326 
CONSIDERATIONS. 
instructions of the Lords of the Admiralty required 
that the officers and men composing the Expedition 
should be sent home, without exempting him, — and 
that consequently they did not authorize him to aban- 
don his ship’s company; moreover, that those instruc- 
tions decidedly stated, that volunteer officers were to 
be sent on that service ; lastly, not only that the 
service was one with which he was not officially con- 
nected, namely, that of regulating the affairs of the 
model farm on the behalf of the proprietors of that 
establishment, but the wishes of those proprietors ex- 
pressly pointed to Mr. Cook in the letter of their 
chairman ; Captain Allen, therefore, guided by all 
these circumstances, decided on yielding the post to 
that gentleman; who, on the proposition being made 
to him, consented to undertake it, though, on subse- 
quent consideration, he thought it advisable to decline 
it; and he took his departure for England in the 
barque, ‘ Golden Spring,’ which vessel was about to 
sail. 
Another difficulty arose from the fact of the absence 
of the senior officer. Captain Foote, to whom the 
Admiralty instructions were directed, and the proba- 
bility that it would be a considerable time before he 
could visit this part of the station. Sending the ‘Kite’ 
in search of him was quite out of the question. It 
therefore became necessary, for Captain Allen to take 
upon himself, the prompt execution of their Lordships’ 
wishes. In this he had tlie high gratification to find. 
