which is affirmed on Oath by the two Merchants I summoned, as being well acquainted with such matters. This is all with which I can acquaint your Excellency, who will better judge by perusing the annexed Act of Survey. God preserve your Excellency.

The Juiz d'Alfandega,

LEOCADO. FER. DE GOUVEA PIMENTEL BELLEZA.

His Excellency Pedro Joze da Costa Barros.

(Enclosure 2.)—Mr. Consul Hesketh to the President of the Province

of Maranham.

MOST EXCELLENT AND ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,

Maranham, July 7, 1826.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's Letter, dated the 6th instant, transmitting a Copy of the Report from the Ouvidor da Commarca, relative to the Survey on the Negroes brought by the Schooner Nove de Março.

I have to inform your Excellency, that, under all the circumstances connected with the arrival of that Vessel, it is impossible for me to found, on the above-mentioned Report, a satisfactory Statement of that Case, for the information of His Britannick Majesty's Government; the said Report not stating precisely from whence, on the Coast of Africa, the Negroes were originally brought, and nothing shewing that those Negroes were proved at the Custom-House to be such as the Passport allowed the importation of; it being, on the contrary, ascertained, that some Cacheu Negroes arrived in the Nove de Março.

The notorious improprieties committed at the Deposit of the Negroes by the Carolina will account why, in that Case, I imposed on myself the disagreeable task of representing such conduct to your Excellency, and will also shew that some of the subordinate Authorities have been regardless of their duty, when executing your Excellency's Orders for the due fulfilment of the Slave-trade Treaty with Great Britain.

By such conduct on the part of some of those Authorities, it has been attempted to defeat the common object of your Excellency's sincere wishes, and of my humble exertions.

I, however, trust, that I shall not now be refused your Excellency's ready and most availing assistance to ascertain, satisfactorily, the exact Voyage of the Nove de Março; so that the Reports of the Case in question sent to the Court of Rio de Janeiro and of London, where your Excellency and myself are respectively responsible, may afford at both those Courts reciprocal satisfaction.

Feeling, from such reasons, confident of your Excellency's support, I make the following 4 solicitations; the first, for a Copy of the Survey on the Negroes landed from said Schooner: the second, for Copies

of the Passport, and of the Muster-Roll; the third, for permission to see the Negroes myself; and the fourth, for permission to see the Logbook of the Nove de Março, and to have that Vessel measured. I have the honour to be, &c.

H. E. Pedro Joze da Costa Barros.

ROBERT HESKETH.

(Enclosure 3.)—The President of the Province of Maranham to Mr. Consul Hesketh.-(Translation.)

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,

Maranham, July 8, 1826. I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of the Letter you addressed to me on the 7th instant, relative to the Schooner Nove de Março; and, in answer to its contents, I state that I have this day given the requisite orders to the "Ouvidor da Commarca," that he may satisfy you with what you require from me in that Letter. God preserve you. Robert Hesketh, Esq.

PEDRO JOZE DA COSTA BARROS.

(Enclosure 4.)—Mr. Consul Hesketh to the President of the Province of Maranham.

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND EXCELLENT SIR,

Maranham, July 9, 1826.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's Letter of yesterday's date, and request your Excellency will be pleased to embargo the Canoe Vencedora, on board of which there are several Cacheu Negroes brought by the Schooner Nove de Março. I have, &c. H. E. Pedro Joze da Costa Barros. ROBERT HESKETH.

(Enclosure 5.)—Capt. Machado to Mr. Consul Hesketh.-(Translation.) MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR, Maranham, July 9, 1826.

His Excellency the President, Acting Military Governor of this Province, has charged me to transmit to you the Letter of the Acting "Ouvidor da Commarca," to whom was sent the one you addressed to His Excellency, in order that, by investigation, the needful measures might be taken. God preserve you.

Robert Hesketh, Esq.

JOAO CARLOS MACHADO.

(Enclosure 5, A.)-The Ouvidor da Commarca to Captain Machado. (Translation.)

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,

Maranham, July 9, 1826. I HAVE received your Letter, and with it a Copy of the one transmitted to His Excellency by the English Consul, in order that at the sight of it, or of its contents, I should inform His Excellency thereof.

As soon as I received it, I directed my Orderly to go for the Master of the Canoe Vencedora, in order to ascertain from him if there were any Cacheu Negroes on board; the Orderly, however, returning,

told me, that the said Canoe was, at 10 o'Clock, already out of the Port bound to that of Caxias. This is all I am able to acquaint you with. God preserve you.

LEO. FERREIRA DE GOUVEA PIMENTEL BELLEZA. The Most Illustrious Sn". Joao Carlos Machado,

Captain and Aide-de-Camp.

(Enclosure 6.)—Mr. Consul Hesketh to the President of the Province of Maranham.

MOST EXCELLENT AND ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,

Maranham, July 10, 1826. HAVING yesterday morning, the 9th instant, requested your Excellency to stop the Canoe Vencedora, with several Cacheu Negroes on board, brought by the Schooner Nove de Murço, and the said Canoe being in this Port when your Excellency received my Letter, and continuing an hour after within such distance as to be easily stopt in the manner adopted by your Excellency in many other instances; and your Excellency having refused such my request, adopting instead the proceeding of ordering the "Ouvidor da Commarca" to investigate the matter, whose answer, stating that the Vessel had departed, I received several hours after my application to your Excellency it follows that, instead of receiving any assistance from your Excellency, in the requisite steps to ascertain the exact voyage of the Nove de Março, your Excellency has refused me the means of bringing forward an undeniable proof of the false Entry made at the CustomHouse by the Master of the said Vessel.

