activity. The following address conveys a sufficient idea of the manner in which he acted on those occasions;
“Sir.– It having been publicly announced that you are speedily to be removed from your present station in order to join the Admiral, the Members of his Majesty’s Board of Council for the Virgin Islands, who entertain with me every just sense of your merits as a British officer, and of the honorable manner in which you have discharged the duties which you were sent hither to perform, have unanimously determined that you shall not depart from this colony without bearing with you a testimony of their gratitude. They have, therefore, conferred on me the grateful task of communicating to you by letter, their acknowledgments for the steady zeal you have displayed on all occasions [and more especially in times when alarms and threatened dangers have worn the most serious aspect,] in readily co-operating with the President in the adoption of all such measures as were deemed expedient for our safety and protection; and small as is the force of the ship under your command, we have yet the satisfaction to say, that in consequence of your gallantry and good conduct, and of your officers and crew following your example, our enemies have been deterred from executing their threats of attacking this colony, and that you have thereby become the efficient means of our defence. Wishing you health, prosperity, and the enjoyment of every felicity, I have the honor and satisfaction to subscribe myself, with every consideration and respect, Sir,
(Signed)“Geo. Leonard, President.
“To Captain Cooke, H.M.S. Inspector.”
This address was presented to Captain Cooke on the occasion of his receiving a commission from the late Sir Benjamin Caldwell, commander-in-Chief pro tempore at the Leeward Islands, promoting him to the command of the Quebec frigate, vacant by the demise of Captain Josias Rogers[1]. An unfortunate mistake, however, on the part of the late Sir Charles Thompson, who had received orders to send Captain Cooke to St. Christopher’s, where the Quebec was to assemble the homeward bound trade, prevented him from joining his ship; and his subsequent appointment to the Alarm frigate, by Rear-Admiral Thompson, appears to have been rendered nugatory
- ↑ This was Captain Cooke’s second appointment to a death vacancy; the first was to the Thisbe, the commander of which ship, we believe, had been appointed to the Blanche, as successor to the gallant Faulknor, whose glorious exit we have just recorded in our memoir of Rear-Admiral Watkins, see p. 10; but in consequence of his being absent on distant service, Captain Cooke had no opportunity of joining her.
