to suppose I am respected in the
highest degree; nor have I occasion to complain of want of attention
to my wishes from any parties; but yet I am considered as not
commanding the seamen landed. My wishes may be, and are, complied
with; my orders would possibly be disregarded. Therefore, if we move
from hence, I would wish your Lordship to settle that point. Your
Lordship will not, I trust, take this request amiss: I have been
struggling with it since the first day I landed."

Hood apparently gave him full satisfaction as regards his own view of
the situation. "I am happy," Nelson wrote, when acknowledging his
reply, "that my ideas of the situation I am in here so perfectly agree
with your Lordship's;" but he did not settle the matter by a decisive
order. His object, as he seems to have explained, was to bestow a
certain amount of prominence upon a young captain, Hunt, who had
recently lost his ship, and who, Hood thought, would be sooner
provided with another, if he appeared as in command at the guns.
Nelson acceded to this arrangement with his usual generosity. "Your
kind intention to Captain Hunt," he wrote, "I had the honour of
telling your Lordship, should be furthered by every means in my power;
and my regard for him, I assure you, is undiminished. He is a most
exceeding good young man, nor is any one more zealous for the service.
I don't complain of any one, but an idea has entered into the heads of
some under him, that his command was absolutely distinct from me; and
that I had no authority over him, except as a request." Unfortunately,
Hood, in his desire to serve Hunt, not only unduly but absurdly
minimized Nelson's relations to the whole affair. His despatch ran:
"Captain Nelson, of his Majesty's ship Agamemnon, who had the command
and directions of the seamen _in landing the guns, mortars and
stores_,[20] and Captain Hunt _who commanded at the batteries_,[20]
... have an equal claim to my gratitude." To limit Nelson's share in
the capture of Bastia to the purely subsidiary though important
function of landing the guns, was as unjust as it was unnecessary to
the interests of Hunt. The latter, being second in command ashore, and
afterwards sent home with the despatches, was sure to receive the
reward customarily bestowed upon such services.

The incident singularly and aptly illustrates the difference, which in
a military service cannot be too carefully kept in mind, between
individual expressions of opinion