e Scilly
Islands, on the 23d of May, the total force then consisting of eleven
sail-of-the-line, with the usual smaller vessels. It remained cruising
in that neighborhood until the 6th of June, keeping the approaches of
the Channel open for a homeward-bound convoy of merchantmen, which
passed on that day. The fleet then bore up for the Straits, and on the
14th six ships, the "Agamemnon" among them, parted company for Cadiz,
there to fill up with water, in order to avoid the delays which would
arise if the scanty resources of Gibraltar had to supply all the
vessels. On the 23d this division left Cadiz, reaching Gibraltar the
same evening; and on the 27th Hood, having now with him fifteen of the
line, sailed for Toulon.

Nelson's mind was already busy with the prospects of the campaign, and
the various naval factors that went to make up the military situation.
"Time must discover what we are going after," he writes to his
brother; while to Locker he propounds the problem which always has
perplexed the British mind, and still does,--how to make the French
fight, if they are unwilling. So long as that question remains
unsolved, the British government has to bear the uncertainties,
exposure, and expense of a difficult and protracted defensive. "We
have done nothing," he says, "and the same prospect appears before us:
the French cannot come out, and we have no means of getting at them in
Toulon." In "cannot come out," he alludes to the presence of a Spanish
fleet of twenty-four ships-of-the-line. This, in conjunction with
Hood's force, would far exceed the French in Toulon, which the
highest estimate then placed at twenty-one of the line. He had,
however, already measured the capabilities of the Spanish Navy. They
have very fine ships, he admits, but they are shockingly manned,--so
much so that if only the barges' crews of the six British vessels that
entered Cadiz, numbering at the most seventy-five to a hundred men,
but all picked, could have got on board one of their first-rates, he
was certain they could have captured her, although her ship's company
numbered nearly a thousand. "If those we are to meet in the
Mediterranean are no better manned," he continues, "much service
cannot be expected of them." The prediction proved true, for no sooner
did Hood find the Spanish admiral than the latter informed him he must
go to Cartagena, having nineteen hundred sick in his fleet. The
officer who brought this message said it was n