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I am informed that Captain Antonio Pelletier, an American citizen, and captain of the American bark William, is now imprisoned by order of the gov ernment of Hayti at Cape Haytien.

In order that I may see and communicate with him at a suitable and convenient place, I have to ask of this government to facilitate to me the means of doing the same at an early day.

I have the honor to be, sir, with the highest consideration, your obedient

servant,

General A. DUPUY,

Secretary of State for Foreign Relations.

B. F. WHIDDEN.

No. 3.

Mr. Whidden to Mr. Dupuy.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Port-au-Prince, Hayti, November 21, 1862.

SIR: Your letter of the 19th is received, and in answer I would say: In order that I may see Captain Antonio Pelletier in person, his transfer from the prison at Cape Haytien to the prison at Port-au-Prince is the only feasible way that is within my knowledge.

Please accept, sir, the assurances of my high consideration.

General A. DUPUY,

B. F. WHIDDEN.

Secretary of State for Foreign Relations, &c., sc., sx.

No. 5.

Mr. Whidden to Mr. Dupuy.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Port-au-Prince, Hayti, December 17, 1862.

SIR: I learn that Captain Pelletier, of the bark William, has arrived at Port-au-Prince. I would like to have an interview with him, and you will do me a favor in sending him to my residence under such a guard as may be proper in his case. I would name 9 o'clock to-morrow morning as the time. Accept, sir, the assurances of my high consideration.

General A. DUPUY,

Secretary of Foreign Relations, &c., &c., &c.

B. F. WHIDDEN.

No. 7.

Mr. Whidden to Mr. Dupuy.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Port-au-Prince, Hayti, December 25, 1862.

SIR: Your note of the 18th of December, announcing that Captain Pelletier would be conducted before me for an interview, according to my request, has been received, and I have accordingly seen him.

His arrest, imprisonment, and treatment, together with all the circumstances attendant upon the same, have been communicated to the government of the United States.

I have the honor to be, sir, with the highest consideration, your obedient

servant,

General A. DUPUY,

B. F. WHIDDEN.

Secretary of State for Foreign Relations, &c, &c., &c.

No. 9.

Mr. Whidden to Mr. Dupuy.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Port-au-Prince, Hayti, January 5, 1863.

SIR: It becomes necessary for me to see Captain Pelletier, of the bark William, in regard to certain papers of his which were taken from him on board the said bark.

You will do me a favor by sending him to this legation to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock. It will not be necessary to send such a retinue with him as came before. He will not run away.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

General A. DUPUY,

B. F. WHIDDEN.

Secretary of State for Foreign Relations, &c., &c,, &c.

No. 11.

Mr. Whidden to Mr. Dupuy.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Port-au-Prince, Hayti, January 23, 1863.

SIR: I called your attention, some time since, in an interview for that purpose, to the condition of Captain Pelletier, who is in prison in this city. I am informed there has been no change made in his case. He is suffering from disease contracted in prison, and subjected to cruelties in personal treatment.

As soon as this state of things comes to your knowledge I am satisfied you will cause it to be corrected.

I ask that an investigation be made immediately into his condition, which I know you will cheerfully cause to be done, and that such corrections be made as humanity requires.

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No. 18.]

Mr. Seward to Mr. Whidden.

DEPARTMENT of State,
Washington, April 6, 1863.

SIR: I have given the subject of your despatch, No. 11, my consideration. From your statement, it appears that (in 1861) the American bark William, Captain Pelletier, an American citizen, sailed from Mobile to Carthagena on a legitimate voyage, and with regular papers. There she discharged a part of her cargo, and shipped more. At Grand Cayman she landed a sick passenger, with her husband, and incidentally disposed of a portion of her cargo, sailing thence for Port-au-Prince, her proper destination. At that port she discharged the residue of her cargo, but before sailing some of her crew were imprisoned for larcenies on board the bark, and in the course of proceedings the captain became involved with the authorities. Finally, the vessel having received her crew, sailed again, but when near Fort Liberté she put in there in distress, when one of the crew who had been imprisoned deserted, and informed the authorities that Captain Pelletier had landed for the purpose of carrying away men into slavery. He was thereupon arrested, with his crew, ironed, and cast into prison. He was tried, and condemned to death, two of his crew to imprisonment, the remainder were discharged, and the vessel, with all the property on board, general and personal, was sold at auction.