Although an investigation with that important object was commenced with the knowledge, and under the sanction, of your Excellency, still 30 of the Negroes, by that identical Vessel, were allowed, without any demur, to leave this Port yesterday morning, by a regular Licence from the Commander of the Police; and these 30 Negroes were found by the Person I sent on board the Vencedora, concealed in the hold. On the 30th ultimo, I informed your Excellency that 3 others of the Negroes, by the Nove de Março, were on board of the Graça; but in both instances the Negroes have been allowed to be removed from the reach of proper examination, and it is very possible that many others of the Negroes in question, have, without my knowledge, been also removed with the same view.

If your Excellency be not determinined to oppose all fair and effectual investigation of this Case, and if your Excellency does not despise the sacred obligations of a Treaty between the two Crowns, your Excellency will take effectual steps to bring back to this City those Negroes landed from the Nove de Março, who have been sent into the interior of the Province, and who, I now most solemnly certify to your Excellency, are all Cacheu Blacks.

But should your Excellency disregard this my last appeal, and continue in a course of measures totally ineffective for the attainment of the just and requisite investigation I have requested, your Excellency will then force me, in the due discharge of my duty, to transmit to the proper quarters, not only the most unpleasant Representations, but also the most serious Protests. I have, &c.

H. E. Pedro Joze da Costa Barros.

ROBERT HESKETH.

(Enclosure 7.)-The President of the Province of Maranham to Mr. Consul Hesketh.-(Translation.)

SIR,

Maranham, July 12, 1826.

I HAVE before me your Letter, which I received at 1 o'clock on the 10th instant.

Without bestowing on it much reflection, it shows itself labouring under two defects, which ought to have been kept from it; they are these: a want of correctness in some of your assertions, and the little propriety in the manner of expressing yourself, notwithstanding studied circumlocutions to soften the harshness of some terms, against which the respectful decency due to the Authority with which His Majesty The Emperor has been pleased to invest me appears to oppose itself.

In that Despatch you state, that having asked me to embargo the Canoe Vencedora, with a quantity of Cacheu Negroes on board, who had arrived in the Schooner Nove de Março, I refused that request, adopting the measure of ordering the "Ouvidor da Commarca" to proceed in an investigation of the Case, and that you only received my Answer, declaring that the Canoe had departed, four hours after you made the communication to me.

Putting aside the novelty of your pretension to prescribe to me the exact time for answering your Letters, which, is clearly inferred from the manner of your expressions, it behoves me to state, that it was communicated to me, that the Canoe Vencedora had already left the Port, which rendered useless any immediate measure; besides which, the Canoe departing into the interior of the Province, where, in whatever place she may be, my Orders being effective, it follows that they will co-operate for ascertaining the truth of the Case in question.

It moreover behoves me to declare to you, that Presidents of Provinces are not competent Authorities to make Embargoes; those Acts are operations of the Judicial Power; and it was in consequence of the force of the "Carta de Ley" of 20th October, 1823, regulating the Presidencies of the Provinces, and marking out the limits of their powers, that I consigned to the proper Magistrate that duty and the competent Investigations.

It is therefore a very sinister inference when you assert, that, instead of receiving assistance to ascertain the true voyage of the Schooner Nove de Março, I have refused the means of producing an

undeniable proof of the false Entry of the said Schooner; that arrogant inference is not deducible from the competent Orders which I issued for an Investigation on that Case; it is entirely opposite to such Orders.

You cannot avoid the confession, that Investigations are commenced under my sanction and by my orders; but, as you wish to blacken every step in this Case, you assert that, notwithstanding, 30 of those Negroes were, without hesitation, allowed to depart in the Canoe Vencedora, with Passports from the Commander of Police.

Nothing can be imputed against that Military Commander, who has long since been intrusted with the power of granting Passports of that kind, to facilitate the transport of Slaves to the Interior of the Province, and certainly it was not declared to him that they belonged to the Schooner Nove de Março; and I consider in the same light the 3 Slaves you mention, who were not condemned as implicated in the prohibited Traffick.

The Passports of the Nove de Março are clear, from Cabinda to this Port, and it is those Passports which regulate the Place from which the Slaves are taken; and it is only to the Places from which it is proved Negroes are taken, or at which such fitting out is effected, that the Treaty and the Prohibitions it contains refers.

I have before me the Treaty of 22d January, 1815, and, in the 1st Article, the exclusive reference to locality is clear, while the Nationality of the Slaves is lost sight of, because it expressly declares," that it is prohibited to every Subject of the Crown of Portugal to buy Slaves, or traffick in them at any Place on the Coast of Africa to the Northward of the Equator;" so that it is the Place where such Traffick in Slaves is carried on that characterizes the Traffick as licit or illicit.

This disposition is confirmed in the 2d Number of the 2d Article, in the Additional Convention on the said Treaty, dated 28th July, 1817, which, while specifying the Territories in which it is lawful for the Crown of Portugal to carry on the Traffick of Slaves, expressly mentions Cabinda as one of those Places; and it is therefore from Cabinda, according to the Passports granted with the legal formalities, that the Slaves in question were brought: and the 6th Article of that Convention declares, that, in order to legalize the detention of Vessels carrying Slaves, it is indispensable that there be found on board Slaves taken from those Ports on the Coast of Africa, where the Traffick is prohibited by the Treaty dated 22d January, 1815.

The Law, specifying the Penalties for the Infractions of the Treaty and of the Additional Convention, dated 26th January, 1818, is only directed against those Persons who may fit out and prepare Vessels for taking away from, or purchasing Slaves at, any Ports on the Coast of Africa situated to the North of the Equator, and has no reference to