men, in a hurricane off Cape
Malea. Shortly after his return to Poros, where he was again compelled
to refit, he received the following laconic communication from Lord
Cochrane, in which all mention of a rendezvous was omitted.

"_Memo._--If the Perseverance is fit for service, please join the
squadron without delay.

"COCHRANE.
"_Hellas, 7th June 1827._
"Captain Hastings, _Perseverance_."

In consequence of this order, Captain Hastings set out in search of
Lord Cochrane. A series of fruitless cruises followed, in which every
division of the Turkish fleet contrived to escape the Greeks. At last,
it was resolved that an attack should be made on Vasiladhi, the little
fort which commands the entrance into the lagoons of Missolonghi; and
the whole fleet, under the command of Lord Cochrane in person,
appeared off that place. The attempt was only persisted in for a short
time, and it failed.

The treaty of the 6th of July 1827, for the pacification of the
affairs of Greece, between Great Britain, France, and Russia, now
became known to the Greeks; and the news stimulated both them and
their friends to make increased exertions, in order that the Allies
might find as much of the country as possible already delivered from
the Turkish yoke. A small squadron of ten Turkish brigs having entered
the Gulf of Lepanto, Lord Cochrane gave Hastings an order to pursue
them, conceived in the following flattering terms:--

_Off Missolonghi, 18th Sept. 1827._

"You have been good enough to volunteer to proceed into the Gulf
of Lepanto, into which, under existing circumstances, I should
not have ordered the Perseverance (Karteria.) I therefore leave
all the proceedings to your judgment, intimating only, that the
transporting of General Church's troops to the north of the gulf,
and the destruction or capture of the enemy's vessels, will be
services of high importance to the cause of Greece."

Captain Hastings immediately entered the gulf, passing through the
formidable strait between the castles of the Morea and Roumelia,
called the Dardanelles of Lepanto, during the night. On the 29th of
September, having collected his little squadron, consisting of the
Karteria, the brig Sauveur of eighteen guns, commanded by Captain
Thomas, and two gun-boats, each mounting a long thirty-two pounder;
Hastings stood into the bay of Salona (Amphissa) to attack a Turkish
s