After evacuating Toulon in December 1793, the British force under vice admiral Samuel Hood regrouped in the bay of Hyères, 125 miles west of Calvi. On 4 January 1794 Pascal Paoli, general and leader of the Corsican nationalist forces, repeated an offer he had made at the height of the siege of Toulon - to put Corsica under British protection in exchange for help in ejecting the French garrisons in the three fortresses of Calvi, Bastia and San Fiorenzo (Saint Florent). Hood was keen to have a forward base for his fleet to blockade Toulon whilst protecting British trade with the Italian states via ports such as Livorno and Naples. Gibraltar was too far from Toulon, Minorca was in Spanish hands and he could not count on using Spanish ports like Barcelona since relations between Spain and Brit