CASUALTY. 101 



effected without one serious caautdty, wliich, althougli it 

 could not alter the view I had taken of mj duty, much 

 increased both my own regret at the perverseness of 

 the Governor, and the general excitement consequent 

 upon tlio event. A Portuguese soldiei' was killed by 

 a mtiskct-sliot. It wae said by his own peopie that 

 he was unarmed, and not in any way opposed to our 

 rescuing force. It may have been so ; it is not possible 

 to reconcile the conflicting accounts even of this short 

 affair. Captain Staveley, liowcrer, whose jwjcount I 

 believe, states that some shots were exchanged between 

 our men and the PortuguesOj the latter firing into tho 

 squai^e from the windows of a house : in this way they 

 probably slew their own comrade ; but the point is 

 not worth discussiiigj as it cm neither lessen nor increase 

 my own responsibility* I am convinced tliat the course 

 I pursued can be perfectly justified in the eyes of 

 every one with whom might does not constitute right, 

 which law seemed to be the only one recognised by 

 tho Governor of Macao. It may be observed, that there 

 is no class of pubhc servants on whom great responsi- 

 bilities are more suddenly imposed, than on the officer 

 commanding a man-of-war ; and lie cannot, with any 

 secnrity for his public duty, allow himself tt> cfmsult 

 those personal impulses, which , as they vary with every 

 temperament, would produce inconsistencies in every 

 sea. He must be giuded, where special orders havo 

 not defined his course, by that which may best mail^tain 



