I had at this period received a report that Lieutenant-Colonel Berkeley was too unwell to come to Masulipatam, and there was likely to be some delay in the arrival of Major Evans. I also found that formal examinations before a regular committee would be likely to excite an irritation, which it had been, throughout, my study to avoid. I therefore took advantage of the authority conveyed to me by Lieutenant-Colonel Barclay's letter of the 12th of July, to commence myself the investigation of the conduct of the garrison previous to my arrival. I had always intended (provided I had obtained your permission) to have proceeded with the report of the committee to Madras, as I was sensible I should never be able to convey to you by letters the whole of that important information I had obtained of the real state and temper of the majority of the officers of the Company's army on the coast, who, though apparently united in one confederacy, were actuated by widely different motives, and took very different views of the nature of the scene in which they were engaged: and of these different shades in their situation and intentions it appeared to me most essential you should have the fullest information, as this knowledge was evidently the only basis upon which any arrangement could be made for the settlement of the whole question, without having recourse to an open and declared rupture, which I ever understood it was your earnest desire to avoid till the last extremity. As I found the changes which had been effected left me without any fear of the garrison of Masulipatam departing from their duty during my absence, I thought it my duty, after I had completed the investigation with which I was charged, to exercise that discretion which you had given me before my departure from Madras, and proceed in person to report the result of my investigation. I communicated this intention to Major-General Pater, the commander of the division, who arrived at Masulipatam on the 20th July, and it met with his fullest concurrence and approbation. I heard, before my departure, of the 2d battalion of the 10th regiment of native infantry having refused to march; but as that event did not appear likely to be immediately followed by any open act of contumely or disobedience in the Hyderabad force, and as it produced no commotion whatever in the garrison of Masulipatam, it was an additional excitement to the resolution I had adopted, as I expected to have arrived at Madras (by travelling in the rapid manner I did) before any determination had been taken upon this act of mutiny and disobedience, and to have furnished information that might have aided your judgment in deciding upon that important question.