5041. What was the object of hoisting the Spanish or Portuguese flag?--If the vessels had been captured by a British cruizer with the American flag hoisted, he would have carried them into America; and if he did carry them into America, every man on board would have been hung as a pirate. 5042. Had he authority to do so?--It _was_ done; the American authorities did not complain of it. 5043. Mr. _W. Patten_.] Were they hung in that case?--No, there were no slaves on board. 5044. Mr. _Aldam_.] Every ship of war has a right to capture a pirate?--Yes. 5045. The law of the United States recognizes slavery as piracy?--Yes, but it is not piracy by the law of nations, and indeed our own courts have decided most positively on that point, that the slave trade is not piracy by the law of nations; that it can only be punished by the municipal law of the particular country to which the vessel belongs. 5046. Mr. _Forster_.] The class of condemnations to which you have alluded are different from the cases which have taken place since you left, under the direction of Lord Palmerston?--No condemnations took place before the 1st of January, 1840; there were vessels condemned by me that were captured under the American flag, and with American papers, but they were taken in British waters, where British ships had a right to visit and search the vessel, and the captor might make use of any information he obtained in the search: when apparent American vessels were boarded on the high seas, we deemed that the captor had not that authority. 5047. _Chairman._] What do you consider British waters on the coast of Africa; what would you for instance, on the Gold Coast, consider British waters?--The waters of a nation are those within gun-shot of the shore; generally reckoned three miles; it is the same all over the world. 5048. With regard to the Gold Coast, you are aware that our settlements consist of several forts; do you consider the whole line of coast, from end to end, along which our forts are planted, to be British water?--No, for there are foreign forts there mixed with ours; but in every case we have the sovereignty over three miles of the sea from our own possession, wherever it may be, and the only ports to which a vessel could go, have forts attached to them; a vessel lying at Accra, or lying at Cape Coast, would be within three miles of the fort. 5049. If she was sailing along the coast, should you consider her to be in British waters?--Where an indefinite authority is exercised along a line of coast, without any real right, I do not consider those British waters.