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Captain Bligh's Defence
Mr. President and the Members of this Honorable Court.
It is to me a matter not only of much surprize but of indignation also, that in whatever manner the Prosecutor may have designed to support the charges preferred against me, instead of instantly feeling, or manifesting the impression that would naturally have occurred from the acts of which he complains, that he should nevertheless not only have permitted a lengthened time at sea to elapse, with Flag Officers in company, but also six days at anchor before he chuses [chooses] to make it an object of public notice, so that real recollection of circumstances are effaced from the minds of those who would otherwise have been more particularly prepared to give evidence upon them: besides it is a very conclusive point that if the circumstances at the time they happened, or in the moment of his arrival in port, had not been sufficient to cause him to sue for public justice, nothing but that sort of intention usually termed a Malus Animus; a bad or depraved intention could possibly have actuated him, and that it was an impression not received from the thing itself, but, from the desire to retaliate an act of necessary justice, by an act of disobedient malevolence.
Besides I get to appeal two points to the feelings of this Honorable Court, two points on which opinion can hardly divide; on which much consideration will doubtless be allowed to press. First, who is there heartily zealous for the Country's service