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to disclose the name of my vessel nor mine, not wanting to stay there more than two days, the time necessary to get my rudder fixed to enable me to go to my port of destination, New Orleans. The visiting officer came on board and I told my crew that they must say that we were French from Havana, bound to Havre de Grace, and that instead of calling me Pelletier they should call me Letellier. To the captain of the port I said the same, and told my supercargo to write in my name a letter to the commanding officer of the place, telling him the state of distress of my vessel, telling him that my intention was only to repair so far my vessel, so as to enable me to proceed on my voyage; and that I would not infringe in any way upon the rules which he would be pleased to dictate. He came next day on board with all his officers and made a report which he made me sign; visited the whole ship, and then told that he was going to write to the French consul to let him know that I was there, and insisted that I should write to said consul. I was afraid that if I refused he would be suspicious; at the same time I was afraid that the consul would come down to Fort Liberty. I therefore got a note written by my supercargo telling the French vice-consul that my vessel was French, calling her the Guillaume, which was William in English, but that I had been obliged to come into that port by the distress of my vessel, but that I would be going out the day after, as I did not mean but to fix my rudder. That night one of my men, the boatswain, of the name of Miranda, ran away. He was a man who had tried to poison me and officers to take the ship away from me; and by the statement of the whole crew I discovered afterwards that he had shipped with me only with that intention, and he has stated that he had promises from the authorities of this place to give him the vessel, and make him an officer in their navy. He had even made offers to some of my men if they would help him, that they would be liberally rewarded by the Haytien authorities. Having run away with one of my boats, he went and made a declaration against me to the authorities of the place, stating that I had come there with intention of stealing negroes. I received next day an order from the commanding officer of the place that I must go ashore with my papers to prove my nationality, but I answered that it was impossible for me at that moment to go on shore, that my rudder was on my deck fixing, and that it was against the law for me to leave my ship in that state, but that I would as soon as my rudder should be in place. About two o'clock in the afternoon, a boat of mine having come back from shore where I had sent them on duty, reported to me that the authorities had stopped them, taken my boat and examined the men, and after a great many questions let them return to the ship. I then wrote to the commander of the place that I did not know why he should have used hostile means against me or my men, and that I had just been informed by my boat's crew that they had been stopped, and therefore I was determined not to have any farther intercourse with the shore; to do me the favor to let me know if I was indebted on shore that I would send the money, as I should certainly leave the port that day. An answer came late that evening that I must not move from where I was, and that if I did I would have to bear the consequences. At two o'clock in the morning, having a very little land breeze, I got under way to get out of that port, to save my vessel from them. I got so far as the last point of the river, and I expected that two minutes would put me out to sea, when the wind died away, and the currents put me against a bank of stones, where I was obliged to lay. In the morning I received a letter from Mr. Menean, French viceconsul at the cape, telling me to come up immediately to their place with my papers and prove my nationality, as he knew I was the American bark William, and that my name was Pelletier. The bearer would not take any answer from me, and as my ship was ashore I could nor would leave her, in hope to get her Next day a force of five schooners, full of armed men, about three or four hundred, came along close to my vessel, which was hard upon the rocks, and fired at me, while I was standing on the quarter-deck. I had armed my men

out.

with the intention of defending myself if it was necessary; but first I hoisted a white flag to ask them what they wanted. The officer who commanded that force, and which was composed of part soldiers and part citizens of the place, were all drunk, and when the general came alongside he said to me not to mind them; that they were in a state of drunkenness, and that was the reason why they had fired without orders; that I must go with the vessel up to the town. My ship was gone off by them, taken possession of by them; my papers, private and ship papers, were taken, and I placed in jail in a dungeon, where I was insulted by the people who would come and look at me through the iron bars. When I came ashore the French consul put a pair of pistols on my breast and got me searched. We were obliged to live there in the dungeon for six weeks, living upon the charity of a few persons who sent us some food. At the end of six weeks a schooner of about ten tons came from the cape to take us away; we were put in irons and placed in the hold of that vessel, six of us into a space of six feet square, until we arrived at the cape, where we were marched between a file of soldiers and in the midst of a few thousand people, which abused us throwing stones at us. There again we had to live upon public charity, until we were again placed in irons, put on board the same schooner, bound to Portau-Prince, where we arrived, and were made to walk with heavy irons of the length of a foot, about two miles, the blood running down our heels, produced by the irons. One of my men being sick, fell to the ground and could not get up again; then they took him by the legs and dragged him until they left him as dead in the yard of the jail. All we who claim to be Americans were put into the "secret "* and in irons, and I am still in the "secret;" and the little food they give me I am always afraid is poisoned. I know that they are determined to have my life and my vessel, which they have now in their possession, destroying everything. The examination of witnesses in my case has been totally illegal, so far as facts have been obtained by threats and that before me; therefore I protest against a trial without jury in whatever country it might be, as illegal and unjust. I claim the American protection, and refuse to accept Haytien authorities as competent over the American citizen and vessel; and that the French and English consuls had positively declared to the Haytien government that I ought to be judged in the United States. I committed no crime on Haytien territory, neither murder nor kidnapping nor theft, nor attempted to commit crime, and that consequently Hayti has no right over me or my vessel; that I recognize only the United States authorities over me; that it is a world-known fact that Haytien justice against white men has always been partial, and finally that Hayti is not even recognized by the United States.

