Africa and the American FlagFoote, Andrew H. (Andrew Hull)
History
Africa and the American Flag
Foote, Andrew H. (Andrew Hull)
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Liberia -- History -- 1847-1944; Slave trade -- Africa, West
Soon after the Martha was discovered, she passed within hailing
distance of an American brig, several miles ahead of the Perry, and
asked the name of the cruiser astern; on being told, the captain, in
despair, threw his trumpet on deck. But on a moment’s reflection, as
he afterwards stated, he concluded, notwithstanding, that she must
be an English cruiser, not only from her appearance, but from the
knowledge that the Perry had left for Porto Praya, and could not
in the mean time have returned to that part of the coast. Therefore
finding, when within gun-shot of the vessel, that he could not escape,
and must show his colors, ran up the American ensign, intending under
his nationality to avoid search and capture. The boarding-officer was
received at the gangway by a Brazilian captain, who strongly insisted
that the vessel was Brazilian property. But the officer, agreeably
to an order received on leaving the Perry, to hold the ship to the
nationality first indicated by her colors, proceeded in the search.
In the mean time, the American captain, notwithstanding his guise as
a sailor, being identified by another officer, was sent on board the
Perry. He 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 slaving voyage; adding, that, had he not fallen in with the Perry,
he would, during the night, have shipped eighteen hundred slaves, and
before daylight in the morning, been clear of the coast.
Possession was immediately taken of the Martha, her crew put in irons,
and both American and Brazilian captains, together with three or four
cabin passengers (probably slave-agents), were given to understand
that they would be similarly served, in case of the slightest evidence
of insubordination. The accounts of the prize crew were transferred,
the vessel provisioned, and in twenty-four hours after her capture, the
vessels exchanged three cheers, and the Martha bore away for New York.
She was condemned in the U. S. District Court. The captain was admitted
to bail for the sum of five thousand dollars, which was afterwards
reduced to three thousand: he then escaped justice by its forfeiture.
The American mate was sentenced to the Penitentiary for the term of two
years; and the foreigners, who had been sent to the United States on
account of the moral effect, being regarded as beyond our jurisdiction,
were discharged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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