Africa and the American Flag

by Andrew H. Foote

The British commissioner, of the mixed commission under the treaty between Great Britain and Portugal for the suppression of the African slave-trade, also furnished a list of suspected slavers which had claimed American nationality.

On the 25th of March, the commander requested the English captain to give him a detailed account of the circumstances attending the capture of the barque Navarre, by her B. M. steamer Fire Fly.

He asked for this information, as the Navarre was boarded when under American colors, although displaying Brazilian colors when captured.

In reply, the English captain informed him that the slave barque Navarre, seized under the Brazilian flag, on the 19th instant, had the American ensign flying at the time she was boarded. The boarding-officer having doubts of her nationality, in consequence of her papers not appearing to be regular, he himself, although ill at the time, considered it his duty to go on board, when, being convinced that her papers were false, he informed the person calling himself master of her, that it was his duty to send him to the American squadron, or in the event of not falling in with them, to New York. The master immediately went on deck and ordered the mate to haul down the American ensign—to throw it overboard—and to hoist their proper colors. The American ensign was hauled down and thrown overboard by the mate, who immediately hoisted the Brazilian ensign. A man then came on deck from below, saying that he was captain of the vessel; that she was Brazilian property, and fully fitted for the slave-trade; which the person who first appeared acknowledged, stating that he himself was a Brazilian subject. Having obtained this from them in writing, the person who first called himself captain having signed it, and having had the signing of the document witnessed by two officers, he opened her hatches, found all the Brazilian crew below, slave-deck laid, water filled, provisions for the slaves, and slave-shackles.

At this period the agent of a large and respectable commercial house in Salem, Massachusetts, established at Loanda, submitted to the commander of the Perry a copy of the treaty between the United States and Portugal, together with a letter from the Secretary of State, and a paper from an officer of the Treasury Department, exhibiting the commercial rights of the United States under said treaty.

The agent claimed that agreeably to the treaty, a portion of the duties were to be remitted when a vessel arrived direct from the United States; which claim had not been acknowledged at Loanda, on the ground that the vessels were in the habit of touching at the native ports, while the agent insisted that as these ports were not recognized as within the jurisdiction of a civilized government, the Portuguese provincial authorities had not faithfully observed the treaty stipulations.

The subject was referred to the Government.

After remaining a week in Loanda, making proper repairs on the vessel, and refreshing the crew, the Perry ran down the coast to the northward, for the purpose of cruising off Ambriz, a noted slave-station, under native authority, with several factories for legal trade. Arriving at this station the following morning, three English steam cruisers were in sight. The second lieutenant of the Perry was sent to call on the commanding officer of the southern division of the British squadron, who soon afterwards called on board the American cruiser in person.

In a letter, dated the 24th of March, the British commanding officer informed the commander of the Perry, that it afforded him great pleasure to witness the presence of a United States vessel on the southwest coast of Africa, to be employed in co-operation with British vessels in the suppression of the slave-trade. And he therefore took the liberty to transmit, by the officer of the Perry, kindly sent to wait upon him, two documents connected with Brazilian slave-vessels, which had lately come over to that coast, displaying the American ensign, and presenting to the English boarding-officer (as they had proven) fraudulent American papers.

He assured him, that in the necessary examination of these papers, every respect had been paid to the American flag, and the visit made in strict accordance with the treaty between the United States of America and Great Britain; and that it was not until the different vessels had voluntarily hauled down their ensigns and destroyed their papers, stating at the same time that they were Brazilians, that possession was taken of them. He intimated that a letter—a copy of which was inclosed—had been addressed to him by a lieutenant of the “Cyclops,” who had conducted to the Island of St. Helena one of the prizes, on board of which were two American seamen, and that this letter would give some idea of the plan pursued by parties in Brazil, to equip and man Brazilian slave-vessels.