I am ready to answer before an American court of justice any questions they might please to ask me, and to submit to their judgment. That Haytiens have employed every means against me, legal and illegal-irons, ill treatment, want of air in a tropical climate, insults-and that I consider such treatment as murderous attempts on my life, being only accused and not yet condemned. But they applied such tortures upon me as no civilized nation applies to condemned men. I claim justice for myself and the vessel confided to me from the United States of America, as having a right to it; as I am an American citizen, and it being the duty of the United States government and all its officers to protect American citizens against unlawful pursuits and treatment, and to protect American vessels. And that unlawful and foreign force is upon me to destroy the life of an American citizen, and to destroy American property. And I claim the intervention of the United States consul, and that lie be the judge to say if I have to stand before a court for my acts, and that supposed court can only be a United States court, for acts committed on board an American vessel. I claim the intervention of any civilized officer; the momentous circumstances make me suffer for all foreigners. I appeal to all persons or bodies

* Secret means close confinement.

of persons, to all civilized nations or their officers wherever they may be, to say if any civilized people would have tortured me or imposed such sufferings upon me, being only a "prevenu" or in a state of accusation, as this country has done by the great reason that I am a white man, and that they want a sacrifice.

on oath

So made in the dungeon, God as witness, and ready to swear before any duly authorized body or person, that this is verity and nothing but verity, and that this is my own handwriting. So help me God the just.

ANTONIO PELLETIER,

Master of the bark William.

INTO A DUNGEON IN THE PRISON OF PORT-AU-PRINCE,

August 31, 1861.

I, Antonio Pelletier, master of the American bark William, citizen of the United States, duly naturalized in my own name, and in the name of Thomas Collar, United States citizen, chief mate of said bark, belonging to Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, and in the name of John Henry Brown, United States, belonging to Boston, in my own name and in theirs as the only victims of the black plot which against us has been connived, for the reasons publicly expressed by the public prosecutor, that whereas we were belonging to a nation composed only of thieves, robbers, pirates, and intriguants, of which nation the official seals of their consuls must not be recognized, has then consuls of the United States in foreign countries must be considered as before mentioned, thieves and pirates, and that their seals or signatures must not be respected by the jury called to judge us; and whereas we, the undersigned, were deprived of our legal defences by imprisonment, for the only reason that they took our defence; and whereas their own witnesses were not allowed to go on with their own deposition, merely because their statement was establishing our innocence, they were threatened of violence, imprisonment, they had to run to save themselves under the protection of the French consul; and whereas it was alleged in plain court that Mr. Lewis, commercial agent of the United States, close to this government, had protested and reclaimed us and our property as wrongfully and unlawfully taken, he, the said United States representative, was grossly insulted by J. J. Šilavois, public prosecutor, stating that he didn't care if Mr. Lewis, commercial agent of the United States, had protested, and that all the consuls of the United States would protest together, and that the jury must be well aware of what kind of people the United States was composed, and that her consul was no better, and that the jury must not be afraid at any rate to condemn those Americans, as the United States was too busy with her actual civil war to look into the affairs of her citizens abroad, and making them always understand that they must condemn us at any risk, so as to save the republic of Hayti from having to pay very heavy damages for their illegal robberies of the bark William of all her chattels and things, and of all the barbarous treatment which since six months we are the victims, as more fully detailed in my formal protest; and whereas by the indignities and insults heaped upon American citizens and upon the representatives of the United States, and likewise upon the assurance of J. J. Silavois, the public prosecutor, that for the safety of the republic of Hayti they must condemn only the United States citizens belonging to said bark, at the same time assuring them of the impunity of their verdict, naming what it must be for each of us-death to the captain, and five years of chain and hard labor to Thomas Collar and John Henry Brown, and that they must not be afraid, that the United States was too busy with her actual civil war to lose time in coming to demand satisfaction for having unlawfully and cruelly spilt the blood of her citizen, and unmercifully and unjustly condemn others to chain and hard labor for five years, depriving them of life, liberty, property, and good name.

And whereas according to the advices and commands to the jury with his reason before mentioned, the said jury obeying the said dictation of said J. J. Silavois, public prosecutor, the said jury rendered their verdict, condemning Captain Pelletier to death, Thomas Collar to five years of chain and hard labor, John Henry Brown and Urbain Castay to the same pain, and that the French crew, eight in number, were judged innocent and set free.

