reasonable for the interest of Greece; but it cannot be expected that
for such interest I ought to sacrifice totally those of my family
and myself, as would be the case were I to give up both the means I
possess to obtain justice in South America and my indemnification, on
so slender a security as that offered to me. Believe me, I should have
tendered the 37,000_l._, without reference to the Greek scrip I
had purchased, had it not been evident to me that, under such
circumstances, the security of your public funds would be dependent
on chances which I cannot foresee, and over which I should have no
control."

Thus temperately rebuked, the Greek deputies did not urge their
proposal any further. They only wrote to promise all possible
expedition in completing the steam-vessels. Lord Cochrane, however,
voluntarily acceded to one of their wishes. Hearing that the largest
of the steamers, the _Perseverance_, was nearly ready for sea, and
that Mr. Galloway had again solemnly pledged himself to complete the
others in a short time, he determined not to wait for the whole force,
but to start at once for the Mediterranean. It had been all along
decided that the _Perseverance_ should be placed under Captain
Hastings's command; and it was now arranged that he should take her to
Greece as soon as she was ready, and that Lord Cochrane should follow
in a schooner, the _Unicorn_, of 158 tons. It was not intended, of
course, that with that boat alone he should go all the way to Greece;
but it was considered--perhaps not very wisely--that if he were
actually on his way to Greece, the completion of the other five
steamships would be proceeded with more rapidly; and he agreed that,
as soon as he was joined in the Mediterranean by the first two of
these, the _Enterprise_ and the _Irresistible_, he would hasten on
to the Archipelago, and there make the best of the small force at his