MacLeod sent a messenger to inform the Privy Council. MacLeod's version of events, related to the Privy Council, was that he was not personally present during the seizure of Love and the "Priam". According to Mackenzie, the reason that MacLeod distanced himself from the actual event was so that he could not be held responsible if his men were thought to have helped themselves to the loot. Mackenzie also considered it quite likely that when the "Priam" was finally handed over to representatives of the Government, anything of use to Neil and his men would not have been found on board.