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[Page 2]
"As soon as they had got him on board, they used all the persuasion they could to prevail upon him to enter. They offered to make him a Quarter master, as he had been formerly, or midshipman, but all this he refused, saying that he could not even if they would make him a Captain.
Upon his refusing their offers, they began to threaten him and treated him roughly, pulling him down into the Hole &c."
The letter mentions several particulars of great cruelty exercised on this poor man, which I do not transcribe, as I am soliciting for redress but for his discharge, as incapable of rending any service to Government in the station of a sailor.
I communicated the letter to my hond [honoured ]Fnd. [friend] J Butler of the Admiralty - who was so obliging as to lay it before the board. The secretary has informed me that inquiry will be made respecting the ill treatment he complains of but this is not the object I have in view. I am perfectly satisfied that all the ill treatment they can exert upon him will not answer the purpose of forcing him to act, and it is that severest kind of persecution, to be left in such circumstances to the mercy of the Crew.
Be so good as to mention this fact every circum[stance]