two guns, from which they were soon dislodged by the Agamemnon; a fire of shot and shells was then commenced from the town, but without doing the ship any damage of consequence; at the same time her guns were so well pointed that not a shot was fired in vain. Adverting in a letter to this affair, he says: "Our little brush last Sunday happened at the moment when part of our army appeared on the hills over Bastia, they having marched over-land from St. Fiorenzo, which is only twelve miles distant. If I had carried with me five hundred troops, to a certainty I should have stormed the town. Armies go so slow, that seamen think they never mean to get forward: but I dare say they act on a surer principle, though we seldom fail."

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Dundas, having resolved not to lend Lord Hood any military aid in his attempt to reduce Bastia, proceeded so far in his caution as to withdraw the troops which had reached the heights above the city, and to make them return to St. Fiorenzo. 'What Dundas could have seen to make a retreat necessary," observes Nelson in his journal, "I cannot comprehend. The enemy's force is 1000 regulars, and 1000 or 1500 irregulars; it is my firm opinion that the Agamemnon, with only the frigates now here, lying

Hardships endured by the Crew of the Agamemnon.

against the town for a few hours, with 500 troops ready to land when we had battered down the seawall, would to a certainty carry the place." Writing to his wife on the same subject, he says: "You will be surprised to hear that General Dundas has retired from before Bastia without making an attack. God knows what it all means! Lord Hood is gone to St. Fiorenzo to the army, to get them forward again. A thousand men would to a certainty take Bastia; with 500 and Agamemnon I would attempt it. Lord Hood said publicly, that if he thought it proper to give me three sail of the line, and 500 men, he was sure I should take the town, although probably not the heights; but he would not sacrifice his seamen and ships in doing what the finest army of its size that ever marched could and wished to do. General Paoli has told them, that if they don't keep my force low, I shall take Bastia before they pitch their tents in St. Fiorenzo. My seamen are now what British seamen ought to be almost invincible: they really mind shot no more than peas."

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The hardships endured at this time by the crew of the Agamemnon were not trifling. At the date of March 12, Nelson's journal says:-" We are absolutely without either water provisions, or stores of any kind, and not a piece of canvas, rope, or twine, or a nail, in our ship; but we cheerfully submit to it all, if it turns out for the advantage and credit of our country." On the 16th the captain of the Agamemnon sent an express to Lord Hood, to tell him that, to use his own words, “ 'they had nothing to eat. Yet," he added, "if your lordship has any wish for me to remain off Bastia, I can, by going to Porto Ferrajo, get water and stores, and twenty-four hours at Leghorn will give us provisions. Our refitting, which would take some time, could be put off a little. My wish is to be present at the attack of

Marines and Seamen lauded for the Siege of Bastia.

Bastia; and if your lordship intends me to command the seamen who may be landed, I assure you I shall have the greatest pleasure in performing that or any other service where you may think I can do most good; even if my ship goes into port to refit, I am ready to remain. We are certainly in bad plight at present; not a man has slept dry for many months."

Meanwhile, General Dundas had been succeeded in the command of the troops by Brigadier-General D'Aubant, who pursued the same course as his predecessor. Lord Hood, in pursuance of his determination to reduce the place, with the force at his own disposal, landed on the 4th of April the remains of the 11th, 25th, 39th, and 69th regiments, who, having been originally ordered to serve as marines, were consequently borne on the books of his ships as part of their respective complements. These troops, 1183 in number, and 250 seamen, were under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Vilettes, and Captain Nelson, assisted by Captains Hunt, Serocold, and Buller. On the 22d of the same month, Nelson writes to his wife : "We are here with a force not equal to our wishes or our wants, and with only half of what is at present on the island. General D'Aubant will not attack our enemy with 2000 as fine troops as ever marched, whilst we are here beating them from post to post with 1000. My ship lies on the north side of the town with some frigates, and Lord Hood is on the south side. It is a very hard service for my poor seamen, dragging guns up such heights as are scarcely credible." On the same subject he says in his journal: "The labour of getting up guns [to a battery on the heights] was a work of the greatest difficulty, and which never, in my opinion, would have been accomplished by any other than British seamen."