Sir Charles Rowley to the acting command of the Euryalus 42, from which frigate he returned to the Nautilus on the 21st of April following. In May, 1822, he paid that sloop off, at Portsmouth; and in Jan. 1823, received a commission appointing him to the Espiegle, of similar force, on the Cape of Good Hope station, where he was promoted to the command of the Ariadne 20, in Oct. 1824. His appointment to that ship, occasioned by the death of Commodore Nourse, C.B. was confirmed at home on the 29th December following.
In the early part of 1821, Captain Chapman examined the western coast of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to St. Felipe de Benguela, in lat. 14° 30' S.; and discovered two rivers, not laid down in any chart, to which he gave the names of “Somerset” and “Nourse,” the former in lat. 22° 40', about thirteen miles north of Walvisch Bay, and the latter in 17° 10' S. He also met with two columns, still perfect, erected by Bernardo Diaz, in the year 1480. The Cape Gazette of July 3, 1824, contains an epitome of this survey.
On the 19th Jan. 1820, a court-martial was assembled in Portsmouth harbour, to try Captain Chapman on the charges and allegations hereafter recited.
It appears that the trial originated in Mr. Alexander M‘Coy, the purser of the Espiegle, having refused, when Captain Chapman gave up the command of that sloop, to sign the customary certificate, signifying that his captain had given him every facility in the execution of his duty, and in the care of the ship’s provisions and victualling stores; – without which certificate Captain Chapman could not pass his accounts. Mr. M‘Coy, in justification of his own conduct, transmitted to Captain Constantine Richard Moorsom, then the senior officer on the Cape station, a copy of nine allegations of misconduct on the part of Captain Chapman; the original of which he sent to the Victualling Board. The Lords of the Admiralty, in consequence, on the arrival of the Ariadne in England, ordered three captains to form a court of enquiry into the truth of the statements made. Captain Chapman refused to submit to this tribunal, and requested that the charges might be publicly investigated. A court-
