The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 10
History
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 10
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1775-1783; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Sources
Memorial or relation of the injury sustained by two Captains of
Spanish merchantmen, which had sailed, the one from the river of
London, loaded with merchandise for Cadiz, on the account and at the
risk of Spanish merchants; and the other from the port of Cadiz,
loaded with wines, fruits, cochineal, and other articles, of the
growth of the Spanish territory, belonging also to Spaniards, bound
for London. These two vessels were stopped by two different
privateers, carrying the flag of the United States of America, and
brought the one to Newbury and the other to Beverly, and then on the
demand of the owners of the privateer, the cargo of one of them was
declared a lawful prize at Boston, the 28th of last March. They were
on the point of passing sentence on the other at the same place, and
not doubting that it will suffer the same fate as the first, according
to the letters written by the said Captains from the said port of
Boston to Don Juan de Mirales, one of which is without date, and the
other bearing date of the 3d of this month, he has the honor to impart
their contents to his Excellency M. Gerard, Minister Plenipotentiary
of the Court of France to the United States of America, requesting him
to have the goodness to lay the information before the honorable
Congress of the said States, in order to obtain all the satisfaction
due to the honor of the flag of his Catholic Majesty, his master, in
conformity to the tenor of Articles 14th, 15th, 25th, and 26th, of the
treaty of alliance and commerce, between his Most Christian Majesty
and the said States of America, signed the 6th of February, 1778. He
asks also for the punishment of the infringers of the treaty, or
captors, and requests that the Judges may be punished, who have
unjustly condemned and sentenced as a lawful prize the said cargo; and
provided that the other vessel has met with the same fate, to sentence
them to the payment of all the indemnities, expenses, damages, and
losses, resulting from the injury sustained by the said vessels, and
the interruption of their voyages, besides the injury which this
occasions to the proprietors of the same; and this, seeing that at the
time in which they were stopped, his Majesty the King of Spain was at
peace with all the powers of Europe, and consequently had no enemy to
fear; whereas it is possible that since that time, the state of peace
between the Court of Spain and other powers may have changed, or will
change, before the said Spanish vessels can perform the voyages for
which they were designed; and also the decay of the vessels and of the
merchandise with which they were loaded, and the great risk offered by
a voyage from this continent to any European port, &c. &c. _to wit_;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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