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 island of Sumatra, and the second being shortly afterwards invalided, Mr. Johnston became senior Lieutenant of that ship towards the close of 1796; and in that capacity he assisted at the capture and destruction of many armed vessels and valuable merchantmen, off Batavia, and in other parts of the Java seas.

In July, 1800, Lieutenant Johnston joined the Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of the late Vice-Admiral Rainier, Commander-in-chief on the East India station, from whom he subsequently received the following appointments, viz, – as acting Captain of the Daedalus frigate and Vulcan bomb, in 1801; as Governor of the Naval Hospital at Madras, and Commander of the Victor sloop, in 1802; and as acting Captain of the Trident 64 (then flag-ship), and Captain of la Dédaigneuse frigate, in 1804. His Admiralty commission as a Commander bears date Jan. 18, 1803.

On the 16th June 1805, Captain Johnston was removed by Sir Edward Pellew into the Cornwallis, of 50 guns and 335 men; which appointment was confirmed at home Sept. 5th, in the following year.

The Cornwallis was a very large teak-built frigate, recently purchased from the Hon. East India Company, in whose service she had been employed as a cruiser. When commissioned at Bombay, by Captain Johnston, she was considered the best specimen of the skill of Jemsatjee Bomanjee, the famous Parsee builder; and it was owing to every principle of strength having been considered in her construction, that she suffered little, except in spars, from three furious typhones, which she encountered during the same year, in the China seas.

In 1806, the Cornwallis was stationed off the Isle of France, and several times warmly engaged with the enemy’s formidable batteries.

On the 11th Nov. in that year, Captain Johnston and his senior officer, the late Rear-Admiral Bingham, then 