If we examine the Louisiana Convention carefully, we find that “debts” alone are provided for. The first article, as we have already seen, declares, “_the debts_ due by France to citizens of the United States, contracted before the 30th September, 1800, shall be paid according to the following regulations.” The second article describes “_the debts_ provided for by the preceding article” as comprised in a conjectural note. The third article declares how “the said debts shall be discharged by the United States.” The fourth article more specifically defines _the debts_ as follows: “It is expressly agreed that the preceding articles shall comprehend _no debts_ but such as are due to citizens of the United States who have been and are yet creditors of France, for _supplies_, for _embargoes_, and _prizes made at sea_ in which the appeal has been properly lodged within the time mentioned in the said Convention, 30th September, 1800.” The fifth article explains further the prizes intended in the fourth article, as follows: “The preceding articles shall apply only, 1st, to captures of which the Council of Prizes shall have ordered restitution, it being well understood that the claimant cannot have recourse to the United States otherwise than he might have had to the Government of the French Republic, and only in case of insufficiency of the captors; 2d, _the debts_ mentioned in the said fifth article of the Convention of 1800, the payment of which has been heretofore claimed of the actual Government of France, and for which the creditors have a right to the protection of the United States. The said fifth article does not comprehend prizes whose condemnation has been or shall be confirmed.” Under the first head, the class of captures is here defined. It was those only where the Council of Prizes had ordered restitution, being captures not warranted by the laws of France. Such cases were included among “debts,” because the decree of the Council of Prizes ordering restitution instantly created, on the part of the owner, a claim on the captor for the property or its value; and where the captor was “insufficient,” the Government assumed the debt. _And this is the only class of captures provided for in the Louisiana Convention_. Under the second head are specified “_the debts_ mentioned in the fifth article,” with an express declaration that it “does not comprehend prizes whose condemnation has been or shall be confirmed.” Thus in every article and at every stage the spoliation claims are excluded from the benefit of the Louisiana Convention.