collect that fact from Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux’s letter, might at any time have ascertained the true state of the case. If I may be permitted to draw any inference from the suppression of that order by Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux, it warrants me in saying that he knew, if I had received that order, that I should have obeyed it, although under such peculiarly delicate circumstances.
“The Court will please to keep in view, that one of the principal motives for Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux’s permitting Captain Bligh to hold communication with me, was the idea Captain Bligh held forth, of his serious intention to proceed in the ship to England; but this, as will appear, like other matters, was mere delusion on the part of Captain Bligh.
“In one of Captain Bligh’s standing orders, of the 26th of August, 1806, two commissioned officers of His Majesty’s ship Porpoise are directed to attend, as members of the criminal court, (on the application of the Judge Advocate) and to sit as the law directs.
“Lieutenant Governor Foveaux having directed a criminal court to assemble, I was requested to sit as a member of it. I waited on Captain Bligh, when he directed me, verbally, that I should not sit on any criminal court. As soon as I retired, I addressed a letter to him “on service,” informing him that a precept had been sent me, for my attendance as a member of a criminal court, and requesting to be informed if I should obey his order of the 26th of August, 1806.
“I received a letter, in answer, to acquaint me, ‘that when I saw his name to a precept, I was to obey that order; but not before.’ In this dilemma, I addressed the Judge Advocate, and informed him I could not attend in consequence of orders I had received, until Captain Bligh’s name appeared on the precept. Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux immediately wrote to Captain Bligh, to know how he came to issue such an order. The Court will scarcely credit the fact, but Captain Bligh positively denied that be bad given any order of the kind, and that he had left it to my own discretion to sit or not, as I chose. Captain Bligh’s letter was transmitted to me by Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux, and I was reduced to the painful necessity of vindicating myself by the incontestible proof of Captain Bligh’s disregard of accuracy. I will not give it a harsher name. I immediately inclosed to Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux Captain Bligh’s letter, in which the denied order is explicitly given on that very day.
“I leave this fact to make the impression it cannot fail to do on the minds of this Honorable Court. I mention it as a fact I can distinctly prove, to manifest to the Court that some parts of Captain Bligh’s conduct created my anxiety to act from his orders, either written, or such as I could prove by witnesses.
“I abstain from mentioning other acts which equally impaired my confidence in Captain Bligh, because I will state nothing of which I am deprived of the proof.
