To this statement, which was made with a very patronizing air, the admiral simply replied: “I have never adopted that method of making myself of consequence.” The rank of the prince, his possessions, and his boastful braggadocio spirit had strangely deceived the empress. The fleet consisted of two pretty distinct portions; a squadron of powerful war vessels and a large flotilla of gun-boats. The necessity of coõperative action in military expeditions is such, that Napoleon I. once remarked: “It is better to intrust the command of an army to one poor general than to two good ones.” Admiral Jones found that while he was intrusted with the command of the war-ships, the flotilla of gun-boats was placed under the independent orders of the Prince of Nassau. Nothing efficient could be accomplished against the powerful and well-manned navy of the Turks without the coöperation of the whole Russian fleet of ships and boats under the direction of a single mind. And yet there probably were not in all Europe two men less calculated to act together than Admiral Jones and the Prince of Nassau. These two immense fleets and armies were facing each other. The headquarters of the Russians was at Cherson, while the Turks had their central rendezvous about fifty miles farther southeast, at Oczakow. The spacious waters between Cherson and Oczakow, where the Dnieper and the Bog pour their widening floods into the Euxine, were filled with the ships of the line, the frigates, and the gunboats of the contending parties. For four months there was almost a continuous series of manœuvres and skirmishes, rising occasionally into hotly contested battles. The region was full of shoals and sand-bars, where the heavily-armed ships, and even the gun-boats, were continually running aground. Prince Potemkin was in the supreme command of the whole force, naval and military. He stood in the place of the empress, and was said in reality to have more power than Catherine herself. Admiral Jones found that he could originate no movement. He could only obey orders, and must wait patiently until he received them. When orders were given, the ships alone were subject to his command. The Prince of Nassau was jealous of his renown, and seemed often disposed rather to thwart than to aid the efforts of the admiral. He was a man of considerable skill in cunning and intrigue, and had led even Potemkin to apprehend that great results were to be accomplished by the action of his gun-boats.