Commissioners of the Admiralty:

"The rioters, it appears, endeavored to OVERPOWER the guard, to
force the prison, and had actually seized the arms of some of the
soldiers, and made a breach in the walls of the depot, when the
guard found itself obliged to have recourse to their fire arms,
and five of the rioters were killed, and thirty-four wounded,
after which the tumult subsided, and the depot was placed in a
state of tranquillity and security.

"Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth, Commander in Chief at Plymouth,
having received information of this unfortunate event, lost no
time in directing Rear Admiral Sir Josias Rowley, Baronet, K. C.
B. and Schornberg, the two senior officers at that port, to
proceed to Dartmoor, and to inquire into the circumstances. Those
officers accordingly repaired to the depot, where they found, on
examination of the officers of the depot, and _all the American
prisoners who were called before them_, that the circumstances of
the riot were as before stated; but that no excuse could be
assigned for the conduct of the prisoners, but their impatience to
be released; and the Americans unanimously declared, that their
complaint of delay was not against the British government, but
against their own, which ought to have sent means for their early
conveyance home, and in replies to distinct questions to that
effect they declared they had no ground of complaint whatsoever."

No. XXI.

DARTMOOR, April 17, 1815.

_To Rear Admiral Sir J. T. Duckworth._

SIR--The officers whom you sent to this place to inquire into the
circumstance of the unfortunate occurrence of the 6th inst.
whatever right they had to represent the conduct of Captain
Shortland in the most favorable manner, we conceive it an act of
gross injustice that they should have given to you such a false
and scandalous representation of what they were told by the
prisoners.

In the report from the admiralty board to Mr. Beasly, (a copy of
which he has transmitted to us) it is stated that the prisoners,
when called upon to give an account of the circumstances of the
6th, exonerated Captain Shortland and the English government from
any blame respecting the same, and accused their own government
and its agent of being the cause.

We, on the c