Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 2c.djvu/199

 192 PUBLIC TREATIES. sieged, blockaded, or invested, it is agreed that every vessel so circumstauced may be turned away from such port or place, but shall not be detained, nor shall any part of her cargo, it not contraband, be conhscated, unless, after warning of such blockade or investment, from any officer commanding a vessel of the blockading forces, they shall again attempt to enter; but she shall be permitted to go to any other port or place she shall think proper. _ Vessels entering Nor shall any vessel of either, that may have entered into such port l>~‘=f<>¤° bl°°k¤d°· before the same was actually besieged, blockaded, or invested by the other, be restrained from quitting such place with her cargo; nor, if found therein, after the reduction and surrender, shall such vessel or her cargo be liable to confiscation, but they shall be restored ,to the owners thereof. Anricm XXI. Visiting and In order to prevent all kinds of disorder, in the visiting and examin- ¤°¤F°l¤ 9f **6*861* ation of the ships and cargoes of both the contracting parties, on the °“ °h° mib °°“‘ high seas, they have agreed, mutually, that, whenever a vessel of war, public or private, shall meet with a neutral of the other contracting party, the first shall remain out of cannon-shot, and may send its boats with two or three men only, in order to execute the said examination of the papers, concerning the ownership and cargo of the vessel, without causing the least extortion, violence, or ill—treatment, for which the commanders of the said armed ships shall be responsible with their persons and property, for which purpose the commanders of the said private armed vessels shall, before receiving their commissions, give suhicient security to answer for all the damages they may commit ; and it is expressly agreed that the neutral party shall, in no case, be required to go on board the examining vessel for the purpose of exhibiting his papers, or for any other purpose whatever. Anrrionrz XXII. Sbip’¤ papers. To avoid all kinds of vection and abuse in the examination of the papers, relating to the ownership of the vessels belonging to the citizens of the two contracting parties, they have agreed, and do agree, that in case one of them should be engaged in war, the ships and vessels belonging to the citizens of the other must be furnished with sea-letters or passports, expressing the name, property, and bulk of the ships; as also the name and place of habitation of the master and commander of said vessel, in order that it may thereby appear that `said ship truly belongs to the citizens of one of the parties. They have likewise agreed, that such ships being laden, besides the said sea-letters or passports, shall also be provided with certificates containing the several particulars of the cargo, and the place whence the ship sailed, so that it may be known whether any forbidden or contraband goods be on board the same; which certificates shall be made out by the officers of the place whence the ship sailed, in the accustomed form; without such requisites said vessels may be detained, to beadjudged by the competent tribunal, and may be declared legal prize, unless the said defect shall geolpyzylcidmto be owing :0 accident, and satisfied or supplied by testiy equiva en. Anricnn XXIII. mgmels u nd or thltvigifgather agreed that the stipulations above expressed, relative to _ _ g and examination of vessels, shall apply only to those which sail without convoy; and when said vessels shall be under convoy, thé verbal declaration of the commander of the convoy, on his word of honor, that the vessels under his protection belong to the nation whose flag he carries, and when they are bound to an enemy’s port, that they have no contraband goods on board, shall be sufficient.