It was a part of Sir Edward’s system, while he commanded cruising ships, to have the reefs shaken out, the studding sail-booms rigged out, and everything ready, before daylight; that if an enemy should be near there might be no delay in making sail.  In the course of 1798 his squadron took fifteen cruisers.  The circumstances connected with one of these, La Vaillante national corvette, taken on the 8th of August by the Indefatigable, after a chase of twenty-four hours, were of much interest.  She was bound to Cayenne, with prisoners; among whom were twenty-five priests, who had been condemned for their principles to perish in that unhealthy colony.  It may well be supposed that they were at once restored to liberty and comfort; nor would Sir Edward show to the commander of his prize the attentions which an officer in his situation expects, until he had first satisfied himself that the severe and unnecessary restraint to which they had been subjected, for he found them chained together, was the consequence of express orders from the French Government.  His officers and men vied with him in attentions to the unfortunate exiles, and when he set them on shore in England he gave them a supply for their immediate wants.  Among the passengers on board La Vaillante were the wife and family of a banished deputy.  M. Rovere, who had obtained permission to join him, and were going out with all they possessed, amounting to 3,000_l_.  Sir Edward restored to her the whole of it, and paid from his own purse the proportion which was the prize of his crew.

Early in the following year the Admiralty determined to limit the period of command in frigates.  In obedience to this regulation, on the 1st of March, Sir Edward, with much regret, left the ship and crew he had so long commanded, and exchanged the activity of a cruising frigate for a service which offered little prospect of distinction.  He was complimented with the Impetueux, formerly L’Amerique, one of the prizes taken by Lord Howe on the 1st of June, a most beautiful ship, and so much superior to the largest 74, that she was made a class by herself, and rated as a 78.  He was allowed to select twenty men to follow him from the Indefatigable.

Going on board the Impetueux for the first time, he was accosted at the gangway by the boatswain:  “I am very glad, sir, that you are come to us, for you are just the captain we want.  You have the finest ship in the navy, and a crew of smart sailors, but a set of the greatest scoundrels that ever went to sea.”  He checked him on the spot, and afterwards, sending for him to the cabin, demanded what he meant by addressing him in that manner.  The boatswain, who had served with him in the Carleton on Lake Champlain, pleaded former recollections in excuse; and after submitting to the reproof with which Sir Edward thought it necessary to mark his breach of discipline, informed him that the crew were all but in a state of mutiny, and that for months past he had slept with pistols under his head.