380 
APPENDIX. E. 
leave to correct some errors or mistakes, which 
appear to exist, according to your letter of the 
19th instant.—As to my having declined giving 
you a statement of my transactions here, this 
I certainly did not intend; but, as the charges 
made against me from common report only, as 
stated in the first conversation I had the honor to 
hold with you, were of a serious nature, and such 
as I knew to be unjust and untrue, I wished the 
whole transactions and complaints to be stated in 
writing, to prevent misinterpretation. Perhaps 
this request of mine was not correct or consistent 
with the respect due to a British officer; if so, I 
can assure you no such disrespect was intended.—• 
I took the liberty of writing you a letter (in haste) 
dated the l6th, and another the 17th instant. Of 
the first I had not time to take an exact copy ; 
but it appears by your letter of the 19th instant, 
that some words in one particular passage were 
left out, which were intended by me to have 
been added. I refer you to the public proclama¬ 
tions, to prove to you that the error in my letter 
proceeded from the hurry of writing: therefore I 
must beg leave to correct it.—You state in your 
letter of the 19th instant, that I have not only in 
your opinion transgressed the laws of Great 
Britain, but of all nations, by assuming an autho¬ 
rity which no one has a right to assume, namely, 
that of declaring the island “ free, neutral, and 
