welfare and interests of Captain Bligh himself, and of a nature so imperiously necessary for the tranquility of the colony, and the early interposition of His Majesty’s Government. Had Captain Bligh sent me an order to prevent the sailing of Lieutenant Symons, peculiar as my situation would have been, I should have felt it my duty to obey his commands, even although he had so publicly and solemnly renounced any interference or authority, because the production of such order, though it might have deeply impeached the honour of Captain Bligh, would have been my vindication as an inferior officer.
“I solemnly protest to the Court, that I acted under a firm belief that Captain Bligh was privy and consenting to the arrangement.
“As to Lieutenant Symons having discharged himself from His Majesty’s service, I have only to state, that he was my senior officer, and this circumstance, alluded to in the charge, took place before I joined the Porpoise, as will appear from the muster-books produced; and so far from the Admiralty being dissatisfied with Lieutenant Symons’s conduct in this respect, he was ordered to receive his pay by bill and compensation, as marked in the muster-books; besides, he has, ever since his arrival in England, been employed, and he is now one of the lieutenants of the Vestal frigate.
“These are the observations which I have deemed it my duty to offer to the Court, to repel the charges this day brought against me, and to vindicate my character from the imputation which a long and rigorous confinement of twenty-three months would naturally raise. Having never before sustained the slightest accusation, though I have been in the service from ten years of age, I am unaccustomed to the duty of defence, but I am well aware, that in the honor and justice of this Court I may repose with greater confidence, for the assertion of my innocence, and the vindication of my character, than in any talent or ingenuity, or experience, which I could have possessed.
“My services, with few exceptions, have been of a humble, but I would hope, of a meritorious kind. But that I am taught by the principles of my profession, cheerfully and zealously to do my duty wherever called, I should perhaps be forgiven by this Court, for venturing to lament that, nine years of the best period of my life have been consumed in New South Wales. When I remember that I served as midshipman on board the Tigre, with Sir William Sidney Smith, and had the happiness of being a humble associate in the defence of St. Jean D’Acre, being quartered on the walls of that place, I hope the Court will pardon my uttering the language of regret, that upright intentions and honest zeal in a most critical crisis in New South Wales, should have exposed me to the privations, sufferings, and imputations which this prosecution has entailed upon me.
“Though the reputation of a British naval officer is the pride and best possession of his life, yet I cannot feel insensible, also, to the affectionate anxiety of relatives, whose lives have also been entirely devoted to the service,
