[At the end of the copy of this book from which we publish is written by hand: “with Admiral Cornish’s Compliments.”]
COLONEL DRAPER’S ANSWER TO THE SPANISH ARGUMENTS
To the Earl of Halifax, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State For the Southern Department.[8]
My Lord,
Armed with that Boldness which Innocence inspires, and the Consciousness of having done my Duty, both as an Officer, and a Man of Honour and Humanity; I presume again to lay before your Lordship my Answer to the Spanish Ambassador’s Memorial.
This Reply is something more copious than the former, which I had the Honour of presenting to your Lordship in March last: The new Arguments that have been urged to evade Payment, requiring fresh Reasons to endeavour to enforce it.
I was in great Hopes, that the good Faith, Honour, and Punctuality of the Spanish Nation, would have made this Publication unnecessary. But finding, that they have absolutely refused Payment of the Ransom Bills, drawn upon their Treasury by the Governor of Manila, and do now claim the Restitution of the Galeon, I am constrained, for the Sake of those brave Men, to whom I am obliged and indebted for my Success, to assert their Rights, in the best Manner I am able.
Many of them, my Lord, from the too usual and sanguine Hopes of their Profession, have already anticipated their supposed Profits, and may live to repent their fatal Success in a Jail; unless the powerful Intercession of the Government will rescue them from impending Misery or Destruction. They vainly look up to me for that Protection, which in their Names, I again request from your Lordship’s good Offices.
I must add, that the calumnious and envenomed Attack upon my own Character, demands the most public Justification: Being described both at Home and Abroad, as a Man void of all Faith, Principle, or common Honesty; and so, indeed, I should be most deservedly thought, were I guilty even of the smallest Part of what the Spanish Memorial accuses me. A Dey of Tunis, or Algiers, would blush to make use of so black an Instrument of Perfidy and Piracy. I owe, therefore, this open Vindication of my Conduct, both to my Sovereign, and to my Country, whose Representatives were pleased to honour me with their public Thanks, the greatest of all Rewards, and indeed, the only one I have received for my late Services.—Sed mihi facti fama sat est.[9]