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Diplomatic Questions.

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in the "Blue-Book," or Parliamentary Papers of 1851, and resulted in the British commander's disavowal of the act of the captain of the Dolphin, his offer to make pecuniary restitution, and his apology to the master of the Louisa Beaton for the detention; and, above all, the important principle of the inviolability of the flag was established. English commanders abstained from even going alongside a legal American trader without the assent of an American naval commander.

Lieutenant Foote was thus called upon to settle nice points of international law without help from any quarter. In his own words: "We have cruised ten months on this southern coast, where, with the exception of two months by the ship John Adams and one month by the Portsmouth, there has been no American man-of-war; neither has there been a consul, nor any public functionary but myself to supervise our commercial interests and suppress the slave-trade as carried on by American vessels and American citizens; while the English, French, and Portuguese, with less commerce, have their commissioned consuls, commodores, and squadrons, with whom I have been in frequent correspondence; and many new and delicate points, which might have been more appropriately assigned to an experienced diplomatist, than added to the cares and responsibilities of a lieutenant in command of the only national vessel on the coast.'

But Lieutenant Foote did not spend his time in diplomatic correspondence; he was at the same time actively engaged in real work. The Perry and her boats were constantly at sea. in search of slavers, boarding many legal traders, and chasing suspicious vessels, the boats sometimes being absent for a long time, lost in fog and overtaken by squalls, the commander sharing the severest hardships with his men in this laborious service; oftentimes approaching shore where the roar of the

*Private letter to Hon. Truman Smith.

tremendous surf on the low African coast could be heard for twenty miles, passing the breakers, and running up unhealthy, jungle-bordered rivers to the slave-barracoons.

Provisions being nearly exhausted, the Perry went north coastwise to Prince's Island, and there had orders from the commodore to make requisitions upon the flag-ship for provisions, and prepare again for service on the southern coast. After a stay of a few days, the brave little brig turned her prow southward a second time to resume her cruising-ground. On the 7th of June, 1850, between Ambriz and Loanda, a large ship, with two tiers of painted ports, was made to windward, standing in for the land. The vessel was overhauled, having the name Martha, New York, registered on her stern. The Perry had no colors flying. The ship, when in range of the guns, hoisted the American ensign, shortened sail, and backed her maintop-sail. The first lieutenant, Mr. Rush, was sent to board her. As he was rounding her stern, the people on board observed, by the uniform of the boarding-officer, that the vessel was an American cruiser. The ship then hauled down the American, and hoisted Brazilian colors. The officer went on board, and asked for papers and other proofs of nationality. The captain denied having papers, or log, or any thing else. At the same time something was thrown overboard, which was picked up by another boat sent from the Perry, and proved to be the writing-desk of the captain, containing sundry papers and letters identifying the captain as an American citizen; also proving the owner of three fifths of the vessel to be an American merchant, resident in Rio de Janeiro. After obtaining satisfactory proof that the ship Martha was a slaver, she was seized as a prize.

There were found on board this vessel one hundred and seventy-six casks filled with water, containing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty gallons each; one hundred and fifty barrels of farina for slave-food; several sacks of beans; slave

Capture of the Slave-Ship "Martha."

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deck laid; four iron boilers for cooking slave-provisions; iron bars, with the necessary wood-work for securing slaves to the deck; four hundred spoons for feeding them; between thirty and forty muskets, and a written agreement between the owner and captain, with the receipt of the owner for two thousand milreis.

The captain claimed that the vessel could not lawfully be subjected to search by an American man-of-war while under Brazilian colors. But on being informed that he would be seized as a pirate for sailing without papers even were he not a slaver, he admitted that she was on a slave voyage; adding that, had he not fallen in with the Perry, he would during that night have shipped eighteen hundred slaves, and before daylight in the morning been clear of the coast.

The crew of the Martha were immediately put in irons; a force of twenty-five men, with the first and second lieutenants, was placed on board, the ship provisioned, and in twentyfour hours after her capture the vessels exchanged three cheers, and the Martha was on her way to New York, where she was condemned in the United States District Court as a slaver.

The British commissioner soon afterward at Loanda offered his congratulations on the capture of the Martha, remarking that she was the largest slaver that had been on the coast for many years; and the effect of sending all hands on her to the United States would prove a severe blow to the iniquitous traffic.

In the neighborhood of Ambriz the Perry chased and captured the American brigantine Chatsworth, bearing every proof of being a slaver, but evidence which would be required in the. United States courts essential to her condemnation being wanting, she was reluctantly released. She was afterward boarded by the Perry under still more suspicious circumstances; and additional proofs being obtained of her true character, notwithstanding her having two sets of papers, passing alternately un

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