No. 114.-Messrs. Kilbee and Jameson to the Marq. of Londonderry. (Received January 19, 1822.) MY LORD, Havannah, 10th December, 1821. WE have the honour to inform your Lordship, that the Spanish Members of this Mixed Commission have apprized us that they have received from their Government Instructions to carry punctually into effect, in all their proceedings, the Stipulations of the Slave-trade Abolition Treaty concluded between Great Britain and Spain in September, 1817. We understand that Circular Orders to the same effect have been received by the Captain-General, the Admiral, and the Intendant, with directions to communicate the same to the several branches of their respective Departments. We would venture to suggest to your Lordship the expediency of moving the Government of His Catholick Majesty, to provide the several Spanish Vessels of War cruizing in these seas with the Special Instructions annexed to the Slave-trade Treaty, as we have reason to believe that none of them are at present authorized to detain Slaveships, in conformity with the Stipulations of that Treaty. We have, &c. The Marq. of Londonderry, K.G. H. T. KILBEE. No. 115. The Marq. of Londonderry to Messrs. Kilbee and Jameson. I HAVE to acquaint you that Official Advices have been received from Madrid of the Appointment of Don Claudio Pinillos and Colonel Quesada, to be His Catholick Majesty's Commissioners at The Havannah, for carrying into execution the Treaty for the Abolition of the Slave-trade. The former Gentleman in the place of M. Ramirez, the deceased Intendant; and the latter to succeed Don Francisco Arango, named Counsellor of State. I am, &c. His Majesty's Commissioners. LONDONDERRY. RIO JANEIRO. No. 116.-Messrs. Hayne and Cunningham to Viscount Castlereagh. (Received June). (Extract.) Rio Janeiro, 1st March, 1821. WE have the honour to acknowledge the receipt, on the 19th ultimo, of your Lordship's Dispatches, dated the 10th and 24th September, and 16th November, with their several Inclosures. Your Lordship's Dispatch of September 24th, places us in possession of the just and liberal construction which His Majesty's Govern ment have put on that Clause of the Convention in which detention is admitted, in the event only of their actually finding Slaves on board. We shall not fail, my Lord, to impress upon our Colleagues the absʊlute necessity to the fulfilment of the Treaties, and in strict justice to the Parties, to adopt the determination most congenial to the spirit and design of the Treaties. We feel, my Lord, however, fully persuaded of the utility, as well as necessity, of the Declaration, in explanation of the Clause in question, which your Lordship has instructed His Majesty's Minister at this Court to sign with His Most Faithful Majesty's Go vernment. The List of the Ships of War furnished with the Instructions referred to in the late Slave-trade Convention with Portugal, conveyed to us in your Lordship's Dispatch of November 16th, shall be laid before the Board of Commission at our first Meeting. We have to inform your Lordship, that, in consequence of M. Silvestre Pinheiro's having been appointed Envoy to The United States, and, since Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Yoze Silvestre Rebello has been nominated Commissary Judge in his stead, and we are only waiting the necessary formalities attending his Appointment to name a day for his installation. HENRY HAYNE. ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM. Viscount Castlereagh, K.G. No. 117.-Messrs. Hayne and Cunningham to Viscount Castlereagh. (Received July 3.) MY LORD, Rio de Janeiro, 30th March, 1821. We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt, on the 13th instant, of your Lordship's Dispatch of the 28th November, 1820, inclosing a Copy of the Act of the 51 Geo. III. relating to the employment of British Subjects on board of Slave-vessels. Any cases of this nature that may occur, within our knowledge, shall, without fail, my Lord, be taken cognizance of, in the manner directed by your Lordship's Dispatch above-mentioned. We have the honour of informing your Lordship, that M. Jose Silvestre Rebello, the Portuguese Commissary Judge, appointed to succeed M. Silvestre Pinheiro, was formally installed on the 8th instant; and we seized that opportunity of renewing our request, that we should be furnished with a suitable House, and that those points submitted to the Portuguese Government for decision, respecting the regulations for the guidance of the Commission, should be decided without further delay. We also obtained a promise from the new Commissary Judge, as we had done from his Predecessor, that he would adopt the regulations, as revised by the Commissioners, without awaiting the decision of his Government, in the event of a Case occurring before he received it. We likewise communicated, my Lord, to the Board of Commission, a List of the British Cruizers furnished with the necessary Instructions, for detaining Vessels trafficking illegally in Slaves, as we were directed by your Lordship's Dispatch of the 16th November last. We have, &c. HENRY HAYNE. Viscount Castlereagh, K.G. ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM. No. 118.-Messrs. Hayne and Cunningham to Viscount Castlereagh. (Received September 3.) (Extract.) Rio Janeiro, 27th June, 1821. THE Portuguese Commissioners laid, on the 10th May, before the Board of Commission, the Additional Article to the Convention, signed by His Majesty's Minister at this Court, on the 12th April, 1821, and forwarded for the sanction of the British Government. It was agreed my Lord, that the said Article should be acted upon, as if ratified, until the decision of the British Government should arrive. Viscount Castlereagh, K.G. HENRY HAYNE. ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM. No. 119.-Henry Hayne, Esq. to the Marquess of Londonderry. (Received November 6.) MY LORD, Rio de Janeiro, 27th August, 1821. I HAVE herewith the honour to transmit to your Lordship a Copy of the Case of the Emilia, captured by His Majesty's Ship Morgiana, and condemned by the Mixed Commission established at this Place, together with the recapitulation of the Evidence in the same Case. I have the honour to be, &c: The Marq. of Londonderry, K.G. HENRY HAYNE. (Inclosure 1.)