N° 7.
COPY OF A L E T T E R
FROM MR. PHELPS TO CAPTAIN JONES.
Reikevig, August 23rd, 1809.
S ir,
The convention or agreement, which we
entered into yesterday with the chief justice
and the bailiff of this island, will, perhaps,
preclude the necessity of my giving you a
circumstantial account of every particular and
minute transaction which has taken place
here since my arrival, of which I have kept
a regular journal, for the purpose of laying
the same before his Majesty’s ministers,
together with original documents. The
accounts and papers are voluminous, and
it would take a considerable time to copy
them: it was, moreover, impossible to do
it in the time required by your letter of the
20th instant. The journal papers and documents
I hold are necessary for my justification,
and it may be of considerable utility to
me to retain them; but, as I am totally unacquainted
with the laws and articles of war
(farther than what I learn from having read
the Margaret and Anne’s letters of marque),
I will readily deliver up all these papers and
journal to you, if you will give me an order
so to do, and a receipt for the same; as will
also Captain Liston his journal and papers.—
I must, however, beg 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 lfith, and another the lfth
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