APPENDIX th the CHRONICLE. 



577 



ther I did not wisely exercise the 

 discretion necessarily reposed in me 

 in the not doing it. 



Upon the first, you have already 

 heard the evidence on the part of 

 the prosecution. I shall not trou- 

 ble you with going minutely through 

 it — the result of it seems to be, that 

 on tke 23d it was impossible for me 

 to have done it, unless the enemy 

 had chosen it. That on the 24th, 

 although the wind was in a favour- 

 able quarter, I had no chance of 

 doing it without separating my 

 squadron, and that, from the light- 

 ness of the winds and other circum- 

 stances, it was a matter of great 

 doubt, whether even if I had sepa- 

 rated my squadron, I could have 

 come up with them, particularly if 

 they had chosen to avoid me. — In 

 addition to the evidences which you 

 have already heard, I shall trouble 

 you with very little more. I shall 

 prove to you the damages which the 

 ships had received, and such parts 

 of the preceding statements as have 

 not been already proved, with the 

 additional circumstance that the 

 weather was such as it was not pos- 

 sible to have taken the people out 

 of the captured ships and have de- 

 stroyed them, had I thought it pro- 

 per so to do. 



Upon this part of the case, as 

 also upon the state of the ships 

 and vessels at the dilfercnt periods I 

 shall mention, I have much to la- 

 ment the absence of captain Prouse, 

 who was particularly employed from 

 time to time to look into that port. 

 I trust, however, I shall be able to 

 give these matters sufficiently with- 

 out his assistance, and such is the 

 uncertainty of his arrival, that I am 

 unwilling to delay the public service 

 00 that account. 



In deciding this part of the case, 



Vou XLVII. 



you will, I am sure, take into con- 

 sideration, the question whether it 

 was probable the enemy would even 

 have staid for the purpose, and that 

 if they had not, 1 should have se- 

 parated myself from the disabled 

 part of the squadron, and exposed 

 them to hazard, to no purpose ; and 

 yoii will, 1 am sure, also consider 

 that there is a vast deal of differ- 

 cuce between being ready to renew 

 an attack upon an unwilling enemy, 

 and being in a condition, in case the 

 enemy had been disposed to make 

 the attack, to have received and re- 

 pelled it. I am the more induced 

 to make this observation, because it 

 has been said, that I meant to re- 

 new the action, from the circum^ 

 stance of my having made the signal 

 to know if any of the ships had oc- 

 casion to lie by ; I answer, the sig- 

 nal by no means imports it, nor had I 

 it at that time in contemplatian. My 

 reason was, that I might, from 

 knowing the situation of each ship, 

 be enabled to form my line to the 

 best advantage, in case the enemy 

 had chosen to renew the action, 

 which, atone time, I had the expec- 

 tation of their intending to do. The 

 court will allow me to remind them, 

 that at this time the Windsor Castle 

 was in tow of the Dragon — the Malta 

 considerably to leeward of the rest 

 of the squadron, and that, though 

 I might, and should have formed a 

 line to receive the enemy, if they 

 had come down to me, it would have 

 been impossible to have formed a 

 line to make an attack upon a fleet 

 so much to windward as that of the 

 enemy was at this time. 



That the signal was not under- 

 stood by those to whom it was ad- 

 dressed, as an indication of an abso. 

 lute intention to renew the attack, 

 appears from the evidence of cap- 

 Pp taia 