-Case of the Schooner Emilia, Severo Leonardo, Master. THIS Vessel sailed from Bahia on the 14th October, 1820, with a Passport and Papers, in order for a voyage to Molembo, with a Cargo of Tobacco and Spirits, (which Cargo is suited for a voyage to the north of the Line, and not marketable at Molembo.) She was detained by His Majesty's Ship Morgiana, Captain Finlaison, on the 14th February, 1821, in lat. 3 deg. 50 min. north, long. 3 deg. 30 min. east, with 397 Slaves on board. The Captor first steered for Sierra Leone, but finding the Slaves dreadfully crowded, he took a great many on board his own Ship, and put into Acará and Cape Coast for water and provisions, and there again, out of motives of humanity, he took more of the unhappy Creatures on board the Morgiana, in all about 200, and finally determined on shaping a course for this Place. On the 21st May, he put into Bahia with the Emilia, to replenish her stock of provisions, and on the 7th July, the two Ships entered this Port. On the 10th July, the Mixed Commission proceeded to adjudication, and on the 10th of August she was condemned; and after giving the Slaves each a Certificate of Emancipation, they were delivered over to the Judge of the District as the Alvará directs, and the Schooner to the Judge of Contraband, to be sold for the benefit of the two Go vernments. At the time of delivery of the Slaves to the Government, they amounted to 351; 18 having been left sick at Cape Coast, and 28. having died during and since the Voyage. (Inclosure 2.)-Recapitulation of Evidence in the Case of the Emilia. THE Captain and all the White Men belonging to the Emilia fled from her at Bahia, the Contremestre, or Boatswain, only excepted. The Boatswain, in his examination on Oath before the Commission, declared, that from Bahia the Emilia first went to Acará and Mina to water and buy Canoes, being bound from Bahia to Molembo; and that they then went to Molembo, New Molembo, or as some call it Onim. Now, Acará is 12 Degrees of Latitude to the North of Molembo, there is no other place on the Coast by that name, and Canoes are not used there. Two Black Men belonging to the Schooner examined on Oath, the one free, the other a Slave. They both declared, that the Emilia, after leaving Bahia, went to Mina, Cape Coast, Acará, Ajudà, and Onim. The 3 witnesses agreed in deposing, that the Slaves were embarked at Onim, the Boatswain only ambiguously calling the same place, Molembo, New Molembo, or Onim; he, however, acknowledged that it was called by the latter name on shore; they all agreed in their having left the said Port 3 days previous to Capture; therefore, it is impossible that the Emilia could have come from Molembo, in 30 hours, a distance from the spot where detained, of at least 9 degrees of Latitude. The Emilia, by one Log-book, is said to have sailed from Molembo on the 23d January, 1821, yet Letters and Notes speaking of embarkation, and even Bills of Lading signed by the Captain, were found on board, dated Molembo, 12th of February, 1821, only 2 days prior to the Capture. The Log-book is evidently fictitious, in corroboration of which, it is composed of half-sheets sewn together with fresh thread, one having been daily added, which, by a Note from the Captain of the Schooner to the Mate, ordering him so to prepare it for the homeward Voyage, proves such to be the system of deception practised. A regular Log-book was found on board, kept by the Pilot, which takes the Schooner direct from Bahia to Onim, the Port where the Slaves, by the evidence of the Witnesses and other testimony, are proved to have been embarked. Another, kept by the Captain, corresponds perfectly with the preceding, till within a few days of their arrival on the Coast, and the remaining leaves appear to have been torn out. One Letter was also found, dated 6th February, Onim. In the defence, drawn up by a celebrated Lawyer of Bahia, he brings 16 Affidavits, 3 of People belonging to the Schooner, who fled at Bahia, to prove that they received Letters on board from a small Vessel which had come from the North. On comparing the Letter, dated 6th February, Onim, with the time and spot where said Vessel is declared to have been spoken, by a most liberal allowance, it is evidently impossible, had she spoken such a Vessel (which appears in no other part of the evidence) that she could have brought a Letter of so late a date. Amongst the above-mentioned Affidavits taken at Bahia, one of them taken by Caetano Alberto de França, Captain of the Rosalia, (another Slave-vessel belonging to the same Owner) declares, that he himself witnessed the embarkation of the Slaves on board the Emilia at Molembo, that he was there in his Vessel, (the Rosalia) in December and January, 1821, and he saw the Emilia sail from Molembo late in the latter month. This Affidavit is proved to be the grossest perjury, not only by the preceding evidence, but by Letters which were found on board, written by himself, with precisely the same signature as that attached to the Affidavit, and dated the 12th of February, at Molembo, speaking of the sailing of the Emilia on the next day. The Witnesses examined, declared that they left the Rosalia in the Port of Onim. All the Letters found on board, except one (which was dated Onim) in order to accord with the Licence, were systematically dated Molembo. The proofs alleged in favour of the Emilia, I have no hesitation in saying, are doubtless a series of perjuries from beginning to end; and the counter-evidence, in favour of the Captor, being so clear and decided, of the fact of the Slaves having been taken on board at Onim (in 6. 50. N.), and of their being for the purpose of traffick, that the Sentence of Condemnation was passed without hesitation. No. 120-Henry Hayne, Esq. to the Marquess of Londonderry. (Received January 26, 1822.) MY LORD, Rio de Janeiro, 24th October, 1821. . YOUR Lordship may wish to be informed of the system pursued by this Government in the distribution of the captured Negroes; I beg leave, therefore, to state the result of my observation in the Case of the Emilia, for your Lordship's information. On the condemnation of the captured Vessel, a Certificate of Emancipation was distributed by the Mixed Commission to each Negro; the whole were then given over to the charge of the Ouvidor da Comarca, or Judge of the District, as the Alvara of the 26th January 1818, directs, for the purpose of being apprenticed. |