But whereas upon the rendition of said verdict, one Madam Lacolet, née Ducreu, alias Madam Elize, alias Madam Urbain Castay, alias, since yesterday only, Harriette Tyrel, celebrated in Paris as Limonadiere, and in Havana known as the Violett of Parma, witness for the accusation, set out in loud crying, Why have you condemned my lover Urbain Castay, she interpelling J. J. Silavois, public prosecutor, General Carrier, commanding Port-au-Prince, and others? Have not I done all which was requested of me on condition that Urbain Castay should be liberated? Have not I delivered my body to you and my soul to perdition on condition that I should help you to condemn those men, showing us and upon your promise of saving Urbain Castay, my lover, to-day? I am an object of disgust in this city. I have rendered myself criminal before God and before man. I have helped to condemn those poor innocents, and I have been tempted by you to commit those crimes to save Urbain Castay, and I fool, fool that I was to believe you, when your real motives was only to satisfy on one side your filthy animal passions, and on the other your barbarous and cruel vengeance against those poor Americans.

And whereas upon those loud recriminations before mentioned, Madam Lacolet, alias &c., &c., &c., General Carrier, J. J. Silavois, and others, jumped up to stop her so as not to allow the public to be acquainted with the vile, low, and contemptible means which they had employed to bring about my condemnation, and that the condemnation of Urbain Castay was only to be used as a cloak, as the public was murmuring a great deal; and moreover, that their private connection between her and them was the object of the public gossip all over the city of Port-au-Prince; but as soon as my condemnation would go into effect he would go with his free pardon, and her with her bribe money, and that, in the mean time, he would be furnished with comfortable quarters, where she could visit him night and day whenever she pleased.

Therefore, in virtue of all the injustices, unlawful means, and even beastly actions, lies, duplicity, perjury, imprisonment of my legal adviser and defender, threats employed against their own witnesses who wanted to declare the truth that I was innocent, the breakage of seals, and the abstraction thereof of all my important papers, which could have easily proved my innocence if it had been in my power to exhibit them in court, and if my defenders had not been imprisoned, put there only for the purpose to prevent them from defending me, or if even public prosecutor and judges had allowed their own witnesses for the prosecution, and had not threatened them to jail and other punishment if they would dare to say one word, although on their oath to tell the truth, one word, I say, which would have proved me not guilty.

And whereas since my condemnation I am chained up as a mad dog, shut up in a filthy dungeon, deprived of air so necessary in this tropical climate; whereas Thomas Collar and John Henry Brown are detained in a filthy dungeon, with the worst which Hayti can produce, chained up thieves, robbers, and assassins; and whereas they are ready to swear before God and man that they are innocent, and that they have not committed any crime, nor had any idea or thought to commit one, and before any court of justice they should have been acquitted on a primitive examination, and even in a court of Hayti, where it is so generally known that a white man does not receive justice, if it had not been for the reason and motive before expressed; we, citizens of the United States, only victims of the blackest of plots, we would have been free as well as the French citizens, eight in number, crew of the bark William.

I, therefore, Antonio Pelletier, master of the bark William, do protest in my name and in the name of Thomas Collar and John Henry Brown, United States citizens, for the reasons and facts shown not only in this protest but in many other protests made before this at different dates, which copy were duly served upon the United States commercial agent of this place, and other foreign public officers, showing them with proofs the abominable conspiration and plots of which we were the victims, at the same time giving them the low means employed to obtain our condemnation, deprive us of our liberty, and inflicting on us abominable and inhuman torments which might cause our death, which the authorities of Hayti were determined to obtain lawfully or unlawfully, so as to serve their vile and mean purposes of all those facts, I do protest before God and man, my life ebbing every day through the bad treatment and the tortures imposed upon me daily to obtain as aforesaid a death, to be called a natural one, for the purpose before mentioned, and at the same time of the deprivation of air which, in this tropical climate, is so necessary to the health and life of a northern man, which, without it, he must die miserably: I, therefore, in my name, and in the name of Collar and Brown, do protest against those whose duty and obligation is to protect us against the dark inquisitorials, torment unjustly inflicted upon us, which would not be permitted if justly defended.

I do, moreover, protest in my name, and in that of Collar and Brown, against all those white men, our own race, public or private individuals having been notified by me through my former protests, which was declaring with proofs to them that we were to be sacrificed by the colored race, not as criminals justly condemned, but as victims of one race against another, and demanding protection of every white man, which said protestation came before their eyes; and that is why we do protest against all those who might have given us protection and did not, rendering them responsible for the unjust torments which we have received, and are receiving, for our death and blood, which might have been spared if helped in time. Putting our trust in God the just, we bow our head, and submit to his will. Men having abandoned us, may God Almighty in his mercy help us.

ANTONIO PELLETIER,

Master of the American bark William.
THOMAS COLLAR,

Chief Mate of said bark.

JOHN HENRY BROWN,
Sailor of said bark.

Mr. Roumain to Mr. Seward.

[Translation.]

HAYTIEN LEGATION,

Washington, July 28, 1863.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have the honor to send you a memorial concerning the affair of Captain Pelletier, of the bark William, in conformity with the wish expressed by your excellency in the conversation I had with you on this subject.

Please accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurance of the respectful consideration with which I have the honor to be your very humble and very obedient servant, ERNEST ROUMAIN.

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