From the individuals belonging to it, I picked up a few guineas
by way of private subscription, and this was all. But a vast load still
remained upon me, and such as had occasioned uneasiness to my mind. I
thought it therefore imprudent to detain the evidences for this purpose for
so long a time, and I sent them back to Liverpool. I commenced, however, a
prosecution against the captain at common law for his barbarous usage of
them, and desired that it might be pushed on as vigorously as possible; and
the result was, that his attorney was so alarmed, particularly after
knowing what had been done by Sir Sampson Wright, that he entered into a
compromise to pay all the expenses of the suit hitherto incurred, and to
give Ormond and Murray a sum of money as damages for the injury which they
themselves had sustained. This compromise was acceded to. The men received
the money, and signed the release, (of which I insisted upon a copy,) and
went to sea again in another trade, thanking me for my interference in
their behalf. But by this copy, which I have now in my possession, it
appears that care was taken by the captain's attorney to render their
future evidence in the case of Peter Green, almost impracticable; for it
was there wickedly stated, "that George Ormond and Patric Murray did then
and there bind themselves in certain penalties, that they would neither
encourage nor support any action at law against the said captain, by or at
the suit or prosecution of any other of the seamen now or late on board the
said ship, and that they released the said captain also from all manner of
actions, suits, and cause and causes of action, informations, prosecutions,
and other proceedings, which they then had, or ever had, or could or might
have by reason of the said assaults upon their own persons, or _other
wrongs or injuries done by the said captain heretofore and to the date of
this release_[A].
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