40 - O'MEARA (Barry). Signed autograph letter, in English, addressed to Major Gideon Gorrequer, aide-de-camp to the governor of St. Helena, Hudson Lowe. Longwood, April 17, 1818. One folio page.

O'MEARA (Barry). Signed autograph letter, in English, addressed to Major Gideon Gorrequer, aide-de-camp to the governor of St. Helena, Hudson Lowe. Longwood, April 17, 1818. One folio page. “When I received His Excellency the governor’s instructions on the 12th of this month, my first step was to go to Napoleon Bonaparte in order to inform him that I had decided to tender my resignation and to express my regret at being compelled to do so. Finding him, however, indisposed and in bed, I did not think it proper to communicate this to him, and I therefore wrote a letter to Count Bertrand in which I asked him to do so. I have kept no copy of that letter; its gist was nearly identical to that of the letter I had the honor of addressing to His Excellency on the same day. Having thus far discharged my duties in an honorable manner, I must earnestly beg leave to request my release from the humiliating situation in which I currently find myself, and I would be grateful for any expediting of my departure that you may be able to arrange...” Translation: “When I received the instructions dated the 12th of this month from His Excellency the Governor, MY FIRST ACT WAS TO GO TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE TO INFORM HIM THAT I WAS DETERMINED TO RESIGN and to express my regret at being compelled to do so. Finding him, however, indisposed and in bed, I did not deem it appropriate to convey this to him, and that is why I wrote a letter to Count Bertrand in which I asked him to do so. I have kept no copy of that letter; its content was nearly identical to that of the letter I had the honor of addressing to His Excellency on the same day. Having thus far been relieved of my duties in an honorable manner, I must humbly ask you to accept my request to be relieved of the humiliating situation in which I now find myself, and I shall be most grateful for anything within your power that might hasten my departure...” BARRY O’MEARA, NAPOLEON I’S PHYSICIAN ON SAINT HELENA, took up the emperor’s cause and thus came into conflict with the island’s governor, Hudson Lowe, who had him recalled to England in July 1818. He then took the risk of publishing, in early 1819, a pamphlet denouncing the conditions of the deposed emperor’s imprisonment, *An Exposition of Some of the Transactions That Have Taken Place at St. Helena* (translated into French in 1819), and was consequently dismissed from the army without a pension. O’Meara published further memoirs, *Napoleon in Exile; or, A Voice from St. Helena* (1822, translated into French the same year).