Page:The American Slave Trade (Spears).djvu/190

 Thereafter the work of the navy in suppressing the slave-trade was confined to "occasional visits" to Liberia until 1839, when the shame aroused by the frequent reports of the use of the American flag by slavers caused some activity. The brig Dolphin, Commander Bell, and the schooner Grampus, Lieutenant Paine, were sent to the coast, where they merely scared a few slavers. Captain John S. Paine, of the schooner Grampus, having been ordered to the coast of Africa to suppress the slave-trade, assumed that he was to do everything possible within the laws of nations to accomplish the work. He found many slavers provided with double sets of papers. Now, under the laws he could do nothing with slavers bearing any flag but his own. But England having made treaties including the right of search on that coast with a number of continental powers, her cruisers were able to search almost any ship visiting the coast except those under the American flag.

To meet the scheme of double papers Captain Paine and Commander William Tucker, of the British forces, agreed that whenever the Grampus fell in with a vessel manifestly a slaver, and showing any flag except the American, she was to be detained (but not searched) until a British cruiser could be brought to search her. On the other hand, every slaver showing the American flag was to be detained (but not searched) until the Grampus could come to make the search. When Paine reported his plan to Washington he was promptly told that his plan was "contrary to the well-known principles" of his Government. The slave-coast was 3,000 miles long. Paine was ordered