By &c.

Whereas the Honorable Augustus Keppel Admiral of the Blue and Commander in Chief of a Squadron of the King’s Ships employed and to be employed in the Channel Soundings or wherever else His Majesty’s Service may require, is directed in pursuance of His Majesty’s pleasure signified to us by Lord Visc^t. Weymouth one of His Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State in his Letter of this date¹ to put to Sea immediately with as many of the Ships of that Squadron as are in readiness and to call off Plymouth Sound to take you and your Squadron under his Command and to remain on the Station which has been assigned him until he gets good Intelligence of Mons^r. D’Estaings Fleet and if he is satisfied that it is bound to America or the West Indies to order you to pursue it agreeable to the Instructions you have receiv’d But if from well grounded Intelligence he shall have room to believe that it is still in the Mediterranean, in that case to order you to proceed immediately to Gibraltar and to use your best endeavours to meet with, and give battle to the said Fleet, and if on your passage to, or on your arrival at Gibraltar you should receive well grounded intelligence of the abovemention’d Fleet having passed the Straits of Gibraltar bound out of Europe, to direct you to follow it to America or the West Indies agreeable to the Instructions you have received;² You are hereby required and directed when the said Admiral arrives off Plymouth Sound to put yourself and your Squadron under his Command accord- ingly, and to follow his Orders until he shall give you directions to separate from him in pursuit of Mons^r. D’Estaings Fleet as abovementioned. Given &c 25: May 1778

By &c.
P.S.³