commanded the Russian fleet then before Corfu, to send as many ships and
troops as possible to Messina, for the promotion of the common cause,
and the good of his Sicilian Majesty in particular.
On the same day, February 15, his lordship wrote also to his Excellency
Abdul Cadir Bek, Vice-Admiral of the Turkish fleet, likewise at Corfu,
with a similar request for ships and troops. "Your excellency, without
doubt," writes his lordship, "has heard of the melancholy news from
Naples. The French, not content with having, by perfidy, declared Naples
a republic, have forced a great part of Calabria to erect a Tree of
_Terror_, which these unbelievers call of _Liberty_; and their
emissaries are sowing the seeds of anarchy into this island,
particularly at Messina." His lordship adds, that as he has several
ships in Egypt, for the Grand Signior, he earnestly requests such
Turkish ships and troops as can be spared, to prevent Messina's falling
into the hands of the French.
On the 24th of February, Lord Nelson had the satisfaction to distribute
the following sums of money, given by his Sicilian Majesty, among the
several persons who assisted in conveying the Royal Family from Naples:
one thousand ounces of silver to the officers, seamen, and marines, of
his Britannic Majesty's ship the Vanguard, as a mark of the king's
approbation of their conduct during the time he was on board; one
hundred ounces to each of the two barges crews who brought off the royal
family from the palace; one hundred ounces to the admiral's servants;
and one hundred ounces to the barge's crew of the Alcmene. The thousand
ounces for the several persons on board the Vanguard were thus
apportioned, by his lordship's directions--The wardroom, one hundred
ounces; twenty-seven gentlemen of the quarter-deck, and
warrant-officers, four ounces each; five hundred and seventy-nine seamen
and marines, one and one-third of an ounce each; twenty-six boys, half
an ounce each; and a surplus of seven ounces, to be expended for general
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