boat, I was admitted on deck and below. Previously, and with much irritation, the commander peremptorily rejected any less demand or explanations relating to the present situation of the vessels in his custody, which I desired to present, make, and require; but the general observation made was breach of treaties, encroachment of territory, and illicit trade.

I took the liberty to expostulate as to his firing shot, without his jurisdiction, but in vain; he should fire as often, when and where he pleased; got so petulent as to be rude, and use illiberal language; ordered colonel Wyen immediately over the side into his boat, repeatedly. I was admitted to retire with a little more gentleness; I was glad to withdraw from such imperiousness. Shortly after I got on shore, he dismissed one vessel, and the master of the sloop, and his two people, as per list.

The same afternoon he fell down the tide, and went eastward with the other two.

A true report.

LEWIS FRED. DE LESDERNIER.

Collector's Office, Port of Passamaquoddy, Sept. 1, 1807.

SIR,-Since my last of July the 15th, stating the conduct of John Flintoph, lieutenant and commander of his Britannick majesty's armed schooner the Pogge, (or Progui,) accompanied with sundry depositions, &c. in continuation, I take the liberty to state, for the further information of government, some subsequent occurrences relating to a proceeding from these transactions.

The schooner Harmony, of Islesborough, Paoli Hewes, master and owner, which was then captured and carried into St. Johns, New Brunswick, for adjudication, has undergone a rigorous trial, through the court of vice-admiralty, is now returned by a decree of restoration, as may be more fully understood by examining the file of documents accompanying this communication, and were deposited at this office with earnest request they should be forthwith forwarded, together with captain P. Hewes' memorial, protest, letter from his counsel, and an estimate of damages for costs and detention, sustained by this defendant and claimant, in the progress of the business, to which he solicits humbly, due attention and relief.

The other vessel, also carried into St. John's with the above, to wit: the schooner Nabby, of Eastport, John Pace, master and owner, burden about twenty-one tons, licensed to carry on the cod fishery, and employed in importing plaister of Paris, by permit to touch and trade, has been condemned at their court, sold at publick vendue for $60. The owner was so indigent as not to have it in his power to buy her in, and the probability is, she will be burnt-the proceeding in such cases.

I take the liberty to suggest, would it not be judicious, as soon as feasible, to have the boundary line from the mouth of the St. Croix into the bay of Fundy, definitivǝly ascertained, and permanently fixed. Here is a gap, through which all the wild creatures come in and commit depredations on our peaceable and unsuspecting citizens, and alarm us in our most retired moments of rest; not only threatening destruction, but actually throwing shot among unoffending individuals of every sex and age, passing and repassing in their domestick occupations, within the limits of their own peaceful government. This I experienced among others, and narrowly escaped being sunk in the revenue boat; a gun was loaded and repeatedly ordered to be fired into the boat, but the dispensation of Divine Providence, I presume, interposed.

I regret much that I have to make such observations, as well as to find that the imperiousness of the British naval commanders is so correspondent on all our extensive sea

coast.

With sentiments of highest esteem, I have the honour, &c. LEWIS FRED. DE LESDERNIER, Collector of Passamaquoddy.

The Hon. James Madison, Secretary of State.

N. B. See deposition No. 6, formerly forwarded.

No. 7.

Hampton, July 11, 1807. SIR,-Yesterday I applied to the proper authority in this place, for permission to send to commodore Douglass a letter, (which was at the same time submitted to their inspection) the object of which was to obtain a copy of

vice admiral Berkeley's order respecting deserters, and under which the Leopard acted. The result enables me to forward you an exact copy.

I have the honour to be, &c.

The Hon. James Madison.

JAMES BARRON.

By the Honourable George Cranfield Berkeley,

VICE ADMIRAL of the white and commander in chief of his majesty's ships and vessels, employed in the river St. Lawrence, along the coast of Nova Scotia, the islands of St. John and cape Breton, the bay of Fundy, and at and about the island of Bermuda, or Somers islands.

