“That, in June, 1812, your memorialist, having returned to England, second lieutenant of the Minden, after serving ten years in India, had the honor of submitting to Lord Viscount Melville his claims for promotion, and therewith produced various documents relative to conduct, character, abilities, and services; those claims were considered so just and weighty, that the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were, in consequence, graciously pleased to recommend your memorialist to Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, for promotion. He was accordingly sent back to the East Indies, as lieutenant of the same ship (Minden) in which he had, previous to his return home, served nearly two years in that capacity; she being destined to bear the flag of Sir Samuel Hood.
“That the constitution of your memorialist being materially injured by the length of his former services in that unfavourable climate, but particularly by sufferings and exposure on the Java expedition, he, on returning again to that station in 1812, became an unhappy victim to every disease with which Europeans are assailed; and although the severity and well-known nature of his complaints, with the repeated injunctions of friends, and the advice of medical men, pressed strongly for his removal to a more temperate latitude, or to his native land, yet your memorialist, under a thorough conviction that whenever it came to his turn on the Admiralty list, and a vacancy offered, the purpose for which he was sent to India would be answered: and also considering, that in case of returning to England, or quitting the station, he might afterwards, on preferring claims for promotion, be regarded as one who had by such act thwarted the good intentions of the Admiralty towards him, he continued faithfully to serve, and patiently to suffer.
“That, having arrived at the head of the list for promotions, after thus long serving and suffering, in anxious expectation of advancement in a profession to which he is, and ever has been, zealously and entirely devoted, your memorialist was appointed, by Commodore Sayer, acting commander of H.M. sloop Cameleon, at Bombay; and that he was subjected to very serious expenses in joining the said vessel, from the necessity of quitting his former ship, the Revolutionnaire, in the Straits of Malacca, and waiting two months at Pulo-Penang and Madras, before his appointment was received, and opportunity to join the Cameleon offered; also expences in purchasing a chronometer, books, charts, and sundry equipments for his cabin and table, amounting to more than triple his pay during the time he commanded the Cameleon.
“That your memorialist, on a fair consideration of all circumstances, was led to consider himself a commander in H.M. navy, from the day he was appointed to the Cameleon, or rather that the confirmation of his appointment, like every one by which it had been preceded, would be a mere matter of course: for, if any known fact had justified his entertaining and expressing a doubt on the subject, he would have been provided with such recommendations and testimonials, from the different governments of India, as well as from men in high public situations, as