lundered; and, at the same time, demand from him what he has done
with the French prisoners of war taken in the vessel, as it is
highly presumptuous in him to interfere with British prisoners of
war. As to demands made against the vessel, it is my desire that
they are not paid, nor has he any right to make them; on the
contrary, the captors have a right to demand, from him,
satisfaction, for the employment of the vessel on the coast of
Calabria. I am, gentlemen, your very humble servant,

Nelson.

The Vanguard this day arrived from Tripoli; and Captain Hardy brought,
with other pacific promises, from the bashaw, the most positive
assurances that no provisions should be sent to Malta by any of his
subjects: but, his lordship observed, interest is, we know, their main
spring, and they are not to be greatly depended on. The bashaw of
Tripoli had, in fact, made a treaty with Bonaparte on the 24th of
February, when he received a present of a diamond; the pernicious
effects of which, to Great Britain and her allies, his lordship was thus
determined totally to counteract.

On the 5th of April, in a letter to his Excellency Sir Charles
Whitworth, the British minister at Petersburgh, Lord Nelson thus writes
respecting Malta--We certainly have, at an expence of fifteen thousand
pounds a month, so closely blockaded the port of La Valette, that the
appearance of the Russian troops on the island must insure it's fall in
a week, if famine does not force it's surrender before their arrival.
The garrison are mutinous, and in dreadful want of provisions. The
scurvy cannot be checked. His lordship then observes, that his anxiety
to get possession of Le Guillaume Tell, and two frigates, which escaped
after the battle of the Nile, will not be doubted; and that these ships,
but for our close blockade, would probably have long ago been in France:
all which, he begs, may be submitted to his Imperial Majesty, the
Emperor of Russia. He has, he adds, given directions to Captain Ball to
co-operate in the most cordial manner with the Russian troops; who so
ably conducted himself, not only as a sea-officer, but as conciliating
the affections of the Maltese, that he was, unanimously, by the
islanders, and with the approbation of his Sicilian Majesty, elected
their general and chief. His lordship trusts that, should the order be
restored, Captain Ball would be a knight of it; "for a more gallant,
able offi