The officers of the Commissariat Department embarked on board the " Indian " are Deputy-Commissary-General, in charge of the expedition, Tyrone Power, Assistant-Commissary-General Gumming, Deputy-Assistant-Commissary-General Sutherland, and Commissariat Clerk Eobinson; Lieutenant Wardlaw, and twenty Dragoons, Captain Nicholson, Lieutenant Gordon, and Lieutenant Scratchley, in command of the Sappers and Miners, are embarked on board the same vessel, in which are also seventy Staff horses. Major Bent, Royal Engineers, in charge, is on board the " Eoyal Albert," where quarters are also provided for Brigadier-General Spencer and Staff. As the fleets drew off from the land, leaving behind them the forts of Sebastopol, both north and south, between which the usual daily duel of caimon and mortar was going on, the French went somewhat to the westward, and seemed to steer N.W. by W., while we kept on a course N. by W.
The Admii-al made signal to the fleet that " the rendezvous " was to be " five miles S. by E. of Odessa," and it was immediately conjectured that the object of visiting that place was to induce the Russians to talce away their forces from Nicholaieff and Cherson, in the expectation of a descent upon them at Odessa. The speed of the sqiiadi-on was not very gi-eat, as most of the vessels had heavy boats in tow, and the signal was made from the Admii-al, " Steer four miles an hour — course N.W. by N." The " Triton " was ordered to keep close to the Admiral, and not to follow the signals of smaller vessels, and at 2"10 the flagship signalled that " the Admiral's course was no longer to be regarded by the fleet," but that they were to keep in their proper dii'ection, as already indicated.
At four o'clock the "Triton" was ordered not to exceed four knots an hour, the Admiral's ship began to press on in front, and before evening was well in advance of the squadron, attended by a despatch gun-boat. The French, detained by their heavy batteries, made the best of their way on oui* port quarter. The night was fine, and the fleet moved slowly, and in extended order, for fear of collisions, but just before dawn the " Stromboli " made a slight dint in the huge bulk of the " St. Jean d'Acre," and carried away one of the latter' s boats, which has since been recovered. CHAPTER XXIX. At yea — Odessa in siglit — Beautiful appearance of the city — Esplanades, boulevards, and rows of houses — Spectators— Public buildinjrs — Domes, columns, steeples, and spires — Alarm in Odessa — Uussian infantry discovered marching in haste towards the city — The eternal Cossack — The telegraphs and signal stations — Flocks and herds — Arrival of the fleets — Tremendous force off Odessa — The " Viper" ordered to proceed to Kinburn to make the requisite surveys — Fog — Climpses of the shore — Formidable appearance of the fleets to the inhabitants of Odessa — Crowds of idlers on the esplanade — The gunners all ready at the batteries — The fog increases — Return of the active little ".Spitlire" — Sailing of the " Viper" countermanded — Consultation on board the French admiral's ship — Signals — A breeze springs up — Manoeuvres of cavalry and horse artillery on shore — Odessa quite at the mercy of our fleets — Why the city was spared — Horrors of a bombardment — Magnanimity of tlie allies.
October 8. A HOT, briglit sun lighted up the round inirror of sea of which we were the centre this fine morning. The sea gives a poor human creatui-e a curious sense of his own importance. Whereever it is not Lroken in upon by the land, it conc^edes to the vessel that has the honour of bearing him the position, or at least the sensation, of being the very centre and:iavel of the universe; if it has not already smitten him down on some cruel deck or woe-begone cot, by its own peculiar protest against the arrogance of mankind. Although many big ships were near, and a great flotilla was moving lUl round the edges of our great cii'cle. Her Majesty's ship appeared on this fine Monday morning to be the central point on a bright, flickering, shivering mirror, fringed by columns of smoke, or framed in by the masts of the distant fleet, fine as cobwebs on the edge of some ancient cheval glass of Louis Quatorze.