Lieutenant-Governor King to Lieutenant-Governor Grose.

I am honoured with your letter and orders, dated 25th ulto., by Lieut. Townson, who arrived here in the Francis, schooner, the 9th inst.

It is, sir, with much concern and sorrow that I find the whole of my conduct has incurred your marked disapprobation, particularly as I have ever made it my study to merit the approbation of my superiors by every action which appeared to me consistent with the character of an officer. Permit me, sir, to assure you of my entire respect and deference, and should anything appear improper in what I must now state as my defence to the charges laid against me, it does not—it cannot, sir— proceed from my heart, as no other consideration than an earnest desire of forwarding the King’s service and promoting the peace and happiness of those under my charge has ever been the ruling and prevailing line of my conduct.

My reasons for conducting the New Zealanders myself, and the certainty of the northerly wind prevailing some days (which it did), and which was a foul wind for the Britannia, together with my reasons for leaving the command with Captain Nepean, I have stated in the first part of the duplicate of the letter No. 6,^* to the Right Hon’ble Henry Dundas, and which, sir, I sent open by Lieut. Beckwith for your inspection. It was my intention not to be longer than ten days or a fortnight at most from the island, and to have return’d immediately if the wind came contrary, or we had met with any calm weather on our passage thither; and you will observe, sir, by the master’s journal, as also by the duplicate of my letter No. 6, to the Right Hon’ble Henry Dundas, that my stay at the extreme north point of that island, from the time we came near it, was only eighteen hours, and that I relanded here the tenth day after my departure. As my conduct has, in this as well as in every other instance, met your disapprobation, I am sorry for it; but I can assure you, sir, I had no other view in going there than what I have stated in the above letter, and to prevent the Britannia making any unnecessary delay; nor had I any other view in leaving the command with Captain Nepean than that of a sufficient number of officers being on the island to order and compose garrison courts-martial. I am sorry for whatever impropriety or irregularity I may have committed in the above transactions; and I can assure you, sir, I had no other intention in them than that of doing a humane action, and, as I hoped, an act of public utility; and I must here beg leave to assure you, sir, that no person has a higher sense of the attention due to you than myself, and nothing but the great distance between us, and the length of time which might elapse before I could receive your orders (as it has been within a few days of one year that I have not had an opportunity of soliciting or obtaining them), would have induced me in that case, or any other, to act from my own judgment.…