252 APPENDIX* 



sidering himself as on his parole of honour, not to act 

 against Great Britain until his arrival there, or under the 

 immediate protection of his own flag, free from molestation 

 or detention. 



I do therefore request, that the said heutenant McKnight 

 may be permitted to proceed accordingly ; and should the 

 Swedish brig he now sails in, arrive in England, that he 

 may be allowed to embark from thence for the United 

 States, in such a manner as the lords commissioners of the 

 admiralty, or the commissioners of the transport board, may 

 be pleased to direct. 



Given on board his majesty's ship Phoebe, at Rio de 



Janeiro, this 19th of August, 1814. 



(Signed) James Hillyar, Captain* 



SIR, Hio de Janeiro, 24ih Sept. 1819. 



Without being able to boast of any personal ac- 

 «]uaintance with you, and without pretending to assume an 

 interest in what concerns your funily, beyond that which 

 their public services have entitled all their countrymen to 

 partake of, 1 take the liberty of olfering to you all the in- 

 formation wliich I have been able to collect concerning 

 Stephen Decatur McKnight, your nephew, of the Essex 

 Frigate, whom i liad the pleasure to know in the year 

 1814, and to esteem very highly, and whose probable loss 

 on his way home f never can hear or think of without great 

 sorrow. 



The regard which I and all my family contracted for 

 liim during his short stay with us in that year, induced us 

 I'o make frequent inquiries after him since his departure ; 

 but although we have long had reason to apprehend that 

 some accident had befallen him, W(5 were never able to 

 hear any thing certain of his fate, and that of his companion 

 midshipman, Lyman. 



I was surprised to hear in July from Captain Henly, of 

 the Congress frigate, to v/hom 1 repeated my inquiries 

 about him, that Mr. McKnight's relations had never heard 

 any thing of him after he left this port, and that they be" 

 iieve, that the vessel in which he sailed for England never 

 arrived there. My surprise at being informed that this was 

 their opinion, arose from the following circumstances : 



Having learned in 1816, that neither of these young gen-- 

 tlemen had ever returned to the United States, I inquired 

 at the time, a!id found, nevertheless, that the vessel in 



