186 CASES OF THE PEARL, LORIOT, AND HARRIET. 



orders of the governor, Wind, who at the Battle time arrested his 

 boat's crew, placed him iii close confinement, — subsequently seized the 

 Harriet^ — forced the crew on shore and imprisoned them all, excepting 

 the mate, cook, and steward. The papers of the Harriet and many 

 articles ott board were forcibly taken, and a part of the articles were 

 sold by order of the governor, without formal condemnation or any 

 legal process whatever. 



Having arrested and imprisoned them, in his capacity of military and 

 civil governor, tor violating t ho laws and the sovereignty of this Repub- 

 lic — regardless of the high official character in which ho acted, and the 

 dignity 6f the Government under whose appointment he professed to 

 act — instead Of bringing them to trial tor those offenses, he endeavored 

 to compel them to enter his service, tor purposes altogether personal, 

 and to substitute himself forcibly in the place of their owners. 



The schooner Harriet arrived here on the 20th of November last, under 

 his charge, and is now detained i^as the undersigned has been informed) 

 by virtue of some process emanating from this Government, and her 

 crew (with the exception of 5 who had been liberated by the governor 

 on their agreement to enter his service), were put on board the afore- 

 mentioned British vessel and sent with Captain Carew, and some of his 

 men to Kio Janeiro. 



The undersigned would also call the attention of his excellency the 

 minister of foreign affairs to certain declarations of Hon Luis Vernet, 

 important, as coming from a high functionary of this Government, the 

 military and civic Governor of an extensive region: and if those dec- 

 larations arc to be considered as indicative oi' the sentiments and 

 views of this Government there would be just eause for apprehending 

 that a project was in contemplation involving the destruction oi' one 

 of the most important and valuable national interests oi' the United 

 States — the whale fishery — for ho declared to Captain Davison, that 

 it was his determination to capture all American vessels, including 

 whaling ships, as well as those engaged in catching seals, upon the 

 arrival i^i' an armed schooner, for which he had contracted, which was 

 to carry t> guns and a complement oi' 50 men. 



The undersigned would also call the attention of his excellency the 

 minister to another declaration of the governor, from which an infer- 

 ence is fairly to be deduced, that the citizens of the United States were 

 to be selected as the special victims of his power, while the vessels 

 and Seamen of other nations were to be unmolested, inasmueh as when 

 he was told that the crew oi' the Adcona, a British vessel, had taken 

 many seals on the islands, and some even on the Volunteer Books, at 

 the mouth oi' the sound on which his establishment was placed, his 

 reply was, •• that he could not take an English vessel with the same 

 propriety that he could an American." 



It may sometimes happen that nations may mistake their rights, and 

 may attempt to establish sovereign jurisdiction over unoccupied terri- 

 tories not clearly their own, and to Which their title may be disputed, 

 and other nations, whose rights may be affected in consequence of such 

 assumptions, are not necessarily obliged, perhaps, in the first instance, 

 to regard acts enforcing such jurisdiction as intrinsically and abso- 

 lutely hostile if their operation is equal and indiscriminate; but, if the 



