484 FOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC, [Maich, 
hundred and thirty-one. On the thirtieth of July following, the 
Harriet, Captain Davison, of Stonington, was taken while in har- 
bour. On the seventeenth of August, Captain Carew, com- 
mander of the schooner Breakwater, also of Stonington, while on 
shore, was arrested and confined, and on the next day his vessel 
was seized : he was compelled, against his wishes, to embark in a 
British vessel bound to Rio Janeiro, but his vessel was recaptured 
by the crew. On the nineteenth of August, Captain Stephen 
Congar, of the schooner Superior, belonging to the city of New- 
York, was arrested and imprisoned — his vessel seized, and his 
crew confined. 
The seizures were attended with many outrages of a piratical 
character. The crew of the Harriet were put in close confine- 
ment; her papers were seized, and a part of the cargo was sold, 
without condemnation or legal' process. While Davison and 
Congar were in confinement, this civil and military governor com- 
pelled them to sign a contract, by which they became obligated to 
proceed with one of the vessels to the western coast of South 
America, to catch seals on his account : without condemnation, 
he substituted himself forcibly in place of the owners, and com- 
pelled the imprisoned shipmates to obligate themselves, by oaths, 
" not to do any thing to prejudice his interests ;" and to agree that 
any deviation from this compulsory contract should be considered 
" as a breach of faith," and that no law should liberate them from 
such penalties and forfeitures as he should impose upon them ; 
" thus attempting (in the words of Mr. Baylies) to secure his own 
piratical interests from the operation of the laws, by oaths of his 
own devising." Without bringing them to trial for their alleged 
offences, he compelled them to agree to enter his service for his 
private and personal benefit, using his civic and military powers 
to extort from them a written obligation in the shape of a mer- 
cantile contract, to go beyond his pretended jurisdiction to catch 
seals on his account. The Superior and Captain Congar v/ere 
selected for this service. 
Seven of the crew of the Superior had been left on Staten-land, 
who were engaged in taking seals there, and were to be taken off 
at the end of six months, for which time they were supplied with 
. provisions. Congar was prevented from relieving them, by being 
compelled to go directly through the Strait of Magellan to the 
