[99] *CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND

SPAIN.

No. 1.

Don Luis de Onis to Mr. Monroe.

[Translation.]

WASHINGTON, January 2, 1817.

United States and

SIR: The mischiefs resulting from the toleration of the armament of privateers in the ports of this Union, and of bringing into them, with impunity, the plunder made by these privateers Spain. Correspondence. on the Spanish trade, for the purpose of distributing it among those merchants who have no scruple in engaging in these piracies, have risen to such a height that I should be wanting in my duty if I omitted to call your attention again to this very important subject.

It is notorious, that although the speculative system of fitting out privateers, and putting them under a foreign flag, one disavowed by all nations, for the purpose of destroying the Spanish commerce, has been more or less pursued in all the ports of the Union, it is more especially in those of New Orleans and Baltimore, where the greatest violations of the respect due to a friendly nation, and if I may say so, of that due to themselves, have been committed; whole squadrons of pirates having been [fitted] out from thence, in violation of the solemn treaty existing between the two nations, and bringing back to them the fruits of their piracies, without being yet checked in these courses, either by the reclamations I have made, those of His Majesty's consuls, or the decisive and judicious orders issued by the President for that purpose.

The American privateer Swift, which, as I mentioned to you in my note of the day before yesterday, had captured, under the name of the Mongore, and the flag of Buenos Ayres, the Spanish polacre Pastora, just arrived at New Bedford, is now in Baltimore River, and her captain, James Barnes, who has so scandalously violated the laws of nations, the neutrality of this Government, and the existing treaty, has had the effrontery to make a regular entry of his vessel at the custom-house of Baltimore, declaring his cargo to consist of bales and packages containing silks, laces, velvets, and other valuable articles, all, as you may suppose, plundered from the Spaniards.

The three-masted schooner called the Intrepid, lately arrived at New York, from Monte Video, is, as His Majesty's consul there informs me, the Spanish vessel called the Leona, captured off Cadiz, by the schooner Orb, of Baltimore, whose armament I denounced to you at the time, and communicated the positive information I had received, that her object was to cruise against the subjects of the King, my master. This pirate (for that is the name by which both nations have agreed to consider a privateer of this description) was armed at Baltimore, manned by subjects of this Republic, and commanded by a Portuguese called Almeyda, an American citizen.

The schooner Leona, now at New York under the name of the Intrepid, and ostensibly owned by one Miffling, at Philadelphia, had on board, when captured, $30,000 in specie, 300 boxes of sugar, some grain, with other property belonging to Moreno, De Moro, and others, merchants at Cadiz; and had a cargo of jerked beef, and other articles, belonging, as I have heard, to the merchants in Baltimore, who furnished the funds for equipping the Orb.

The consul at New Orleans informs me that the pirate Mitchell, with the vessels under his command, fitted out by different merchants at that port, of whom a Mr. Dupuy is supposed to be principal, has lately taken several Spanish prizes to Galveston, and that from the proceeds of their sales he has remitted to the said deputies $105,000, which he has deposited in the Bank of Louisiana, after deducting the shares of the captain and crew, amounting, as is supposed, altogether to $200,000. The same consul adds that two of the prizes, one from Campeachy, and the other from Guatemala, were burnt, and their crews landed by that savage monster, near Boquilla de Piedras, that they might be, as they actually were, put to death by his great friend, Villapinto, a noted rebel ringleader, who, being pursued by the King's troops, had retreated to the sea-shore to make his escape. Öf ninety men composing these crews, only nine were saved.

The consul at Norfolk informs me of the arrival there of a pri[100] vateer schooner from Buenos *Ayres, one of several fitted out at Baltimore, and wholly owned there; that from what he has been able to ascertain, among other vessels she plundered a Spanish ship, laden with a cargo of cochineal, indigo, and specie, to the amount of more than $200,000, and proceeded to Baltimore to divide the spoil among the concerned. The said consul, in the discharge of his duty and exercise of his rights, addressed an application to the collector of the customs, copy of which is annexed, and also of the answer of the collector, by which you will perceive that he declines this just reclamation. I could cite innumerable other cases, as well attested as those I have just stated, but I omit them, as their detail would fatigue you, without tending to demonstrate more effectually that they proceed from the non-observance by the officers of this Government of the President's proclamation, and of the treaty of limits and navigation between the two governments. Although His Majesty has too much confidence in the rectitude of the President to doubt that due compensation will be made for these injuries to his subjects, on the same principles as have been observed by His Majesty, on other occasions, toward the United States, yet I cannot omit requesting, in' his royal name, that in the meanwhile the President may be authorized to take the most energetic measures required by the case to put an end to these practices, and that he would be pleased to cause the vessels I have before mentioned to be confiscated, together with their cargoes-and security to be given by Mr. Dupuy for the amount of his deposit in the Bank of Louisiana, as being the proceeds of the Spanish prizes made by the pirate Mitchell; and that, as a general measure, every privateer coming into these ports. under a flag not acknowledged, be detained and sequestered, to be made responsible for the depredations committed by it.

I trust that the President will be the more disposed to accede to this request, as, in addition to its justice, it is strictly conformable to his friendly sentiments toward my sovereign, and the humane principles by which he is characterized.

I have, &c.,
(Signed)

LOUIS DE ONIS.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 1.]

Don Antonio Villalobos to Mr. Mallory.

[Translation.]

