I reply, that there is no
proof that I did not intend to report it; but the presence of Captain
Hawkins, who heard what was said, rendered such report unnecessary.
"On the fifth charge, I must beg that the court will be pleased to
consider that some allowance ought to be made for a moment of
irritation. My character was traduced by Captain Hawkins, supposing that
I was dead; so much so, that even the ship's company cried out _shame._
I am aware, that no language of a superior officer can warrant a retort
from an inferior; but, as what I intended to imply by that language is
not yet known, although Captain Hawkins has given an explanation to his,
I shall merely say, that I meant no more by my insinuations, than
Captain Hawkins did at the time, by those which he made use of with
respect to me.
"Upon the other trifling charges brought forward, I lay no stress, as I
consider them fully refuted by the evidence which has been already
adduced; and I shall merely observe, that, for reasons best known to
himself, I have been met with a most decided hostility on the part of
Captain Hawkins, from the time that he first joined the ship; that, on
every occasion, he has used all his efforts to render me uncomfortable,
and embroil me with others; that, not content with narrowly watching my
conduct on board, he has resorted to his spy-glass from the shore; and,
instead of assisting me in the execution of a duty sufficiently arduous,
he has thrown every obstacle in my way, placed inferior officers as
spies over my conduct, and made me feel so humiliated in the presence of
the ship's company, over which I have had to superintend, and in the
disciplining of which I had a right to look to him for support, that,
were it not that some odium would necessarily be attached to the
sentence, I should feel it as one of the happiest events of my life that
I were dismissed from the situation which I now hold under his command.
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