I recollect a very fine young seaman whom we took out of an American ship at Messina in Sicily, when I was a lieutenant of the _Melpomene_ frigate. On being brought on board he produced his United States’ protection, and requested to be sent back to his ship. He wrote to the American consul to claim him, and the master of his ship came on board to demand him as an American citizen. Having strong suspicion that he was an English subject,--notwithstanding the clamour raised by the Yankee master and consul, and the production of his protection; yet, from his not having any nasal twang when he spoke, and not using the general slang words of that country, such as “I guess,” “I calculate,” etc.,--we kept him on board that night. The next morning he came on the quarter-deck of the frigate, and gave up his American protection and said, “I will not deny my country--I am a native of Swansea, in Wales, and I got that protection when I sailed last voyage in a merchant ship from Liverpool to New York, in the following manner. On my arrival at New York I was told that by paying two dollars I could get a protection of citizenship, which would prevent my being pressed on board an English man-of-war. The way it was managed was this:--I was put into a large cradle made on purpose to hold men; I was then rocked by them for a minute or two, and afterwards taken before the proper authorities by the old couple, who made oath they had known me ever since I was in my cradle--no further questions were asked, the matter being quite understood between the parties,--I paid the fees, the protection was granted, and, having given the old folks two dollars for their trouble, I became a ‘registered American citizen,’ and that, sir,” he said, “is the way British seamen are kidnapped in the States--in short, it is a regular trade, and hundreds of seamen that have protections got them in the same manner.” A knowledge of the various tricks played on the other side of the Atlantic to entice away our seamen, made the officers of the British navy more anxious to recover their sailors, which of course at times caused some irritating disputes with the masters and skippers of the American vessels. These magnified every trifle, and reported all the circumstances to people who were paid by that part of the press in the French interest to make the worst of everything, in order to inflame the public mind against this country, particularly after the affair of the _Leopard_ (50), taking our deserters out of the American frigate _Chesapeake_ (48), and the unfortunate event of H.M.S. _Leander_, when a man was killed by accident by her firing to bring-to a vessel under the United States’ flag off New York for the purpose of examining her.