'Yet, if I am found guilty this day, they will not construe
it, I trust, as the least disrespect offered to their
discernment and opinion, if I solemnly declare that my heart
will rely with confidence in its own innocence, until that
awful period when my spirit shall be about to be separated
from my body to take its everlasting flight, and be ushered
into the presence of that unerring Judge, before whom all
hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid.
'P. HEYWOOD.'
His witnesses fully established the facts which he assumed in this
defence. He then delivered to the president a paper, of which the
following is a copy:--
'My Lord,--the Court having heard the witnesses I have been
enabled to call, it will be unnecessary to add anything to
their testimony in point of fact, or to observe upon it by way
of illustration. It is, I trust, sufficient to do away any
suspicion which may have fallen upon me, and to remove every
implication of guilt which, while unexplained, might by
possibility have attached to me. It is true I have, by the
absence of Captain Bligh, Simpson, and Tinkler, been deprived
of the opportunity of laying before the Court much that would
at least have been grateful to my feelings, though I hope not
necessary to my defence; as the former must have exculpated me
from the least disrespect, and the two last would have proved
past all contradiction that I was unjustly accused. I might
regret that in their absence I have been arraigned, but, thank
heaven, I have been enabled, by the very witnesses who were
called to criminate me, to oppose facts to opinions, and give
explanation to circumstances of suspicion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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