I inclose to you a translation of the Note which was addressed upon this subject by the Spanish Secretary of State to Sir Henry Wellesley, on the 1st of December, 1819.

As it is therein stated to be customary, that the Spanish Secretary of State should sign Commissions of this description, and that his signature is sufficient to give to the proceedings of the Spanish Commissioners the same validity as would be imparted to them by the Royal Sign Manual, there need be no further hesitation on this point.

I am,

&c.

His Majesty's Commissioners.

CASTLEREAGH.

(Inclosure.)—The Duke de San Fernando y Quiroga to Sir H. Wellesley.-(Translation.)

SIR,

Palace, 1st December, 1819. I HAVE laid before the King, my august Master, your Excellency's Note of the 24th November last, in which, on account of the difference existing in the mode of appointment of the Spanish and British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, (and consequently at The Havannah) that of the former being signed only by His Majesty's First Secretary of State, while that of the latter is made out under the Royal Sign Manual, your Excellency requests that a decision may be taken by the Spanish Government, whether the appointment signed by the said Secretary is sufficient to give to the proceedings of the Spanish Commissioners the same solemnity and validity as would be imparted to them by the Royal Sign Manual-and His Majesty commands me to reply to your Excellency, that, according to the practice and usage of His Cabinet, with regard to such Commissions, the signature of His First Secretary of State gives all the necessary force to the proceedings of the Spanish Commissioners in the present instance, since the date of their nomination; by which declaration all further apprehension must be precluded with regard to the difference in the powers of the Mixed Commissioners alluded to in your Excellency's aforesaid Note.

I avail myself, &c.

L. EL DUQUE DE SAN FERNANDO Y QUIROGA. The Right Hon. Sir H. Wellesley.

No. 20.-Viscount Castlereagh to His Majesty's Commissioners. GENTLEMEN,

Foreign Office, 6th February, 1820.

I HAVE the honour to acquaint you that the Count de Palmella, the Portuguese Envoy at this Court, has announced to me, that the Governors of the Kingdom of Portugal have, in virtue of the authority delegated to them to that effect by His Most Faithful Majesty, nominated Messieurs Joao Jacomo Altavilla, and Joaquim Cesar de la Figaniere, to form part of the Mixed British and Portuguese Commission at Sierra Leone, the first mentioned Gentleman as Commissary

Judge, and the second as Commissioner of Arbitration, on the part of His Most Faithful Majesty.

These two Gentlemen, who are now at Lisbon, will take their departure by the first convenient opportunity; probably by one of His Majesty's Ships, if, without injury to His Majesty's Service, the Ship can touch at Lisbon to accommodate them with a passage to Sierra Leone. I am, &c.

His Majesty's Commissioners.

CASTLEREAGH.

No. 21-His Majesty's Commissary Judge to Viscount Castlereagh. (Received 13th February, 1820.)

My Lord,

Sierra Leone, 10th October, 1819.

I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that, after having waited with anxious hope for the recovery from severe illness of my Colleague Don Francisco Le Fer, and finding that there was little chance (as the result has proved), of his being speedily in a state to attend to any business whatever, both Mr. Fitzgerald and myself deemed it necessary to solicit Don José Camps to act for him as Commissary Judge on the part of His Catholick Majesty, in taking cognizance of the Capture and Detention, by the Morgiana, of the Spanish Schooner Nuestra Senora de la Regla. M. Camps at firstdeclined to act in any shape in the business, but at length, after having stated the grounds on which he would agree to sit at the Board, he met us, Mr. Fitzgerald and myself, and proceeded in conjunction with us to the Adjudication of the Vessel, the Case of which was rather intricate, owing to there being but one Slave on board at the time of her Capture.

For your Lordship's information, I have the honour to inclose herewith a Copy of the Case and Condemuation (which took place on the 13th ultimo) of the Spanish Schooner above alluded to, as also a Copy of the conditions which Don José Camps insisted on before he would proceed to the Adjudication of that Vessel.