Whereas many seamen, subjects of his Britannick majesty, and serving in his majesty's ships and vessels, as per margin, while at anchor in the Chesapeake, deserted and entered aboard the United States frigate the Chesapeake, and openly paraded the streets of Norfolk, in sight of their officers, under the American flag, protected by the magistrates of the town, and the recruiting officer belonging to the above mentioned American frigate; which magistrates and naval officer refused giving them up, although demanded by his Britannick majesty's consul, as well as the captains of the ships from which the said men had deserted; the captains and commanders of his majesty's ships and vessels under my command are therefore hereby required and directed, in case of meeting with the American frigate Chesapeake, at sea, and without the limits of the United States, to show to the captain of her this order, and to require to search his ship for the deserters from the before mentioned ships, and to proceed and search for the same; and if a similar demand should be made by the American, he is permitted to search for deserters from their service, according to the customs and usage of civilized nations, on terms of peace and amity with each other.

Belleisle, Bellona, Triumph, Chichester, Halifax, Zenobia, (cutter.)

Given under my hand, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and

seven.

To the respective Captains and Commanders of his Majesty's Ships and Vessels on the North American Station.

G. C. BERKELEY.

No. 8.

State of Maryland, Allegany County, ss.

UPTON BRUCE, being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith, that among the servants belonging to his father (Norman Bruce) is a female slave named Phillis, a dark mulatto; that at an early age, she became the mother of two children, as was universally admitted, by a white man named Andrew Ware. This fact was never questioned, and Ware himself never, to my knowledge, denied it. The children passed for, and were admitted to be his, and assumed his name; one was a boy, and being myself older than either of them, and brought up as it were in the same family, nothing like doubt rests upon my mind as to his birth and parentage. I am as well assured of it as I can be of any fact of the kind, and no one that I heard ever presumed to suppose otherwise. This boy was raised upon my father's farm, on Pipe creek, at the mills in Frederick county, and being the child of a slave, was reared with the children of other slaves, and stood upon the same footing. His mother is still living; she it was that nursed him in his infancy, and she he considered, acknowledged, and treated as his mother. When I engaged in the management of my father's property, which I did on reaching the years of manhood, this boy was then about twelve or fourteen years old, and he remained along with the other servants until about the age of twenty, when, in consideration of his colour, the regard I had for his father (then dead) and the desire expressed by that father to have these children liberated, this boy was suffered to go at large, he promising to make some compensation, which never has been done. After leaving me, he was working about the country some few years, employed sometimes as a waggoner, driving a team to and from Baltimore, until at length I learned he entered

on board some vessel and had gone to sea: and this life, I had reason to believe, he persevered in, until for some time past hearing nothing of him, I supposed it probable he might be dead. His appearance, may have changed since I last knew him; he then had his growth in height, and was, as near as I could now guess, about five feet, six or seven inches high, of a slender make, a thin foot, and he bent or stood rather back upon his hams; his face somewhat round, a nose not large, lips not thick, and a chin rather small; his colour was swarthy or Indian like, remarkably bright though for a mulatto, and would pass for something nearer white; his hair was of a darkish colour, inclined to curl, which he sometimes kept tied, and which, upon inspection, would shew to be different from the hair of a white man, and yet far removed from the wool of an African. He went by the name of Romulus, and is, I should imagine, now about the age of twenty-eight or thirty.

Sworn to, and subscribed before me, a justice of the peace for Alleghany county, this eighteenth day of July, eighteen hundred and seven.

THOMAS THISTLE.

State of Maryland, Alleghany County, to wit:

I HEREBY certify, that Thomas Thistle, Esquire, before whom the aforegoing deposition appears to have been made, and who has thereto subscribed his name, was, at the time of taking and signing the same, one of the state of Maryland's justices of the peace in and for Alleghany county aforesaid, duly commissioned and sworn. And to all his acts as such, due faith and credit is and ought to be given, as well in courts of justice as thereout.

In testimony whereof, I have hereto subscribed my name, and affixed the seal of Alleghany county court, this eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seven, and thirty-second year of the Independence of the United States of America.

JOHN LYNN, Clerk of Alleghany county.