You state that at the trial Captain Pelletier demanded through his counsel leave to introduce evidence of his innocence, which was denied him. His call for the bark's register and other papers, all in the hands of the government, which would, as he claims, have established his innocence, was disregarded, and finally, the court of Cassation set aside the sentence of death, and commuted it to five years' imprisonment, which punishment he is now suffering.

You seem to have devoted yourself with praiseworthy zeal to a full investigation of this case, and I would accept your unqualified conclusions of the injustice. and irregularity of the proceedings in the matter as warranted by the facts, if I were satisfied that you were possessed of all the information upon the subject which has been laid before this department.

I think it proper, therefore, before instructing you to make any official interposition in Captain Pelletier's behalf, to invite your careful attention to the accompanying copy of a despatch from G. Eustis Hubbard, United States consular agent at Cape Haytien, dated April 13, 1861, which, with the accompa nying papers, will show you not only that that gentleman was convinced of the unlawful character of the enterprise contemplated by Captain Pelletier, but will also disclose many important facts which seem to have warranted the conclusions he adopted.

You will please to renew your examination of the case in the light of these papers, and report the result to this department.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

B. F. WHIDDEN, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

No. 41.]

Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Seward.

COMMERCIAL AGENCY OF THE U. S. OF AMERICA,
City of Cape Haytien, April 13, 1861.

SIR: I have the honor of informing you that the American bark William, of New Orleans, Captain Antonio Pelletier, has been seized by the Пaytien authorities at Fort Liberté, a small closed seaport about 20 miles east from this city, as a slaver and under very suspicious circumstances.

that

From all the reports and evidences which I can collect, it would appear the bark William, after a very roundabout and apparently illegitimate voyage on the Spanish main and among the West India islands, arrived, on the 21st of January last, in Port-au-Prince, where the master entered his vessel as coming from New Orleans, although he could show no regular clearance from that city. This irregularity was passed over, and the vessel duly entered in the customhouse at Port-au-Prince; there she was suspected of being a slaver, which suspicion was substantiated by the written evidence of several of her crew and passengers, and the proofs were so strong that the authorities of Port-au-Prince visited and searched the vessel, but, contrary to law and usage, without having advised the United States commercial agent of the facts and their proceedings. There were found on board 20 pairs handcuffs, 12 six-barrel revolvers, 4 rifles, 1 pistol-revolver with poignard attached, and 2 kegs of powder, certainly a very large amount of arms and ammunition for a vessel in a legal trade-and in the hold a large number of beams, cross-bars and planks, water casks, (the report is for more than one hundred of the latter,) and a large quantity of provisions. The handcuffs were taken away and delivered to the government. After these proceedings, Captain Pelletier declared that his vessel had been seized, the American flag trampled upon, and abandoned her, demanding a large amount of money as damages; thus matters were arranged by the United States commercial agent at Port-au-Prince with the government, and after Captain Pelletier had sold some goods, which it would appear had been shipped on board the vessel as freight in Carthagena, to be delivered in Rio Hache, and taken a few tons of logwood, he left Port-au-Prince on the 20th of February. About the number of crew employed on board the William I have no definite information, but from all accounts it is very large, not less than 20 men of all nations, but principally runaway Frenchmen and Spaniards. As far as I can learn, the real object of Captain Pelletier in going to Port-au-Prince, and which he endeavored to effect there without success, was to engage 50 men and six women, Haytiens for the given purpose of working a guano island. When the William left Port-au-Prince she was accompanied off the coast as far as Cape St. Nicolas Mole by the Haytien war steamer, the Geffrard.

