disposition of the master attendant by virtue of his office; that he is officially the proper and
regular check upon the person who furnishes the stores, and bound by his duty to take care
that all contracts for furnishing such stores are duly and faithfully executed. That the said
Warren Hastings, by uniting the supply and the check in the same hands, did not only
disobey the Company's specific orders, and violate the fundamental rules and practice of the
service, but did overset the only just and rational principle on which this and every other
service of a similar nature ought to be conducted, and did not only subject the Company's
interest, in point of expense, to fraud and collusion, but did thereby expose the navigation
of the Bengal river to manifest hazard and distress: considering that it is the duty of the
master attendant to take care that the pilot vessels are constantly stationed in the roads to
wait the arrival of the Company's ships, especially in tempestuous weather, and that they
should be in a constant condition to keep the sea; whereas it is manifestly the interest of the
contractor, in the first instance, to equip the said vessels as scantily as possible, and
afterwards to expose them as little as possible to any service in which the stores to be
replaced by him might be lost or consumed. And, finally, that in June, 1779, the said
contract was prolonged to the said master attendant, by the said Warren Hastings, for the
further period of two years from the expiration of the first, without advertising for proposals.
—That it does not appear that any of the preceding contracts have been annulled, or the
charges attending any of them abated, or that the Court of Directors have ever taken any
measures to compel the said Warren Hastings to indemnify the Company, or to make good
any part of the loss incurred by the said contracts.
That in the year 1777 the said Warren Hastings did recommend and appoint John Belli, at
that time his private secretary, to be agent for supplying the garrison of Fort William with