Perry. Her battery is perhaps as good as she can carry. Unless the change were radical, I would prefer to arm her with two heavy pivotguns (say 8-inch).

"Your largest pieces are 32-pounders of 33 cwt. If so, they are good guns, and at half a mile would tell effectively;* even beyond that they would not be comfortable customers for an enemy. Always ricochet the shot when the water is smooth enough; but with the shells keep the gun up about half a degree, so that the shot may not touch first nearer than 500 yards, as the water is apt to extinguish the priming of the fuse. In a second this is accomplished, and then neither water nor wood will put out the fuse.

"I wish much that I had known earlier of your appointment to the Perry, as I should have liked a boat howitzer to go with you on trial. Now I have none suitable, and there is not time to cast and finish one. "The kind which I have proposed is now intended by the Bureau to be essayed in such vessels as have boats to carry them. They consist of 12-pounders of two sizes, 400 lbs. and 800 lbs., and 24-pounders of 1300 lbs., for launches of sloops, frigates, and liners respectively. The model is after my own notion, and I am allowed to make them. The ammunition is spherical case (that is, a thin iron shell charged with musket-balls, and burst near the boats or men fired at by a fuse and bursting charge). The English term is shrapnel. They were used at Buena Vista and Palo Alto, and alone saved our forces. I have so arranged the carriage that no breaching is required, and this facilitates the use, so that a howitzer can be fired seven times in a minute. This has been done often in the presence of the Secretary of the Navy, Dupont, Buchanan, and others; though it would not be practicable in a boat for want of

room.

"I have now a very important proposition on hand, which, in my view, will work great changes. I shall soon be furnished with pieces of the right character required to prove it, and at some future time you will hear of it.

"And now, my valued friend, you have in these two sheets some evidence of my pleasure in hearing from you. While you are absent you shall continue to have some remembrance from me. Let me entreat you to take good care of your health, and be cheerful and hopeful. When you get wet, have the circulation assisted by a good rubbing, and never

*That is, will strike almost every shot.

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

F

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