I have further the honour of stating to your Lordship, that Captain Strong sent into this Port another Prize on the 3d instant, the Spanish Schooner Fabiana, which he captured by the Boats of the Morgiana on the 18th ultimo, after a long chace, in latitude 4 deg. 10 min. N. and longitude 7 deg. 52 min. W. with 13 Slaves on board.

The Case of the Fabiana, which, with a Copy annexed thereto of the Condemnation of that Vessel, I have also the honour of inclosing for your Lordship's information, is so clear in stamping the voyage with illegality, that no question could arise as to the Sentence which we ought to pronounce, and the Sentence of Condemnation was accordingly pronounced unanimously.

In your Lordship's Dispatch, under date of the 9th of June, addressed to Mr. Fitzgerald and myself jointly, it is desired, that in re. porting our proceedings here for the information of His Royal Highness's Government, we should send to your Lordships Copies or Ab

stracts of the evidence on each Vessel brought before our Board for judgment, in order to put His Royal Highness's Government in possession of every possible intelligence and Document that may be of service on the subject of the Traffick in Slaves. Your Lordship's commands on this, as on every other occasion, will be strictly attended to. If the Abstracts of the Cases of the two Spanish Schooners, the Nuestra Senora de Regla and the Fabiana, which I have now the honour to inclose, should not be deemed sufficient for the information of His Royal Highness's Government, I shall, on receiving such notification, immediately send Copies of all the original Documents found on board the captured Vessels, as well as Copies of the answers to the Interrogatories, and every other sort of evidence that may come before the Court. I have, &c.

Viscount Castlereagh, K. G.

THOMAS GREGORY.

(Inclosure 1.)—Recapitulation of Evidence in the Case of the Nuestra Senora de la Regla.

THE Captain of the Morgiana, maketh oath as to the facts of the Capture of the Nuestra Senora de la Regla, on the 10th of August, 1819, in 4 deg. 43 min. N. latitude, and 9 deg. 3 min. W. longitude, and to there being 1 Slave on board; and that when the Schooner was captured, the Captain of her was at Petit Bassa, where he was supposed to be treating for his cargo, and purchasing Slaves for his

return.

Bora, the Negro, who was found on board the Schooner, and in consequence of which she was detained, swears, through the interpretation of 3 of his Countrymen, that he was sent on board as a Slave, and treated as such whilst there.

Mr. W. Winnet, Midshipman of the Morgiana, maketh Oath, that the Second Mate of the Schooner the Nuestra Senora de la Regla, repeatedly declared to him, that their standing into Petit Bassa for the Captain would be of no use, for, on his seeing the Morgiana, he would know what was the matter, and would run into the bush. Mr. Winnet further maketh Oath, that he is decidedly of opinion the Schooner had no need to put into Petit Bassa for repairs; that the repairs could have been done at sea, that there were materials on board for the purpose, and that he himself with 10 Seamen could have put her in a state, in a few hours, to proceed to any Port to the South of the Equator.

Mr. H. S. Head, Lieutenant of the Morgiana, maketh Oath, that on the 14th of August he was sent by Captain Strong to endeavour to bring off from Petit Bassa the Captain of the Schooner, with a view that he might have an opportunity to give reasons why she should not be brought away, but could not succeed.

The declarations of the 2 Mates and the Boatswain belonging to the Schooner Nuestra Senora de la Regla will go for very little, as it

cannot be supposed that they should criminate themselves. They allege, that she put into Petit Bassa to repair her damages, but they were forced to allow that a Negro had been brought on board at that Place; they could not, however, say whether he was or was not a Slave.

J. Millet, the Second Mate, allows, that before the Schooner reached Petit Bassa the dry goods were opened and arranged in the Cabin.

