took away both
her masts, and so had to return to Poros; and with the ill-manned
_Hellas_ alone Lord Cochrane did not deem it prudent, as he had wished,
to attack Navarino, whither the besiegers of the Castle Tornese had
gone, and where twelve Egyptian frigates, twenty corvettes, and forty or
fifty smaller vessels were for some time lying. Several of these came
out to take on board the Ottoman troops who had done their work at Cape
Clarenza, and Lord Cochrane, on the 1st of June, remained for several
hours within sight of them, ready and hoping to be attacked. No fight
being offered, however, he did not choose to run the risk of going
single-handed into their midst. He accordingly contented himself with
surveying the coast, and forming his own judgment as to the relative
value of its ports and harbours, as he sailed back in the direction of
Poros.

To Poros itself Lord Cochrane did not venture to proceed. "I have
written for all the Greek vessels that are ready, including the
fireships and explosion-vessels, to join me," he said in a letter to Dr.
Gosse, written on the 7th of June, off Cerigo; "I remain at sea with
this frigate, lest the whole of her crew should desert, according to
custom, were I to pay a visit to Poros." The want of zeal which he thus
perceived in his seamen was shared by nearly all their countrymen. All
wished him to serve them, but very few made any patriotic effort to aid
him in the service. His most active supporter was Captain Abney
Hastings; and Captain Abney Hastings complained yet more loudly than did
his superior of the indolence and bad conduct of the Greeks. "I had the
honour to receive your order of the 7th, enjoining me to repair to your
lordship without delay, if ready for sea," he wrote on the 9th, from
Spetzas; "a variety of circumstances, unavoidable in a country deprived
of even the shadow of organization, has prevented me from being yet
ready to sail. The majority and best of my crew have left me, and I must
look for others."

Hastings and all his other officers wrote over and over again to Lord
Cochrane, asking for stores of all sorts, and for money with which to
pay the wages of their crews. But Lord Cochrane was still almost without
funds. Only from Konduriottes, and the other island primates, could he
procure scanty supplies with which to carry on his work--or rather, to
prevent that work from being altogether abandoned. "I have the honour,"
he wrote to the Government, "to rep