Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/374

 States, or even interference, on his part, with traders of America, be they legal or illegal; but the stubbornness of the master, and the identifying of one of his mates as having been captured in a Brazilian vessel, trying to evade detection by the display of the American flag, had led to the mistake.

A postscript to the letter added, "I beg to state that the hatches of the Louisa Beaton have not been opened, nor the vessel or crew in any way examined."

On the Perry's reaching the anchorage, the Louisa Beaton was examined. The affidavit of the master, which differs not materially from the statements of the British officers, was taken. A letter by the commander of the Perry was then addressed to the British officer, stating that he had in person visited the Louisa Beaton, conferred with her master, taken his affidavit, examined her papers, and found her to be in all respects a legal American trader. That the sea-Letter, which had been referred to, as being usually given by consular officers, was only required when the vessel changes owners, and not, as in the present case, on the appointment of a new master. The paper given by the consul authorizing the appointment of the present master, was, with the remainder of the vessel's papers, strictly in form.

The commander also stated that he respectfully declined being a party concerned in any arrangement of a pecuniary nature, as satisfaction to the master of the Louisa Beaton, for the detention and seizure of his vessel, and if such arrangement was made between the British officers and the master of the Louisa Beaton, it would be his duty to give the information to his government.

The commander added, that the government of the United States did not acknowledge a right in any other nation to visit and detain the vessels of American citizens engaged in commerce: that whenever a foreign cruiser should venture to board a vessel under the flag of the United States, she would do it upon her own responsibility for all consequences: that if the vessel so boarded should prove to be American, the injured party would be left to such redress, either in the tribunals of England, or by an appeal to his own country, as the nature of the case might require.

He also stated that he had carefully considered all the points in the several communications which the commander of the British division had sent him, in relation to the seizure of the Louisa Beaton, and he must unqualifiedly pronounce the seizure and detention of that vessel wholly unauthorized by the circumstances, and contrary both to the letter and the spirit of the eighth article of the treaty of Washington; and that it became his duty to make a full report of the case, accompanied with the communications which the British commander had forwarded, together with the affidavit of the master of the Louisa Beaton, to the government of the United States.

This letter closed the correspondence.

The British commander-in-chief then accompanied the commander of the Perry to the Louisa Beaton, and there wholly disavowed the act of the commander of the Dolphin, stating, in the name of that officer, that he begged