Mr. Seymour, the Harbour Master and Pilot, a Person conversant in shipping, and well acquainted with Petit Bassa, having frequently been there; and Mr. Simmons, the Shipwright, were commissioned by the Court to go on board the Nuestra Senora de la Regla, and examine into her situation, as to the damages which the 2 Mates and the Boatswain allege she had sustained. Mr. Seymour maketh oath that the damages in question were not such as to make it at all necessary to put in any where to repair-that Petit Bassa was not a place where any repairs could be made; and moreover that the repairs might easily have been done at sea, there being sufficient materials on board for that purpose. Mr. Simmons corroborates on oath the whole of Mr. Seymour's statement, except that of Petit Bassa not being a place fit to repair into this he could not speak, never having been there.

Case of the Schooner Nuestra Senora de la Regla, Santiago Mazana, Master.

THIS Vessel was fitted out at The Havannah, and furnished with a Royal Passport, and with all the other requisite Documents in due form for a Trading Slave Vessel going to the South of the Equator.

She was captured on the 10th of August, 1819, in North Latitude 4 degrees 43 minutes, and West Longitude 9 degrees 3 minutes, by His Majesty's Ship the Morgiana, Captain Strong, and brought to Sierra Leone on the 19th of the same month for Adjudication.

The Master of the Nuestra Senora de la Regla, was not on board of her when she was taken possession of he had been left 7 or 8 days before at Petit Bassa, from whence it appears the Vessel was driven to sea in a gale of wind.

There was one Slave found on board when the Schooner was captured.

The two Mates and the Boatswain of the Schooner allege that the motive for the Captain's anchoring off Petit Bassa was to repair the damages they had suffered on the Voyage from The Havannah. But it is clearly proved by the annexed evidence of Mr. Winnet, the Midshipman of the Morgiana, Mr. Seymour, the Harbour Master and Pilot, and Mr. Simmons, the Shipwright, that the damages sustained were not of such magnitude as to make it at all necessary to put in any where before they might have crossed the Equator-that there were

plenty of materials on board to repair those damages-that they could have been repaired better at sea than at Petit Bassa, and consequently the Captain must have had other motives than those alleged for going to that Place of notorious Slave dealing: he had been there before, and was acquainted with Sambo, the Chief, a known dealer in Slaves. Petit Bassa is in about 6 degrees North Latitude, and about 9 degrees West Longitude: the Schooner was captured about 56 miles to the South of that Place, where the Captain was landed-and near 20 degrees, or 1200 miles distance (counting the Latitude and Longitude together) from any Port to the South of the Equator, where she could have legally traded for Slaves.

It may be necessary here to take notice, that there was no regular Log-book found on board-as the book given in as such by Captain Strong was any thing but a Log-book; and the unintelligible scrawl subsequently produced by the first Mate, goes to nothing, except that it states the time of the Schooner's having been at anchor off Petit Bassa, to be nearly 3 days, whereas the 2 Mates and the Boatswain had before declared on oath that they put to sea again the day after they had first anchored.

Lieutenant Head's oath, that he was sent in the Morgiana's Boat by Captain Strong when that Ship stood close into Petit Bassa, accompanied by the Schooner, to invite the Captain of that Vessel off to defend his Cause, and the Captain declining such an invitation, is the strongest presumptive proof that his Cause could not be defended.— And, under all the circumstances of the case, I feel myself bound to declare, it is my decided opinion that the Nuestra Senora de la Regla was engaged in an illicit Traffick in Slaves; if my opinion is erroneous I am happy to think it will be set right by those of more experience and better judgment-by my Colleagues: but I feel no diffidence in the Decision which I am about to pronounce, namely, that the Vessel and Cargo ought to be condemned.

THOMAS GREGORY.

(Inclosure 2.)-Sentence of the Mixed Commission, in the Case of the Nuestra Senora de la Regla.

Court of the British and Spanish Mixed Commissions, Sierra Leone.

Before Thomas Gregory, Esq. Commissary Judge, and Edward Fitzgerald, Esq. Commissioner of Arbitration of His Britannick Majesty, and Don José Camps, Commissioner of Arbitration of His Catholick Majesty The King of Spain, (Don Francisco Le Fer, His said Catholick Majesty's Commissary Judge being unable to attend through severe sickness.)

Present, Daniel Molloy Hamilton, Esq. Notary Publick, Registrar.