SPANISH CONSUL'S OFFICE, December 16, 1816. SIR: On seeing an armed vessel in this harbor, in front of the town, displaying a flag unknown to me, and, I will venture to say, unknown to the United States, and at any rate not recognized by them; and there being no doubt that this vessel is one of those known to be committing great depredations at sea on the Spanish trade, and frequently also on ships of all other nations, not excepting those under the merchant flag of these States, I have thought it my duty to apply to you to request you to give me some information respecting said armed vessel, her character and nationality, and under what authority she navigates the seas as a public or private ship of war, who commands her, and how she is manned, and in what light you view her in your official capacity.

In making these inquiries of you I hope that you will only see a desire on my part to acquire information upon a question of vast importance to the commerce of Spain, as it affects materially the safety of her merchant-ships, whether or not those sea-plunderers are to find an asylum in the ports of the United States, which would so greatly increase their means of carrying on their spoliations. I am confident that it is not the wish of this Government to afford any sort of protection to a set of men (for the most part foreigners to the country they pretend to serve) who avail themselves of the dissensions which unfortunately prevail between Spain and some of her colonies to exercise their merciless rapacity upon the inoffensive merchant, not only of Spain, but, in many instances, of other countries, and I am too well acquainted with your own character to suppose that you would be inclined to favor them. Indeed, the intentions and good disposition of this Government toward Spain are rendered manifest in the President's proclamation of the 1st September, 1815; and it is there forbidden to American citizens to take any part in the contentions between Spain and some of her distant possessions; and it is enjoined upon all officers, civil and military, under the Government, to be vigilant in searching out and bringing to punishment all such citizens as shall act contrary to the intent of said proclamation; and there being a report in town that many of those composing the crew of the vessels in question are Americans, I have thought it necessary to call your attention to this point, not doubting that you will consider it as meriting your particular examination. I will conclude by availing myself, &c., (Signed)

ANTONIO ARGOTE VILLALOBOS.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 1.]

Mr. Mallory to Don Antonio Villalobos.

COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, Norfolk, December 16, 1816. SIR: I have had the honor of receiving your note of this morning. In respect to the vessel which is the subject of it, I deem it necessary only to remark that she is recognized in this office in no other character than that of any other foreign vessel arriving in our waters from a foreign port; that my duty does not require of me to request her flag, so far as to make it a criterion or condition of her admission into this port, and that I shall take care in this, as in other cases, to see that the laws of the United [101] *States, and other regulations of the Government, so far as they come within the sphere of my authority, be duly observed. I reciprocate, &c., (Signed)

CHARLES K. MALLORY.

No. 2.

Don Luis de Onis to Mr. Monroe.

[Translation.]

WASHINGTON, January 15, 1817.

SIR: On the 1st instant I informed you of the arrival at New Bedford of the Spanish polacre Pastora, captured by the American privateer

Swift, under the name of the Mongore, and the flag of Buenos Ayres, commanded by a Captain Barnes, a citizen of these States. Two days afterward I addressed to you another note, stating the arrival in the river and port of Baltimore of the said privateer, with the booty piratically plundered from the subjects of the King, my master, and requesting that you would be pleased to obtain of the President such orders as would most effectually insure the confiscation both of the vessel and of the privateer, that they might be made answerable for the damages justly claimed by the owners of the property. Although I am persuaded that it is the multiplicity of business that has prevented your answering my notes, yet I cannot doubt that the President will have given the orders I requested in them. Notwithstanding this, and the application made by His Majesty's consul at Baltimore, in the discharge of his duty, to the attorney for that district, a copy of which is annexed, I regret to announce to you that the collector and the aforesaid attorney have thought fit to allow the said pirate to depart, and that, after having ascertained that fact, the said attorney wrote a note to His Majesty's consul, a copy of which is inclosed, inviting him to call at his house to confer with him on the subject of his note.

It is not my wish to trespass on your attention with the reflections that are naturally produced by such notorious proceedings, nor pointedly to notice the incivility of the attorney for that State toward a consul of my nation; my only object is to bring to your view what has occurred in the case of the vessel, that by submitting it to the President he may be convinced that the injuries sustained by the King's subjects in these ports, by the violation of the existing treaty between the two nations, which has the force of a law, are daily augmenting, and that the more they are diffused the more difficult will it be hereafter to adjust the indemnities due to His Majesty's subjects.

I trust, sir, that you will only see in the step I now take a continued proof of my desire to restore that good understanding and sincere sense of justice between the two countries which form the basis of real harmony in every society, and that you will, therefore, be induced to give this subject all the attention due to its importance.

I renew, &c.,
(Signed)

LUIS DE ONIS.

No. 3.

Don Luis de Onis to Mr. Monroe.

[Translation.]

WASHINGTON, January 16, 1817. SÍR: I have just received information from the King's consul at New Orleans of the capture, within sight of the Balize of that port, and at little more than musket-shot from the land, of the Spanish schooner Hipolita, Captain Don Buenaventura March, by the pirate Jupiter, under the Margarita flag. To enable you fully to judge of the atrociousness of this capture, manifestly in violation of the territory of the United States, I have the honor to inclose the declaration of the captain of the said schooner, made before His Majesty's consul at the aforesaid port, by which it appears he was at anchor in the Pass of the Mississippi, and with pratique from the Balize, on board, when he was boarded by the aforesaid pirate, and so inhumanly treated by him as to be left weltering in his blood on the deck.