hired, on board of which your petitioners were sent, under the care of a number of officers, whose wariness still remained unabated; and on the 27th March, 1806, the ship, accompanied by the two schooners, proceeded towards the coast of Terra Firma, where, after touching at the island of Aruba for refreshments, she arrived on the 28th of April, when two armed vessels hove in sight, which after some manoeuvring the ship engaged but soon ran away, leaving the two schooners to be captured. They were carried into Porto Cabello, where your petitioners were proceeded against as pirates, a number of warlike implements being found on board, which were placed there without the knowledge of your petitioners. And on the 12th July following, the process against us closed at Caraccas, sentencing ten, whom they considered to be criminally engaged, to be hanged and beheaded, and the remainder (your petitioners) to eight and ten years' slavery on the public works at Omoa, Bocca Chica, and the island of Porto Rico. Your petitioners were all sent to this place, where those sent to Bocca Chica were put to work, chained two-and-two, and the residue, in double irons and close confinement, strongly guarded, waiting for an opportunity to be sent to their respective places. Upon several occasions your petitioners were told by William Armstrong, Thomas Lewis, and others, that they were sent out by the Government of the United States. To prove to the satisfaction of your honorable body the truth of the above statement, your petitioners beg you will examine Robert Laverty, John Stagg, John Ritter, Matthew Morgan, Richard Platt, Adam Ten Brook, and John Miller, of New York, who were under the same engagements with your petitioners. Francis White and Thomas McAllister, butchers in the Bear market, New York; Mr. Brinkerhoff, tavern keeper, near the Bear market; David Williams, John Garret, and a Mr. Kemper, weighmaster, whose son was executed at Porto Cabello, were present when all or most of your petitioners were engaged, and can prove beyond all doubt that your petitioners could have had no other idea than that of entering into the service of the United States. Captain Bomberry, of the ship Mary, of Baltimore; Captain Israel, of the brig Robert and Mary; Captain Waldron, of the schooner Victory; and Captain Abbot, of the brig Charleston Packet, all of Philadelphia, were eye-witnesses to the tyranny and oppression under which your petitioners labored while at Jacmel. When the crew of the Bee, one of the schooners which was chartered by the Leander, refused to go in her, a number of officers from the ship, with Lewis at their head, came on board the Bee, and, after beating and cutting the men with sticks and sabres in the most brutal manner,