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Sable Island, March 2nd 1848

Gentlemen

On Reperusing the Copy of your Letter, no date, To His Excellency, I find that you have made some Statements that are not Strictly True, besides many insinuations Injurious to Character, I hope you will not take it amiss if I caution you against, and I make a few remarks on some of the most Pointed, And first you have stated that I knew before I came here what was to be done; I know not of Boats & Carts to be made at my expense, all the rest I knew very well, you have said that I have done no more than any Good Man would have done; you do well to introduce the word, (good) I have indeed done all that I could, which is what very few good Men could or would have done, and particularly either one of the Men that are my accusors; you have said that my Family has been supported at the Public expense, That is not Correct, My Family has in a great measure Supported this Establishment, and made it what it is by their hard Labour, and if every servant of the Government, had laboured as hard to benefit the Government, as me and my Family has done the Government would have been better off, and the servants less expence, and but for the great Labours of my family here, I think that the Establishment would yet have been in the same disgraceful state that it was in when I came to it; you are not aware of my having laid out Money for Materials for Building Boats, that has not been Refunded to me, yet I have done it, and some of the Boats are here yet to be seen, [^also money advanced to the servants to enable them to their Duty] and the money has not been Refunded, And it is a pity for your own Credit Sake, that you would Confess to be so Ignorant. You say in 1842 I applied to you for extra remuneration for this Extra Service, And to shew the world, that you admitted the Claim to be Just, you say that you increased my salary [23?] Pr Cent, that is Right, but supposing I had left the Island in 1842 how could that have remunerated me, besides I had not fallen out with my Salary, although it was tolerable for the Duties of the Superintendant yet it was not enough to Cover the Salaries, of a Cartwright and Boat Builder too; you have stated to His Excellency that within the present year or past year you were called upon to reprimand