do
anything to serve him; and, when he obtained the command on the East
India station, offered to take him with him in the Cato, which sailed,
and was supposed to have foundered off the Cape of Good Hope, as she
was never afterwards heard of; and he happily escaped sharing the fate
of that gallant chief and unfortunate crew.

The Tisiphone having been fitted out at Sheerness, and the complement
of men having been filled up by supernumeraries from the Conquestadore
at the Nore, Captain Saumarez, by order from Admiral Roddam, placed
himself under the command of Captain Allen, of the Sceptre, on the 6th
September 1781, from whom he received the following order:

You are hereby required and directed to put yourself under my
command, and to follow all such orders and directions as you
shall from time to time receive from me for his Majesty's
service, and to hold yourself in constant readiness to sail at a
moment's warning; and in case of separation by any unavoidable
accident, you are to make the best of your way without loss of
time to Torbay, and put yourself under the command of Admiral
Darby.

(Mem.) In case of your parting company with his Majesty's ship
Sceptre, and falling in with any ships or vessels belonging to
France or French subjects, Spain or Spanish subjects, the States
General of the United Provinces, or to his Majesty's rebellious
subjects in the colonies of North America, that you can cope
with, you are to use your best endeavours to take, seize, sink,
burn, or destroy the same: giving me an account of your arrival
at Torbay, and of anything you may have so taken or destroyed.

Signed.
WM. ALLEN.

In pursuance of these orders Captain Saumarez sailed from the Nore,
and, arriving at Torbay on the 17th, found that Admiral Darby had
sailed in the Britannia on the 15th, after having left orders for the
Tisiphone to cruise a week off the Lizard. Here he was directed to
proceed for Plymouth, where he arrived on the 1st of October; and
having received further orders to repair to Spithead without loss of
time, he arrived there on the 13th October, to fit for Channel
service. He now joined the fleet under Lord Howe, and, after a cruise
off Brest, returned to Portsmouth on the 21st of November: his ship
was found to sail extremely well.

Captain Saumarez was now ordered to place himself under the command of
Admiral Kempenfelt, who, with a detachment of tw