Winter at Quebec; to forward all her guns, masts, yards, sails, rigging, and stores to the lakes; and to place nearly the whole of her officers and crew at the disposal of Sir James Yeo, the senior naval officer in Canada. Finding it impossible to carry the first part of these orders into execution, he returned to Portsmouth in Dec. und there addressed the following letter to the secretary of the admiralty, explanatory of his conduct and motives:
“Sir,– Their lordships would be informed by my letter of the 30th Oct. of the impracticability of the Zealous wintering at Quebec, and that I wished for the benefit of Captain Hancock’s advice for my future proceedings. He arrived at the Brandy Potts on the 9th Nov. and I had not been many minutes on board the Liffey when I received a letter from Sir George Prevost, requesting that I would take transports with the 27th regiment under convoy to Halifax, whither he understood, as he said, the Zealous was to sail on the 15th. Although I had never expressed any design of going to Halifax at that late season of the year without a pilot, who could not be procured, I did uot hesitate, having the sanction of Captain Hancock’s approbation, to undertake seeing them in there, provided they arrived at the Brandy Potts so as to enable me to sail at the appointed day; which they could not fail to do with only common diligence, as the troops were embarked at Montreal on the 6th, and were to be at Quebec on the 9th. At the same time I acquainted Sir George, through the quarter-master-general’s department at Quebec, that the ship would be ready by the 12th, and might have been so much sooner, had it not been for the unaccountable delays in getting supplies from Quebec; but that notwithstanding the lateness of the season, I would wait till the 15th. In the mean time I forwarded from this ship, by different vessels, the ordnance stores mentioned in the enclosed list, to Sir James Yeo, and completed my water. Seeing no appearance of the transports with the 27th regiment, although the wind had been fair from the day of embarkation, I sent a telegraphic despatch on the 13th, stating that the ship was ready for sea, and waited only for the transports to sail. On the evening of the 14th a very strong N.W. wind set in, which, continuing during the night with great violence, gave me much apprehension for the safety of the ship, the winter having already set in with greater severity and much sooner than had been known for twenty years before. The pilot expressing his uneasiness if the ship continued longer, and the wind becoming more moderate on the morning of the 15th, I sailed at noon, with the wind at N.N.W. and got clear of the gulf of St. Lawrence on the 21st, after experiencing a very heavy gale from the N.E. with thick hazy weather, rain, sleet, and snow.
“Left thus to the exercise of my own discretion, I conceived it my duty, as there was a commander-in-chief on the station, to repair to Bermuda,