"The incorporation of the troops having been determined on as a necessary measure, the several officers of the three different establishments being now united, were, of course, to take rank according to the date of their respective commissions, in the same manner as the officers of different corps in His Majesty's service, when they happen to meet. Now, as Captain Govin had been ordered here by the Presidency of Bombay, to take the command of their detachment, without their knowing that such incorporation was to take place, it is evident they could have no design of injuring the officers of this establishment, as has been injuriously represented; and, therefore, to have sent him back, after having been so formally ordered here, would have been the highest indignity to the Council of Bombay, as well as to the gentleman himself; and, as he remained here, he had an undoubted right to maintain that rank which the seniority of the commission gave him. "The truth of the matter is, the most of the gentlemen who have been so violent in their remonstrances were grown sufficiently rich in your service to be desirous of any pretence for quitting it. They will prove, however, no great loss, as no services can be expected from men who have so little spirit and gratitude as to resign their commissions at this critical time, and on ill-grounded pretences. "I flatter myself it will be now obvious to every unprejudiced person, that I have been unjustly charged by these gentlemen with having superseded them, the doing of which, I readily agree, ought to be practised as seldom as possible. Yet such is the nature of the service in this country, that the preservation of your settlement may at times depend upon the taking of such a step; and as, by the want of field officers, your captains are often intrusted with the conducting of expeditions of the utmost importance, in such case, if you be desirous of insuring success you must have regard to the man only, and not the rank."