the following two years an active correspondence, personal and
diplomatic, was maintained with this gentleman, who, like his brother,
Lord Minto, placed the utmost dependence upon the political sagacity
and tact of the admiral. When the latter, a year later, spoke of
leaving the station on account of his health, Elliot wrote to him:
"Where such great interests are concerned, I shall not presume to
dwell upon my own feelings, although I cannot but recall to your
Lordship that I only consented to depart as abruptly as I did from
England, to undertake this arduous and ruinous mission, from the
expectation that my efforts to direct the councils of this Kingdom
would have been seconded by your pre-eminent talents and judgment."
After the two frigates parted, the "Amphion" kept on to Malta, where
she arrived on the 15th of June.

With the separation of the "Maidstone" Nelson began the extensive
diplomatic correspondence, which employed so much of his time during
this command, and through which we are made familiar with the workings
of his mind on the general political conditions of the Mediterranean.
She carried from him letters to the King and Queen of the Sicilies, to
their Prime Minister, Acton, and to the British minister to the Court
of Sardinia. To these succeeded, upon his arrival in Malta,--as a
better point of departure for the farther East, now that the French
held the west coast of the Adriatic,--despatches to the British
minister to the Porte, to the Grand Vizier and the Capitan Pacha, to
the Republic of the Seven Islands, as the group of Corfu and its
sisters was now styled, and to the British representative to their
government.

All these communications were, of course, tentative, based upon a yet
imperfect knowledge of conditions. For the most part they conveyed,
besides the notification of his having taken the command, chiefly
general assurances of the good-will of the writer's government, and an
undefined intimation that all had best be on their guard against
French scheming and aggressions. To Naples he spoke more definitely,
and indicated at once the considerations that would dictate his
course, and, he intimated, should control theirs also. He had been
instructed, he said, to consider the welfare of the Two Sicilies as
one of the first of British objects, and his Government was convinced
of the advantages that would accrue both to Sicily and Naples, if
their neutrality could be maintained. They had to d