we passed the mouths of the little estuaries that run into the Danube; once we just touched the ground, but thank goodness we quickly got free, and though fired at by guns and rifles, went on unhurt.  It took us exactly an hour and forty minutes to pass dangerous waters, and the early summer morning was breaking as we cleared all danger.  I could not resist turning round and firing a random shot at the banks studded with Russian tents, now that I was able to breathe freely again.

I must say that my pilot, whom I at first suspected of being a traitor in Russian pay, behaved splendidly.

He told me he had never passed such a night of fear and anxiety:  what with my cocked pistol at his head and the constant fear of putting the vessel on a bank, he certainly had had a bad time.  However, I rewarded him well.  On arrival at Toultcha, a small town near the mouth of the Danube, still held by the Turks, I found telegrams from headquarters at Rustchuk (the place I had left), inquiring if Hobart Pasha had passed Ibraila and Galatz, and ordering that if he had done so he was immediately to leave the Danube.

I cannot express my annoyance, as even at that moment I could have brought a couple of small iron-clads that were lying at Sulina into the river and played ‘old Harry’ with the Russian army, then advancing into Roumania, via Galatz.  The bridge near Galatz could certainly have been destroyed.  It was hard on the gallant Turks, hard on the Sultan and his government, and hard on me, to see such magnificent chances thrown away.  From that moment I trembled for the result of the war.  I felt that, although the Turks had a splendid army, and a fleet even for a first-class European Power to be proud of, the obstinacy and stupidity of the commanders of the Danube were sure to cause disaster.

Unhappily my prognostications came true.  In war the first blow is half the battle, and it was sad to see such glorious troops out-manoeuvred at the very outset.  His Majesty the Sultan in his wisdom has justly punished by banishment and disgrace these men who, instead of covering the Turkish nation with glory through the deeds of its army, were the cause of the defeat of the finest troops in the world.  That the Russians might and would have been beaten, had the means in the hands of those commanding the Turkish army being properly utilised, is as clear as day.  However, it is not my business to comment on such matters.

I now return to my own element, and will endeavour to describe some of the occurrences of the war in the Black Sea.  The Russians had three lines of action in those waters.  First, to capture Sulina, and to destroy the squadron lying at anchor in its roadstead; second, to capture Batoum and its much-envied harbour; third, the somewhat undignified action of sending out fast vessels, mostly mail-boats, armed with a couple of guns, their object being to destroy the Turkish coasting trade.  These vessels were most difficult to catch, as they always watched their opportunity to slip out of their strongholds when the Turkish ships were employed carrying troops, or otherwise engaged.  There was, I venture to think, some illegality in this conduct of the Russian mail-boats.