cargo....this accident transformed him, in the eyes of Green, into a French citizen, and on that pretence both ship and loading were confiscated. Thus the British went on in the West-Indies, while Mr. Bayard was transmitting to Philadelphia his important assurances about indemnification, and the resentment of the London Court of Admiralty at the decrees of Green.

About the 23d of April, Captain Mercer of the sloop Ambuscade, arrived at Philadelphia from Bermuda. He brought a list of eight American vessels, with their cargoes, which were condemned at that place, and of seven others which were libelled....one of the latter was a brig from Boston. Captain Mercer had heard that her captain had died of abuse which he received from the prizemaster. A paragraph of the same date says, that at Nevis, the schooner Andrew, Captain Montayne, of Philadelphia, had her mate and seamen pressed by a British schooner....they were all Americans, and had protections. The particulars are related in the Captain's protest as transmitted to his owner.

Joshua Whiting was a seaman on board of the American brig Samuel....at Port-au-Prince he and four others of the crew were pressed by a British frigate....three of them after eleven days, escaped by swimming, in the course of which one man had the calf of his leg bitten off by a shark....another of them was retaken and almost flogged to death. Whiting and the cripple escaped, after

losing their whole adventure, besides being cruelly treated.

The brig Columbia, and the schooner Unity, both of Newburyport, sailed from Port Lewis on the 7th of March, 1796....next day they were brought to by the Ganges, a British seventy-four, and a schooner attendant on the ship, and sent into Montserrat, examined, and on the 14th dismissed, upon paying forty-four pounds, four shillings and ten pence, as the expence of their examination.

The sloop Dove, of New-Haven, in Connecticut, had gone on a voyage to the West-Indies. While lying at Antigua she was boarded by a boat's crew from the Narcissus, who took away Benjamin Eastman....he was a native American, and as such had a protection. On the 3d of April, 1796, the master and mate of the Dove made oath to this fact at New-Haven.

In April, 1796, the American ship Eliza, sailed from New-York, for St. Thomas, and had orders to touch at St. Bartholomew; she was taken by captain Cochran of the Thetis frigate....the supercargo, a Danish subject, was stript to the skin.... the ship was libelled before the Vice-Admiralty Court at Bermuda, under pretence of being French property. The trunks of the supercargo were sealed up, and he was thrown pennyless out of the ship, without clothes or a second shirt to his back. The captain and crew were put on shore destitute of subsistence. Six or seven days after the ship and cargo had been libelled, the cattle were sold

at half their prime cost, bought in by the agents who sold them, and sold a second time next day, at a considerable profit.

A Boston newspaper of the 26th of May, contains a deposition dated at St. George, the 27th of April preceding. It was emitted by the second mate of the Brigantine Polly, John Bosson, late master....the vessel was on her way from Demarara, to Boston, when the Cleopatra, a British privateer, took her. Soon after, the prize-master quarrelled with captain Bosson, and most shocking manner. captain Bosson died of his of his age.

fifth year

wantonly beat him in a Within six days after, bruises, in the twenty

Such were the effects of Jay's treaty to American commerce. Not more than a twelvemonth after this treaty was signed, and not six months after it had been fully ratified, upwards of three hundred American ships were captured by British frigates and British pirates; and, upon the most moderate calculation, a thousand American citizens were doomed to fight in the cause of a tyrant against the rights of their nation. Much noise has been made about the injuries committed against American commerce by the French republic, but in this year, when every newspaper was suffocated by British Robberies, we only find three or four instances of French depredation. The following is the only one, of which a correct statement is given: the paragraph is from a Boston paper, of the 16th of April, 1796.

By an arrival on Saturday, of a vessel from Curracoa, we received the following protest of Hugh Wilson, master of the American brig called the Jay, belonging to Baltimore, who being duly sworn before the Notary Royal and Public, of St. Bartholomew, declareth: "That having got his vessel captured and condemned, as hereafter will appear, and having had his log-book and all the papers belonging to the vessel and to himself taken from him, all to the shipping articles, and a small memorandum book of his private disbursements, he is obliged to give his declaration from memory, and to the best of his recollection, viz. That on the 10th of April last, 1795, he sailed in said brig from St. Pierre, in the island of Martinico, bound to Antigua; that on the 12th of said month, in the morning, he was boarded by the French armed schooner (as near as he could recollect) the Athenienne, commanded by one Paschal, from Guadaloupe, under the lee of which island the brig then was, and in the evening was carried into Bassaterre-road, in said last island; that the same deponent, and all his crew, were immediately put on board a French sloop of war, where they were detained about eight or ten days, without knowing what was the intention of the French to do with the said brig, and without ever having been heard or examined; that the deponent and supercargo, Mr. John Starck, were sent on shore and conducted to the interpreter or linguist, who told them the brig Jay, and her remaining cargo, F

consisting in corn and slaves, had already been condemned, and who furnished Mr. Starck with a copy of the condemnation; that Mr. Starck was put at liberty, but the deponent was, the next day, thrown into Bassaterre gaol, where he remained about ten days, after which, he was drove out of the said gaol, and put in chains on board a small French schooner, bound to Point-a-Petre, the deponent lying all the passage (about sixty hours) with eight prisoners more, chained to the same bar, in the hold of said schooner, upon the stone ballast, with a very scanty and indifferent food; that having arrived in such a situation at Point-a-Petre, the deponent was immediately put on board one of the prison-ships in the harbour, where he was detained for near eight months, that is to say, until the 1st inst. (January, 1796) when Captain Wheeler, of the brig Peggy, of New-York, having obtained permission to pick out American sailors, that might be found on board of different prison-ships, came along side the ship where the deponent was detained; that having made his case known to him, he, the said Captain Wheeler, took the deponent along with him, and put him on board the said brig Peggy; that on the 11th inst. or there about, the deponent went in said brig from Point-a-Petre, and arrived in this harbour of Gustavia, yesterday, the 13th inst. without yet knowing what has become of his vessel, the brig Jay, her cargo, or any thing belonging to her, and without ever having been heard, either in behalf of said property or of him