ABSTRACT
In December 1815, when Malta was stumbling to recovery from the consequences of plague, Sir Thomas Maitland was made Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, excluding Gibraltar, and Lord High Commissioner of the seven Ionian Islands.1 This small archipelago, including the ‘Currant Islands’ of Zante and Cephalonia, had been taken from the Venetians by the French in 1797. Two years later the islands were united into an independent republic under the protection of Turkey and Russia, but the French regained possession in 1807 by the Treaty of Tilsit. In 1814 the French garrison on Corfu surrendered to British troops who were already in occupation of the islands, and Major-General Campbell was appointed Civil Commissioner.
