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P.S.—I have been under the necessity, much against my wishes and inclinations, of discharging Mr. Willm. House, late boatswain of the Discovery, who, whilst in that situation, so far as his abilities enabled him to act, conducted himself as a sober, diligent officer, having been afflicted with a violent rheumatic complaint which rendered him incapable of performing that service for many months past. I therefore beg leave to recommend him to your Excellency’s notice, together with the three valuable seamen and one marine whom I have been under the very disagreeable necessity of parting with for similar reasons, who equally deserve every clemency and attention the nature of his Majesty’s service will admit of. These people I have thus discharged, because we have not the power of affording them relief, and the service we have yet to perform being of a long and arduous nature. I am in hopes of its being shortly in your Excellency’s power of providing them a passage to England, in which case I trust they will find relief from the severe maladies under which they at present labor.