KAUAI AND OAHU. 57 



Among our other duties, a court-martial became necessary. The 

 services we were engaged in had rendered it impossible to convene 

 one prior to our arrival here; and if it had not been for the imperative 

 necessity of making an example in the case of two marines on board 

 the Peacock, I should have been inclined still to defer it from want 

 of time. Besides the two marines, there was an unruly fellow by the 

 name of Sweeny, an Englishman, who had been shipped in the 

 tender at New Zealand, and was at times so riotous on board my ship, 

 that I determined to try him also. A court composed of the oldest 

 officers of the squadron sentenced them " to be flogged at such time 

 and place as the commander of the squadron might think proper." 

 Understanding from our consul that the sailors of the whaling fleet, 

 as is most generally the case, were disposed to be disorderly, and my 

 interference having been several times asked for, I thought it a good 

 opportunity to show the crews of all these vessels that authority to 

 punish offences existed. I therefore ordered the sentence of the 

 court to be put into execution publicly, after the usual manner in such 

 cases ; a part of the punishment to be inflicted at each vessel, dimi- 

 nishing very much its extent in the cases of the two marines. At 

 the time of the infliction of the punishment I received a letter (for 

 which see Appendix IV.) from the most respectable portion of the 

 crew, requesting Sweeny's discharge, and stating that he was a 

 troublesome character. To insure his dismissal, they offered to pay 

 all the debts he might owe to the government. As he had no claim 

 on the squadron or flag, which, I was afterwards told, he had fre- 

 quently cursed, and as he had been only six months in the squadron 

 (having joined it with scarce a shirt to his back), I resolved to comply 

 with the men's request, and sent him out of the squadron at once, 

 with his bag and hammock, far better off than when he joined us. 

 The ship became orderly again, having got rid of one of the greatest 

 of the many rascals who are found roaming about Polynesia. 



This act, together with the legal punishment of the marines for 

 refusing to do duty, when their time of service had not expired, was 

 another of the many complaints brought against me on my return. 



I have obtained a copy of the enlistment of the marines, (which 

 will be found in Appendix V.,) that it may be seen whether it was, or 

 was not, my duty to hold control over these men. The signing of the 

 roll of enlistment took place before I took command of the squadron. 

 The original document was on file in the Navy Department, when the 

 judge advocate of the court was endeavouring to prove there was no 

 such document in existence. 



The men's time of liberty having expired, they were again received 

 vol. iv 8 



