Andrew Smith
had told her that 'nothing was needed'. Even Sidney Herbert had
given her similar assurances; possibly, owing to an oversight,
there might have been some delay in the delivery of the medical
stores, which, he said, had been sent out from England 'in
profusion', but 'four days would have remedied this'. She
preferred to trust her own instincts, and at Marseilles purchased
a large quantity of miscellaneous provisions, which were of the
utmost use at Scutari. She came, too, amply provided with money--
in all, during her stay in the East, about ?7,000 reached her
from private sources; and, in addition, she was able to avail
herself of another valuable means of help.
At the same time as herself, Mr. Macdonald, of The Times, had
arrived at Scutari, charged with the duty of administering the
large sums of money collected through the agency of that
newspaper in aid of the sick and wounded; and Mr. Macdonald had
the sense to see that the best use he could make of The Times
Fund was to put it at the disposal of Miss Nightingale. 'I cannot
conceive,' wrote an eye-witness, 'as I now calmly look back on
the first three weeks after the arrival of the wounded from
Inkerman, how it could have been possible to have avoided a state
of things too disastrous to contemplate, had not Miss Nightingale
been there, with the means placed at her disposal by Mr.
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