cted to be placed--that of being arraigned before and brought to a
court-martial for charges of mutiny, disaffection, and disrespect
towards my superior officer. If the honourable court will examine the
certificates I am about to produce, they will find that, until I
sailed with Captain Hawkins, my conduct has always been supposed to
have been diametrically opposite to that which is now imputed to me.
I have always been diligent and obedient to command; and I have only
to regret that the captains, with whom I have had the honour to sail,
are not now present to corroborate, by their oral evidence, the truth
of these documents. Allow me, in the first place, to point out to the
court, that the charges against me are spread over a large space of
time, amounting to nearly eighteen months, during the whole of which
period, Captain Hawkins never stated to me that it was his intention
to try me by a court-martial; and, although repeatedly in the presence
of a senior officer, has never preferred any charge against me. The
articles of war state expressly, that if any officer, soldier or
marine, has any complaint to make, he is to do so upon his arrival at
any port or fleet, where he may fall in with a superior officer. I
admit that this article of war refers to complaints to be made by
inferiors against superiors; but, at the same time, I venture to
submit to the honourable court, that a superior is equally bound to
prefer a charge, or to give notice that that charge will be preferred,
on the first seasonable opportunity, instead of lulling the offender
into security, and disarming him in his defence, by allowing the time
to run on so long as to render him incapable of bringing forward his
witnesses. I take the liberty of calling this to your attention, and
shall now proceed to answer the charges which have been brought
against me.

"I am accused of having held a conversation with an inferior officer
on the quarter-deck of His Majesty's brig _Rattlesnake_, in which my
captain was treated with contempt. That it may not be supposed that
Mr Swinburne was a new acquaintance, made upon my joining the brig, I
must observe, that he was an old shipmate, with whom I had served many
years, and with whose worth I was well acquainted. He was my
instructor in my more youthful days, and has been rewarded for his
merit, with the warrant which he now holds as gunner of H