510 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
governor was sunk in the director : the civil and mihtary escutch- 
eon was removed, and the trader's sign appeared : the sword of 
state was sheathed, and the ruler of boundless regions betook him- 
self to retailing rum, and biscuit, and molasses ! He prides him- 
self on his generosity in suffering the Superior to sail without a 
guarantee ; but he forgets the sealskins in his possession uncon- 
demned, and the penalty of five hundred dollars in the contract. 
He admitted that seven of the crew of the Superior were left on 
Staten-land, but avers that they were provisioned for nine months 
instead of six ; the difference was wholly immaterial, if they were 
not to be relieved at all. He admitted that he arrested five sea- 
men at Eagle Island, instead of four, as alleged by Mr. Baylies ; 
but avfers that only two of them belonged to the shipwrecked crew 
of the Belville. He arrested them (he says) because other Ameri- 
cans, including Davison, had informed him that they were " dan- 
gerous persons, of a disposition to piracy." He found them use- 
ful, and admitted them members of the colony, — whether from 
their- " disposition to piracy" or not, does not appear. He ad- 
mitted the contract respecting the shallop. He admitted that he 
took from these men the sealskins and whalebone ; but says they 
were to be indemnified from their future earnings in his service ! 
He denied that he induced or obliged American citizens to cap- 
ture the vessels and persons of their countrymen — " To effect the 
detention of the Harriet, Superior, and Breakwater (he says), no- 
body was induced or forced, nor was I under the necessity of 
doing it. All the individuals, Americans and of other nations, who 
united in the capture of these vessels, did it because they de- 
sired it, and because it was agreeable to them. All were mem- 
bers of the colony, and, as such, participated in the prizes." This 
is a curious avowal of this civil and military governor. His col- 
ony must have been somewhat hke Morton's at Merry-Mount: 
every man did what seemed right in his own eyes — captured and 
plundered vessels, and imprisoned their crews, not in pursuance 
of law and just authority, but because it was agreeable to them ! 
" Well, then (continues the governor), the fishery was the property 
of the colony ; and if all those who composed it had a right to 
sequestered goods, to make those Americans participators of them 
who were on the roll of the colonists was not to induce them to 
rob their countrymen, but to exercise an act of rigorous justice, 
