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 Your Excellency, and which was followed, almost immediately, by the Chief himself.

6th. When he appeared before me, his countenance betrayed the anguish which every man ought to feel under circumstances such as those in which he was placed.

7th. I requested him to give me his reasons for leaving unprotected the ports which were most exposed, and coming to put in at Rio de Janeiro, which is the most defensible.

8th. He replied that the orders of the King, my Master, and mine had forced him to do so. I shewed him that the contrary was the fact; because, although the orders of the 31st July of last year, a copy of §§ 29, 30 and 31 of which, being those referring to the Fleet, had been communicated to him by letter, I had personally read to him the last orders but one, and the last which I received in Your Excellency's letters of the 9th and 29th of September, and the 8th and 9th of October, both of last year, and upon his saying that he could not carry them out, and would not take the responsibility of their execution, I placed them actually in his hands, requesting him to take them, turn the matter over in his mind, and give me his opinion and reply in writing, as I have already informed Your Excellency in my Despatch of the 20th of November of last year, when I sent you a copy of the said Chief's reply. In consequence of that reply, I issued the Letter of Orders, of which I