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The "Louisa Beaton."

79

lay aside flannel-change it often. Use no more meat than is absolutely necessary when the breathing organs are tender. With you goes every wish that a friend can offer. Ever affectionately,

"JOHN A. DAHLGREN."

On the 21st of December, 1849, the Perry arrived at Porto Praya, Cape de Verde Islands, the rendezvous of the American squadron. She was immediately ordered on a cruise south of the equator; and after the vessel had reached the southern point of destination, she was to cruise along the coast, examining the principal points or slave-stations, such as the Salinas, Benguela, Loanda, Ambriz, River Congo, and intermediate places, back toward Monrovia. She reached St. Philip de Benguela after a passage of forty-one days, and none too soon, since but five days previous an English cruiser had captured near this place a brig with eight hundred slaves on board. This vessel came from Rio de Janeiro, under American colors and papers, with an American captain and crew, and had been transferred, when on the coast, to a Brazilian captain and crew. character.

Still other captures were announced of similar

Lieutenant Foote, who was heartily welcomed to the station by the English commanders, set about at once to right matters, and began active cruising off Ambriz, a noted slave-mart, in company with the English war-steamer Cyclops. He instituted prompt inquiries in relation to those slavers captured under American colors and adjudicated upon in English courts. In the case of the Louisa Beaton he acted with independence and energy. This was an American brigantine, which had been boarded and examined by the Perry, and proved to be a legal trader. She afterward ran out of Ambriz under American colors, having awakened suspicion that she had stealthily shipped a cargo of slaves. Two boats from the Perry were immediately dispatched in pursuit. They did not succeed in overhauling the vessel. Thereupon Lieutenant Foote request

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ed the commander of the Cyclops to take his (Foote's) second lieutenant on board and steam after her. The proposal was readily complied with; but after running out forty miles without obtaining sight of the Beaton, she returned. The commander of the Cyclops addressed a letter to Lieutenant Foote, saying that he had noticed the sailing of the Louisa Beaton; that he had suspected her of being a disguised slaver; and had there been no American man-of-war present, he should have considered it his duty to have overhauled her and satisfied himself that her nationality had not been changed by sale at Ambriz—not taking it for granted that the flag displayed by any vessel was a sufficient evidence of her nationality. Lieutenant Foote replied, stating that he had in the mean time found the Louisa Beaton at St. Paul de Loanda, and ascertained her legal character; and that the principle assumed by the British commander could not for a moment be allowed, but that, in words which have been already quoted, the flag which a vessel wears is prima facie though not conclusive proof of her nationality; that those who lawfully displayed the flag of the United States should have all the protection it supplies; and when a cruiser boarded a vessel under this flag, she did it upon her own responsibility. Again, a few months afterward, in the case of the same Louisa Beaton, the commander of the Perry insisted upon the principle in respect to the inviolability of the flag in an instance of palpable outrage, when the British cruiser Dolphin boarded and detained the Louisa Beaton, seventy miles off land, sailing under American colors, and having a proper national register and all her papers good, with the exception of the absence of a sea-letter, usually given by consular officers to legal traders after transfer of masters.

The protracted correspondence of nearly a year which ensued between Lieutenant Foote and the British commander of the southern division, Hon. Captain Hastings, was published

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