THE CASE OF THE BRIG GENERAL ARMSTRONG of grape, round, and musketry; that the officer in charge of the boat repeatedly re quested them to leave off firing as he was not come to molest them, but they continued firing until they had killed two and wounded seven without return fire. The affidavit of the lieutenant in com mand was also obtained, saying that he was ordered with the pinnace or guard boat, unarmed, to go to the Carnation and inquire as to this vessel; that the captain of the Carnation bade him make his inquiries of the vessel "which by information was said to be a privateer ' '; that when they ap proached the privateer they were ordered to keep off or they would fire into her; that he ordered his men to back water and with the boat hook was in the act of so doing when the Americans fired into the English boat, notwithstanding he frequently called out not to murder them; that they struck and called for quarter; that the British made no resistance nor could they make resistance, being without arms, and not sent to attack. He also adds that several Portuguese boats were going ashore at the same time which were said to be armed. The report of the British commander further shows that every American in Fayal was armed and con cealed in the rocks overhanging the brig, and that when the British gained her deck "they were under the painful necessity of return ing to their boats from the very destructive fire kept up by those above them from the shore." According to the official report the British lost thirty-four killed and eightysix wounded. It appears that the defenses of the island were in a miserable condition, and that the governor was incapable of offering adequate resistance to the action of the British. In December the agents of the privateer sent to Mr. Munroe, then Secretary of State, a copy of Captain Reid's protest, and other papers, and said that they be lieved themselves to have an equitable claim against Portugal for the damages sus tained, adding that the cost of the vessel
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and outfit were $30,000. They asked the United States to demand compensation and enclosed the account of expenditures of Mr. Dabney, amounting to $700, chiefly for supplies for the privateer's crew and their passage home. As is well known, the Portuguese court had been driven from Europe, temporarily, and was settled at Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Munroe forwarded to our minister at this place the communication directing him to lay the circumstances before the Portu guese government, and to state the claim of the injured party. This message was sent June 3, 1815. Ten days earlier the Portuguese government had opened cor respondence with our minister at Rio de Janeiro, saying that Portugal had adopted a system of strict neutrality, and that the Prince Regent had heard with the greatest grief of the affair so repugnant to his senti ments and so contrary to established prin ciples, and suggesting that the United States could not complain of the governor, he having done all that h'e could to prevent the conflict; that the Prince Regent regretted this as an attack on his sovereignty, by vio lation of his territory, and had addressed the British minister and ordered his minister at London to make reclamations. The communications made to the British min ister were more fully stated and the "base attempt " of the British commander to as cribe his actions and violence to the acts of the Americans by pretending that in re pelling the British armed barges the Ameri cans were the aggressors, was characterized as " manifest duplicity "; the moderation of the governor was described as censurable, and it would be punished save only that it was to save the island from the ravages of the British. It was stated that the Prince Regent had directed his minister in London to require satisfaction and indemnification for his own subjects and the American pri vateer. Three years seem to have inter vened without redress, then John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, wrote to the
