Christophe Vuillaumes efterslægt - Christensen, Erichsen ...

American vessel. This vessel was our consort the Mary, the captain of which, refusing to take on board any of
the passengers from the Endracht, (though informed that she was in danger, and had but one boat on board)
was compelled by the threats of the troops on board this last vessel, being within half musket shot, to bring to
for that purpose; but in this attempt to compel that assistance so inhumanly denied, however warrantable by
the law of self-preservation, no American, we affirm, was engaged, and as no organization of the troops had
taken place, they could not, had they been so inclined, have prevented it. Some of the passengers in the Mary
from Philadelphia had signed, as they informed us, a declaration of independence; but the same was never
seen by the subscribers, \[to this communication,\] and the first and only copy of General Ducoudray's
proclamation seen by us was on our homeward passage in another vessel, and was the same of which a
translation appeared in the public prints. During an alarm occasioned by the appearance of the United States
sloop Cyane, which was taken for a Spanish frigate, a bundle said to contain proclamations was brought on
deck with intent to throw it overboard; but the Mary, being to windward of us, was first boarded by an officer
from that ship, and stating us to be a vessel in distress under her protection, the Cyane stood upon her course,
and the proclamations were again carried below. On our arrival at Curaçao, a Spanish admiral in that place
demanding that an inquiry should he instituted into the nature of the expedition, such an inquiry accordingly
took place; and circumstances appearing to justify such a measure, General Ducoudray and Mr. Irvine, who, as
we understood, had signed the proclamation as Secretary of State, were arrested. The papers of the Endracht
having been discovered at once to be forged Dutch papers, she had been already confiscated; but the master of
the Endracht having succeeded in proving (as he himself informed the subscribers, who have since seen him in
this city) the cargo of that vessel to be American property, shipped at New York and Philadelphia, it was given
up, as was the brig Mary and cargo, which had also been libelled; nothing having occurred in the proceedings
of the court (before the departure of the Mary) to show her connexion with the expedition.
The subscribers know little further of the proceedings of this court (which was still in session when they came
away) than that, to our very great surprise, we heard that General Ducoudray and Mr. Irvine had there asserted
that they had the sanction of the United States in preparing such an expedition; in relation to which, we can
only say that such a thing had never been mentioned to us; but only that they had the authority of Don Manuel
Torres, the Colombian agent at Philadelphia, and (he dying before the completion of the scheme) of his
successor, Mr. Duane; for which reason we consider the assertion which we have above alluded to as
ungrounded, and only intended to answer some private purpose of the General and his secretary.
Extracts from a letter of Mr. Robert M. Harrison to the Secretary of State, dated St. Bartholomew's, 16th
September, and received at the Department of State 14th of October, 1822.
―I have the honor to inform you that there is an expedition, consisting of the following vessels under the
American flag, now at anchor in the Five Islands, for the purpose of going against Porto Rico, viz: schooner
Andrew Jackson, of and from New York, captain's name unknown - cargo flour, salted provisions, and
munitions of war; brig Mary, of and from Philadelphia, Burns, master, laden as above; schooner Selina,
Sisters, master, cargo the same as the others; the Dutch hermaphrodite brig Endracht - that is to say, she hoists
Dutch colors, but, in reality, has no papers, being a prize to a Colombian cruiser, which came here originally
under the American flag: all these vessels are apparently under the direction of a Captain William Gould, who
pretends that he is under bonds to the amount of $150,000.
―The chief of this expedition is a person of some celebrity, by the name of Ducoudray de Holstein; and Ï am
sorry to say some citizens of the United States are engaged in it, not only of splendid talents, but who have
heretofore held honorable and confidential situations under our Government, and who, I fear, will be forever
lost to the country.
―I have been the more particular in detailing this affair to you from the circumstance of its originating in the
United States, and its being prosecuted under that flag.
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