Copy.

Sir, The Letter which I had the honour to receive from you of the 23d in reply to mine of the 17th Inst. make it necessary that I should once more trouble your Honour on the same subject.

On a reperusal of my former letter I am insensible of any Expression in it heightened beyond the Duty I owe my Royal Master, or incompatible with the respect due to your Honours Station, & the Decorum to be observed in Repre sentations of this Nature. Had your Honour condescended to a personal conference with the Gentleman who presented you my letter & to have required from him the nature of the Informations which I had received, I presume that, instead of Vague, general & uncircumstanced reports the[y] would have appeared to you to have merited from me, the Epithet which I bestowed upon them; that their Extent warranted the use to which I had applied them, and that my application to you, Sir, was neither irregular, nor illfounded.

Your Honour disavows any acquaintance in the Government of your Island with the unwarrantable Practices of its Inhabitants: my Letter insinuated no such Charge against the Government in this particular, and althow in the Investigation of the capture of the Brigantine, the Proprietor who appeared before your Honour and the Council may have been deficient for the present, in that Strict legal Proof, essential by your Laws to the Conviction of certain Individuals of St Eustatius, as participating in that Transaction, yet I flatter my Self I Shall Stand Justifiable in the Eys of my Royal Master in my Specifick Charges against the Inhabitants of your Island.

Your Honour too is unconscious of any Partiallity or Violation of Treaties, or of any Indignities willfully offered by the Government of St Eustatius to the King my Master — The impartial World will Judge between us, whether a Salute deliberately returned by a Dutch Fort to the Rebel Brigantine Andrew Doria, under Colours known by the Commandant of the Fort, to be those of His Majesty's rebellious Subjects, be, or be not, a Partiality in Favour of those Rebels and a flagrant Indignity offered to his Majesty's Flag. wether the rebel Brigantine Saluted with Thirteen or Eleven Guns, or the Salute was returned with a Like or an inferior Number, will not I apprehend invalidate the Material Ground of my complaint on that Head, nor do I find in any part of your Honour's Letter which bears the least affinity to a Denial of the Instance of that express matter of Fact. In this Particular my remonstrance does indeed affect the Dutch Government and as your Honour refers to your Lords and Masters, your conduct as well respecting this Charge "as a Trade and navigation which you are confident T[heir] H[igh] M[ightinesses] will not Suffer to be interrupted" it naturally precludes in me, every Expectation that any future application of mine, on this Subject should meet a more favourable Reception from your Honour.

The Controversy therefore necessarily resolves it Self into a matter of State, to be determined by the king my master and their High Mightinesses whose wisdom will at once discern how Just a Conduct is reconciliable with the Treaties existing between the Two Powers.

Altho, Sir, the personal Insolences of a Printer of which your Honour complains affects not the merits of our publick Correspondence, I could not close this without taking Notice of that part of your Honour's Letter. Your Honour will I hope do me the Justice to belive that I cordially disclaim all Countenance of such Injuries and that I abhor the Licentiousness of the Press equally with yourself. But as by the Constitution of this free Country the Libelous Emanations of Calumny and Detraction can meet their Punishment only in the ordinary and established Course of it's civil Justice, So is it out of the Power of any British Magistrate to dispense or point out to your Honour any other mode of Satisfaction. I have the Honour to be &ca

To the Hble Johannes de Graaff, Govr of St Eustatius &c. &c..