Russell implored the Spanish authorities to look well to their dockyards, and to try to have, by the next spring, a small squadron which might at least be able to float; but he could not prevail on them to careen a single ship.

He could with difficulty obtain, on hard conditions, permission to send a few of his sick men to marine hospitals on shore.

Yet, in spite of all the trouble given him by the imbecility and ingratitude of a government which has generally caused more annoyance to its allies than to its enemies, he acquitted himself well.

It is but just to him to say that, from the time at which he became First Lord of the Admiralty, there was a decided improvement in the naval administration.

Though he lay with his fleet many months near an inhospitable shore, and at a great distance from England, there were no complaints about the quality or the quantity of provisions.