On the 25th of March the signal station of this city reported a square-rigged vessel in the northeast; on the 26th I saw the vessel myself from this port, and made her out to be a bark, beating up to windward against a stiff breeze, when, from the position in which I saw her, she might easily have entered into this port in a few hours. For five days she was in sight from the signal station, laying off and on the coast under easy sail, gradually working up to windward, and sometimes anchoring in the small bays and inlets of the coast. One night the vessel anchored in a small bay called Fond-blam, near the village of Caracol, and the next morning a quantity of foot-prints were found in the sand on the beach near her anchorage. Altogether her movements in these environs were very suspicious and extraordinary, and we were here quite at a loss to account for her actions. The same bark was passed near here on the 29th of March by an American schooner bound to this port; in passing, the bark saluted with the French flag; the schooner arrived here at noon the same day, and I enclose herewith an affidavit of Isaac B. Gage, her master, concerning these facts. On the 31st of March the then unknown bark went into Fort Liberté and anchored. I would mention herewith that during the whole time the vessel was in the neighborhood of the cape she might have arrived here in a few hours. On his arrival at Fort Liberté, the master reported his vessel to be the French bark Guillaume Tell, of and from Havre to Havana, and that his own name was Jules Letellier, and stated there that he had got aground on the Silver Keys, and wished to engage a number of workmen to go over there with him and save a portion of his cargo, which he had thrown overboard there to lighten his vessel. The next day, April 1st, he wrote a letter in the French language to

the French-vice consul at this city, stating that his rudder was broken, and that he would arrange it as soon as possible and proceed to this port with his vessel to put himself under his protection; a translated copy of this letter is herewith enclosed. It would appear that on his arrival in Fort Liberté the master of the vessel did his utmost to put himself on a good footing with the authorities and people there, and one day invited a number of persons on board to dinner, treating them with great politeness; and that the inhabitants of that town had not the slightest suspicion about the vessel until the 3d of April, when one of the sailors escaped on shore and made his declaration that she was the American bark William of New Orleans, Captain A. Pelletier, and that the intention of the master was to kidnap a number of Haytiens and sell them into slavery. These statements aroused at once the people of Fort Liberté into action; the national guard was called out, the forts prepared, and the entire population of the town held themselves ready to repress any movement made against them. That same night, Captain Pelletier, finding his plans were discovered, endeavored to escape from the place, but being unacquainted with the channel, got aground, almost under the guns of the fort. The next day, the 4th instant, the French consul of this city arrived in Fort Liberté, and immediately commenced to investigate the case, and wrote a letter to the captain, J. Letellier, (he still keeping up his character as a French citizen, commanding the French bark Guillaume Tell,) requesting him to come on shore and deliver up his papers; this letter remained unanswered, the master verbally refusing to leave his ship. The next day, the 5th of April, the French viceconsul sent another summons on board for the master to come on shore immediately, threatening to employ force if he did not come voluntarily. The master then replied by letter, that he could not leave the vessel until she got afloat; afterwards, finding that hostile steps would certainly be commenced against him if he did not comply with the consul's request, he hoisted a white flag at the main, and addressed a second letter to the consul requesting a safe conduct to shore, which was at once forwarded to him. Copies of the two above mentioned letters from the master to the consul, signed J. Letellier, are in my possession, but their contents are without particular importance. The captain then came on shore; his papers were examined, and his vessel was proved to be the American bark William of New Orleans, commanded by Antonio Pelletier, the same vessel already suspected of having been a slaver in Port-au-Prince. After depositions of the statements of the captain and crew had been taken, they were confined in prison. The vessel was then got afloat, brought back into the harbor of Fort Liberté and anchored near the town; scals were put on the hatches, and a guard of Haytien soldiers placed on board; the papers of the vessel, captain's letters, &c., being deposited in the bureau of the place, together with all the arms and ammunition found on board, the captain's wife was allowed to remain on board, together with the cabin boy and cook.

On the 6th instant, as a last resource, Captain A. Pelletier addressed me a long, open letter, pretending to give an account of his proceedings, and the reasons for his having changed his vessel's name and his own, a copy of which letter is herewith enclosed, together with a copy of my despatch in answer, in which I announce to him that, in consequence of his highly suspicious actions, I do not deem it my duty to interfere in the matter with the Haytien authorities. The letter of Captain Pelletier to me is well calculated to excite sympathy and pity for him in his present position; but, unfortunately for him, his assertions are notoriously untrue. I have proved to him in my letter, first, that it is impossible that he had lost his rudder and false keel; secondly, that he might have arrived in this port at any time from the 25th to 30th March; thirdly, that he knew perfectly well where he was going, and on what coast he was; and, fourthly, that he had piratically employed the French flag before arriving in Fort Liberté. Besides these, he asserts in his letter that the American ensign was floating at

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