The writing-desk thrown overboard from the Martha, soon after she was boarded, contained sundry papers, making curious revelations of the agency of some American citizens engaged in the slave-trade. These papers implicated a number of persons, who are little suspected of ever having participated in such a diabolical traffic. A citizen of New York, then on the African coast, in a letter to the captain of the Martha, says: “The French barque will be here in a few days, and, as yet, the agent has no instructions as to her taking _ebony_ [negroes, slaves].... From the Rio papers which I have seen, I infer that business is pretty brisk at that place.... It is thought here that the brig Susan would bring a good price, as she had water on board.... C., an American merchant, has sold the Flood, and she was put under Brazilian colors, and gone around the Cape. The name of the brigantine in which B. came passenger was the Sotind; she was, as we are told, formerly the United States brig Boxer.” Other letters found with this, stated: “The barque Ann Richardson, and brig Susan, were both sent home by a United States cruiser. The Independence cleared for Paraguay; several of the American vessels were cleared, and had sailed for Montevideo, &c., in ballast, and as I suppose bound niggerly; but where in hell they are is the big business of the matter. The sailors, as yet, have not been near me. I shall give myself no trouble about them. I have seen them at a distance. I am told that they are all well, but they look like death itself. V. Z. tells me they have wished a hundred times in his presence, that they had gone in the ship; for my part, I wish they were in hell, Texas, or some other nice place. B. only came down here to ‘take in,’ but was driven off by one of the English cruisers; he and his nigger crew were under deck, out of sight, when visited by the cruiser.”[8] After parting company with the Martha, the Perry proceeded to Loanda, and found English, French and Portuguese men-of-war in port. The John Adams, having exhausted her provisions, had sailed for the north coast, after having had the good fortune _to capture a slaver_. The British commissioner called aboard, and 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 found in her to the United States, would prove a severe blow to the iniquitous traffic. The British cruisers, after the capture of a vessel, were in the practice of landing the slave-crews, except when they are British subjects, at some point on the coast. This is believed to be required by the governments with which Great Britain has formed treaties.