also that of Spain, the rule above-mentioned ceases to apply in the ports of the latter power.

That this last motive in the like manner justifies the citizen Daumas in the supposition of the contested fact, that the Nancy might have been taken in the waters of Spain, since the French privateers were free to visit neutral vessels in order to search them for enemies property upon the coast of Spain, in the same manner as upon those of the Republick, the two powers being engaged in a common cause.

That nevertheless the single article of thirty pipes of wine being liable to confiscation on board the Nancy, justice requires that this vessel should be put in situation of pursuing her voyage as soon as possible, with the rest of her cargo.

We declare the thirty pipes wine found on board the schooner Nancy to be good prize to the profit of the owners and interested in the French privateer Le Ferret, captain Anthony Daumas; hereby authorizing them to unlade the same and make sale of them provisionally, depositing the proceeds thereof in the chancery of the consulate subject to the duties due to the marine invalids, those which may become due on account of the said sale, and to conform themselves moreover to the laws and regulations relative to the marine, unless the captain or interested in the said schooner and her cargo should prefer having the said thirty pipes of wine estimated at their expense and by proper persons appointed by them and citizen Daumas in behalf of the owners, and to have the amount thereof deposited provisionally in the said chancery. We moreover declare that there is no cause for a longer detention of the Nancy and the residue of her cargo. We order the citizen

Daumas to withdraw his crew from the said vessel which we authorize freely to pursue and continue her voyage; without the captain of the Nancy or the interested in her, being able to recover any indemnity on account of a detention justified by the want of a bill of lading of the said thirty pipes of wine; and for the same reason they shall pay the expenses of proceed ings and of the present judgment, of which a copy shall be delivered and notified to the concerned, and which shall be executed the entry of any appeal notwithstanding.

Done in the consulate house, and sealed with the national [L.S.] seal of the consulate at Malaga, the 5th Frimaire, 5th year of the French Republick, one and indivisible &c.

CHAMPRE,

Consul of the French Republick.

Notified the said day 5th Frimaire, in the said year, by me John Baptist Pelieu, chancellor of the consulate of the French republick in the city of Malaga, to Don Joachin Hidalgo, consignee of the schooner Nancy and her cargo, to whom I delivered the present copy of the judgment above mentioned duly collated with the original, deposited in the archives of this chancery. J. B. PELIEU, Chancellor.

Extract of a letter from J. Cox Barnet, Consul of the United States, at Brest, to the Secretary of State, dated Brest, January 29, 1797.

I HAVE first to premise that since my residence at this place, most of my time and attention has been taken up in relieving or endeavouring to relieve many of our distressed scamen, who have been brought into this port, taken in British vessels, where they had in most instances been impressed, and here made prisoners of war. When any of these had been so fortunate as to have been able to preserve their passports or protections (proofs of their citizenship,) I have till now immediately obtained their enlargement, when, on the contrary, they have (from accident or the violent outrage of the British commanders, who sometimes have totally disregarded them and destroyed them) been deprived of them, I have not met with the same success in my application for them. My further applications of this nature, I am too sorry to find, will no longer be of any avail, in consequence of an order from the minister of the marine and colonies, forbidding the farther enlargement of any citizens of the United States, who may have been taken on board British ships, and stating that they shall henceforth be considered and treated as prisoners of war. This information I had two days ago from the Ordonnateur of the Marine, in reply to my application for five of our citizens, now detained in the prisons of this place as prisoners of war.

Under this cover, sir, I have the honour of enclosing you a copy of the condemnation of the ship Diana of Savannah, taken and sent in here, in October last, by the privateer Le Vengeur, of this port, and condemned by the tribunal of commerce, of this place, on the 28th November last, for want of a sea letter, together with a copy of the protest of the master of said ship, Nehemiah J. Ingraham, of Boston, to which beg leave to refer you. We are going on with an appeal in this affair before the tribunal of the department at Quimper, where we hope to meet that justice we believe wanting in the tribunal of commerce.

Respecting this condemnation, I have to observe to you, sir, that the owners of this privateer are citizens of the United States; the husband, capt. John Cooper, of Virginia. The captors endeavouring to make it appear that the register of said ship is a counterfeit, alleged " that all American ships' registers were struck on American manufactured paper, whereas this appears to be English fabrick; that the signature Joseph Nourse,' is in this done with the pen, whereas in the original ones, it is done (they say) with a stamp or plate; that this register being No. 8, only, and issued at Bath, near Wiscasset, was another mark of its falsity, there having been more than eight vessels built at Bath since the year 1794, when that register was issued, &c."

These circumstances, however, sir, were not attended to by the judges of the tribunals of commerce, who appear to have grounded the condemnation of this ship on her being deficient in the sea-letter, by virtue of the 25th article of the treaty of

1778.

No citizens of the United States are resident at this place; the few who are here, are at this time owners of, and interested in French privateers: I do not think I shall expose myself to censure in hazarding the observation that the privateers of this port which have offered any molestation or vexation to American vessels, are wholly and in part owned by citizens of the United States; of these I may quote the privateer Buonaparte, (formerly ship Apollo, of Boston) wholly owned by Americans; the privateers Vengeur, and Le Hardy, owned principally by Americans, and the latter commanded by John Cowell, of Boston. I have the honour to be, &c.

J. COX BARNET.

P. S. While concluding the above, sir, I am informed by good authority, of the arrival of capt. Cowell of the privateer Le Hardy, at Morlaix, and that he has taken a ship of 400 tons, of Boston, bound from thence to London, loaded with sugar, coffee, cotton, &c. and ordered her to a French port; I cannot learn her name. J. C. B.

Extract from the register of protest of masters of foreign vessels.

