on the 28th February from Southampton
to relieve
me
Permit me very respectfully to express to Your Lordship my acknowledgments for so kindly carrying out the previous arrangement to relieve me of duties which it was very doubtful, when I left England, whether I should survive to perform.
I also gratefully recognize, without needing to allude to, the complimentary terms in which Your Lordship has been pleased to speak of my administration of this Government. It has not been an easy task, and many peculiar difficulties and matters of special discussion have arisen during my tenure of Office. Your Lordship, however, has given me all the support I could have anticipated, for I freely admit that I often failed to realize my own standard of duty.
I have the honor to be,
My Lord, Your Lordship's
most obedient
humble Servant,
Robert
Hard
Graves
Macdonnell.
Governor.