my work, after the decided evidences I had received of the friendship and esteem of the Government. "Were it otherwise," said I, "I would much rather fall into the hands of an English jury than those of French pirates."
I made an application to the Government for ammunition when I had completed my fort. I was promptly furnished with five hundred cannon balls, four barrels of gunpowder, and the greatest abundance of matches. I required no stronger proof of approbation.
By the month of November I had completed every thing, and finding that the Lord Lieutenant had returned to Dublin, I thought it would be right that I should go and wait upon him, and present a full report of what I had done. During my residence at Bear Haven, I had from time to time been able to render material assistance to merchant vessels, and more than once to ships of war, in distress. I took with me certificates of these facts.
Upon my arrival in Dublin I was received by the Council with the utmost kindness. They voted the sum of £50 to me at once, as a temporary assistance until something better could be done for me, and they recommended me most strongly to claim a pension for my services, and they themselves brought my case officially before the Lord Lieutenant. After a while he issued an order to the Secretary of State for Ireland, to give me a letter addressed to the Secretary of Lord Godolphin, then Lord High Treasurer of England.
I went to England with my documents in the month of April, 1705, and while I was still in London, urging my claims, the Duke of Ormond, the Lord Lieutenant, came there, and was of essential service to me in gaining my pension. He treated me at all times with every possible kindness.
