Christophe Vuillaumes efterslægt - Christensen, Erichsen ...

ut to endeavor to kill all hands and take the brig from me. The number I took on board was twenty six, mostly
black, and of the lowest class. I then immediately lost all confidence in the principals, and determined to save
the brig and cargo by getting her into the first port; and I succeeded in getting her in here on the 20th of
September, and on the next day the brig arrived that I took the passengers out of. Both vessels were taken
possession of by the orders of the Governor. After various examinations and questions, the Mary was given
up; but the other brig is still in the hands of Government, with her cargo, which I believe will be cleared in a
few days - at any rate, the cargo. Since we have been here there have been continual disputes and contention
among the passengers, myself, and Mr. Reid; some will have one thing and some another.
I have determined to abandon the expedition, and save the brig and what cargo is left, as, in my opinion, there
is but little confidence to be placed in any one, and great deception. The General at this time is confined; for
what, I cannot say; the rest of the principal officers are rambling about, but not permitted to leave the place.
The Mary's cargo is all out, and I shall take in for home in two or three days. All the cargo I had on board when
we arrived here was the flour, beef, pork, bread, and saddles, with some trifling articles, as everything else was
put on board the brig Endracht at the Five Islands. I will conclude by observing, that the deception practised by
the General almost exceeds the bounds of belief; for the resources and funds which he so repeatedly declared
that he possessed in the West Indies were totally false, and every thing that he has said in relation to the
expedition has proved a chimera of the wildest nature; and I cannot but believe him to be a foolish old man,
whose ideas are almost obscured by age; and that he wanted not only the abilities to command, but a
knowledge of the place to which he was destined, as his ignorance of the latter was only exceeded by his
incapacity for the former.
AARON BURNS.
Mr. THOMAS WATTSON
Robert Tillotson to the Secretary of State.
NEW YORK, January 23, 1823.
SIR: I have the honor to enclose an extract from a communication on the subject of the expedition in part
fitted out in this port against the Spanish island of Porto Rico. Delicacy to those who have been good enough
to give the information prevents me from accompanying this statement with the names of my informants.
Should you, however, deem it necessary that a disclosure, on the authority of their names, should take place, I
am authorized to say it shall be done.
Why this expedition eluded the vigilance of our public officers may in part be explained by that vigilance not
being necessarily excited by a shipment that did not, in fact, develope its character until it left this port.
With great respect, &c.
ROBERT TILLOTSON
Hon. J. Q. ADAMS, Secr‘y of State
\[EXTRACT\]
Early in the month of August last, or thereabouts, there appeared in this city a Mr. Vogel, representing himself
to be an agent of General William Henry Ducoudray Holstein, by him furnished with power to raise men and
officers, and obtain supplies of arms and munitions of war, for the purpose of revolutionizing a Spanish
colony, the name of which, for prudential motives, was concealed, until it might be more expedient to disclose
it; at the same time representing that the object in view had the sanction, through her agent in Philadelphia, of
the Colombian republic, under whose flag, and in conjunction with whose forces, it was to be carried into
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