On the 27th Frimaire, in the 5th year of the French Republick one and indivisible, at the national custom house at Brest, appeared Nehemiah J. Ingraham, master of the American ship Diana, belonging to Mr. Edward Swarbrick, of Savannah in the state of Georgia, in the United States of America, of the burden of about two hundred and eighty tons, furnished with a crew of thirteen men ; who, assisted by citizen C. N. C. Langlot, as interpreter, declared, that he sailed from Liverpool with his said vessel, on the 15th of October, 1796, with a cargo of divers merchandises; that at sea, whilst he was pursuing his destination with a favourable wind, on the 23d of October, 1796, in latitude 49°, 31", and 9°, 30", longitude from the meridian of London, his mate came into the cabin very early in the morning and told him that the wind was favourable, and a vessel was sailing towards them. Having mounted the quarter deck, he was not there long before she fired a gun at the Diana;-he immediately hoisted his flag, and pursued his course: Another gun was fired at him, the ball of which fell near to his vessel; then he lay too, and when the vessel came along-side of him, they asked in English whence he came ; he answered, that he came from Liverpool, and was bound to Savannah they then ordered him to hoist out his boat and come on board with his papers, which he immediately did:

whilst he was aboard he perceived she was a privateer called the Vengeur, captain Michel, of Brest, whereupon he was astonished seeing that she carried an English flag. His papers being examined, they were found complete. He was then asked whether he had a sea-letter on board; he answered affirmatively. His crew was kept on board the privateer and he was sent on board his vessel, accompanied by two officers and several men. When he came on board his vessel, he immediately looked into his little trunk to find the sea-letter among his other papers, but not finding it, he was going to search for it in his chest where it had been put with various other papers and letters, but he was not permitted to come near it; one of the officers who accompanied him, speaking to him in English, and absolutely forbidding him to search in the chest, where the paper they demanded certainly was; and finally, they obliged him to go into the boat, without even permitting him to take his bed, and only letting him take a very few of his clothes: they took from on board his vessel, seven sailors, the cook and two passengers, who were carried on board the privateer. Several officers of the privateer spoke with the captain and threatened him, ending the conversation by demanding from him an acknowledgment of his not having a sea-letter; he refused, as was his duty, but they answered, that if he did not sign the acknowledgment, they would put him in irons and confine him in the hold. To avoid this ill treat. ment, and knowing that an act extorted by violence and from one who was not free, cannot prejudice him who signs it, he determined to give them the acknowledgment they demanded, because he found himself threatened and surrounded by armed men, a circumstance which must justify him relatively to the writing of the acknowledgment and its form: he adds, that he saw unloaded and taken out of the Diana, cordage, sail cloth, painter's oil, compasses, fowls, cheese, brushes, brooms, a speaking trumpet, &c. that he continued on board of the privateer Vengeur, until the 25th of October, when she was captured by the English frigate St. Margaret, which carried her to Cork, and he was informed at London, that his vessel the Diana, was carried into the port of Brest, which determined him to go there in order to claim his said vessel and her cargo, that he might proceed according to his destination, seeing his neutral and friendly quality which is proved by his register or deed of property, the deed of sale, shipping articles, bills of lading and invoice of part of the cargo, and even by a sea-letter, which might be found in his chest remaining on board the privateer.

For all which he protests as well against his arrest as against the distress of his person, and against the violence used towards him, in extorting from him the acknowledgment above men

tioned, reserving his right to sue for damages and interest against the agents and owners of the privateer Vengeur, and to oblige them to bear all losses resulting from the arrest of his said vessel; reserving his right to extend his protest and to have the present declaration attested to by his crew, in case they should come to France, as he expects to pursue the remainder of his voyage, and has signed on the register with citizen Langlot, his interpreter.

NEHEMIAH J. INGRAHAM, captain, and
LANGLOT, his interpreter.

A copy conformable with the original.

Le TOURNEUR.

I, J. Cox Barnet, consular agent of the United States of America, for the port of Brest, do certify that the above protest is a true copy of the original in my hands, delivered to me by citizen Le Tourneur, collector of the customs of this port. J. COX BARNET.

Brest, January, 28, 1797.,

IN THE NAME OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE.

The Tribunal of Commerce, of Brest, Department of Finistere, has rendered the following judgment.

Extract of the Register of Audience of the Tribunal of Com. merce of Brest, Department of Finistere.

THE tribunal of commerce established at Brest, exercising the functions attached to it by the decree of the 14th February 1793, (O. S.) and in execution of the law of the 3d Brumaire last, which gives to it the power of rendering judgment in cases of prize, which had been before given to it by a decree of the committee of publick safety, of the 4th Floreal, 2d year, having seen the declarations made before a justice of the peace, of the 8th of last Brumaire, by the prize-master, that citizen Michel, commandant of the privateer Vengeur, being on a cruise, in latitude 50° 30", and 11° 43" long. took the ship Diana, Capt. Ingraham, calling himself an American, of the burden of about 300 tons, laden with divers merchandise, on a voyage from Liverpool to Savannah, having six passengers, under the American flag; the request of citizen Corbet, commissary aux classes, of the same date, to the justice of the peace, to go on board the said vessel and make a summary inventory, and to place the seals; eleven examinations of the persons hereafter mentioned, to wit, George, Mernezic, Cambuzier, of Charleston, three passengers of the vessel called the Sally, put on board the Diana by the privateer Vengeur, Zenard, carpenter of the Diana, James Stanley, mate of the said vessel, Mark John, passenger, Richard J. Wambrick, supercargo, John Miller, tanner, passenger, Petatin, prize-master from the privateer Vengeur, Louis Garandroux, second prize master, J. B. Laferu, officer