Regardless of this interdict, which, under his circumstances, it would have been an act of suicidal folly to have regarded, he anchored in the harbour; and, by the exertions of Sir James Saumarez, Captain Ball, and Captain Berry, the VANGUARD was refitted in four days; months would have been employed in refitting her in England.

Nelson, with that proper sense of merit, wherever it was found, which proved at once the goodness and the greatness of his character, especially recommended to Earl St.Vincent the carpenter of the ALEXANDER, under whose directions the ship had been repaired; stating, that he was an old and faithful servant of the Crown, who had been nearly thirty years a warrant carpenter, and begging most earnestly that the Commander-in-Chief would recommend him to the particular notice of the Board of Admiralty.

He did not leave the harbour without expressing his sense of the treatment which he had received there, in a letter to the Viceroy of Sardinia.
"Sir," it said, "having, by a gale of wind, sustained some trifling damages, I anchored a small part of his Majesty's fleet under my orders off this island, and was surprised to hear, by an officer sent by the governor, that admittance was to be refused to the flag of his Britannic Majesty into this port.

When I reflect, that my most gracious sovereign is the oldest, I believe, and certainly the most faithful ally which the King of Sardinia ever had, I could feel the sorrow which it must have been to his majesty to have given such an order; and also for your excellency, who had to direct its execution.

I cannot but look at the African shore, where the followers of Mahomet are performing the part of the good Samaritan, which I look for in vain at St.Peter's, where it is said the Christian religion is professed." The delay which was thus occasioned was useful to him in many respects; it enabled him to complete his supply of water, and to receive a reinforcement which Earl St.Vincent, being himself reinforced from England, was enabled to send him.