Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 2c.djvu/360

 GREAT BRITAIN, 1870. 353 board the same, as well as a certificate of the number of negroes or other persons destined for slavery who may have been found on board at the moment of detention. In the declaration which the eaptor is hereby required to make, as Declaration of well as in the certified list of the papers seized, and in the certiiicate °“P*°'· of the number of negroes or others destined for slavery who may be found on board the detained vessel, he shall insert his own name and surname, the name of the capturing ship, and the latitude and longitude of the place where the detention shall have been made. The officer in charge of the detained vessel shall, at the time of deliv~ Certificate of ofering the vessel’s papers and the certificate of the commander into court, ¤°°¤' i¤ °l¤¤’S°- deliver also a certificate, signed by himself, and verilied on oath, stating any changes which may have taken place in respect to the vessel, her crew, and her cargo, between the time of her detention and the time of delivering in such paper. Where a detained vessel is handed over to a cruiser of her own nation, Witnesses ond an officer in charge, and other necessary witnesses and proofs, shall P’°°f“· accompany the vessel. Anrrcnm IV. All the negroes or others (necessary witnesses excepted) who may be No gross, &c-. on board either an American or a British detained vessel, for the pur- f°““$1 °“ b° ,;**1 pose of being consigned to slavery, shall be handed over by the com- d°m°°d v°"° ' mamler of the capturing ship to the nearest British authority. Anrrcrm V. In case any merchant vessel detained in pursuance of the present Abgudgum ,,3;, instructions should prove to be unseaworthy, or in such a condition as dw-, of unsoowornot to be taken in for adjudication as directed by the additional conven- WY "°”°1°· tion of this date, the commander of the detaining cruiser may take upon himself the responsibility of abandoning or destroying her, provided the exact causes which made such a step imperatively necessary be stated in a certificate verilied on oath. Such certificate shall be drawn up and formally executed by him in duplicate at tho time, and shall be received as prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated, subject to rebuttal by counter proof, In case of the abandonment or destruction of a detained vessel, the Proceedings on master and crew, together with the papers found on board, and other nbondonmont. &o- necessary proofs and witnesses, and ODO of the certificates mentioned in the preceding paragraph of this article, shall be sent and delivered at the earliest possible moment to the proper court before which the vessel would otherwise have been sent. Upon the production of the said certificate, the court may proceed to adj udicate upon the detention of the vessel in the same manner as if the vessel had been sent in. The negroes or others intended to be consignedto slavery shall be handed over to the nearest British authority. The undersigned Plenipotentiaries have agreed, in conformity with rum-ucgaonseonc the 1Vth Article of the additional convention, signed by them on this nor t of oonvonday, that the present instructions shall be annexed to the said conven- **‘°“· tion, and be considered an integral part thereof Done at Washington the third day of June, in the year of our Lord pim., one thousand eight hundred and seventy. HAMILTON FISH. scan.] _ EDWD. THORNTON. sian., n s xv-—23