No. 88.-H. T. Kilbee, Esq. to Mr. Secretary Canning.-(Rec. Jan. 31.) SIR, Havannah, November 15, 1824. I HAVE been informed that the Note I addressed to the Captain General, under date the 12th September, which was enclosed in my Despatch of the 20th of that month, upon the subject of the decision taken in the Case of the Maria de la Gloria, was by His Excellency communicated to the Marine Department; and that, at a Meeting of the Court of Admiralty held in consequence, it was resolved that the observations therein contained, being made by the British Commissary Judge in his private capacity, and not as a Member of the Mixed Commission in union with his Colleagues, were not entitled to any consideration whatever, and should consequently remain unanswered. This Resolution was transmitted to the Captain General, who, I hear, gave the Court of Admiralty to understand that the object of my Note, as is very clearly expressed, was merely to apprize those concerned of the Report made to my Government upon the Case, and consequently that it did not require any answer. His Excellency, however, has not addressed to me any communication upon the subject. When it first transpired that it was the intention of the Court of Admiralty to make a distribution amongst the Planters and Inhabitants, of the Negroes belonging to the Maria de la Gloria, numerous applications to obtain them were made by persons of all classes, although no notification of that intention had been published. These applications, however, were speedily withdrawn or abandoned, as soon as the discussion which took place upon the Case was generally known, at least by the more respectable part of the applicants; and, when the moment of distribution arrived, it was found necessary to advertise in the newspapers for those who had applied to present themselves. Similar advertisements have been since repeated, the last being dated so late as the 9th instant, and still, I understand, there are many of the Negroes that have not been distributed. Those who have received any of these Negroes in deposit, have paid fifty-one dollars for each; and I am sorry to say, from what I have been able to collect, that they are not generally, of the most respectable classes; and there is too much reason to fear that there will be foul play. Indeed, I have heard, upon good authority, that more than one of the Depositaries have already sold the Negroes confided to them, trusting that hereafter, if ever called upon, they will be able to make such an excuse as will pass. These Negroes, in number four hundred and one, arrived here on the 17th June, and from that time to the first distribution, about the middle of October, which is by far the worst season of the year, only four or five died; if, therefore, a considerable number shall be report ed to have died in the following healthy months, the consequence to be drawn is evident. I have the honour to be, &c. The Right Hon. George Canning. H. T. KILBEE. No. 89.—H. T. Kilbee, Esq. to Mr. Secretary Canning.--(Rec. Jan. 31.) I HAVE the honour to inform you that two of the Vessels which sailed from hence in the former part of the year for the Coast of Africa, namely, the Schooners Nicanor and Tranquilidad, have returned, both nominally from Sisal in ballast, but notoriously from Africa with. cargoes of Negroes, which they landed previous to their entrance into this Port. When I waited upon the Captain General for the purpose of drawing his attention to these Cases, I requested that he would be pleased to inform me what had been the result of the investigation, which he had expressed it to be his intention to order into the Case of the Vessel which was announced to have came from Antigua; to which His Excellency replied, that upon consideration it had appeared to him advisable that I should address a Note to him upon the subject, as being a matter the investigation of which belonged to a Department not under his immediate control. I accordingly addressed to His Excellency the Note of which a Copy is enclosed, in which at the same time that I have studiously endeavoured to avoid as much as possible unnecessarily attributing blame to this Government, I have recorded in explicit but moderate terms my opinion of the barefaced and extensive illicit Slave Trade now carried on with this Island. The Atrevida, Spanish Schooner, Don Isidoro Maxual, Master, sailed on the 5th instant for Princes' Island, on the Coast of Africa. I have the honour to be, &c. The Right Hon. George Canning. SIR, H. T. KILBEE.. (Enclosure.)-H. T. Kilbee, Esq. to the Captain General. Havannah, November 14, 1824. In compliance with the wish Your Excellency has been pleased to express, I shall proceed to make in writing those observations which I. have upon various occasions submitted to your consideration verbally, respecting the practice which prevails of officially reporting, in the "Diario del Gobierno," false places of departure of Vessels well-known. to have come from the Coast of Africa; the investigation of which matter, Your Excellency informs me, belongs to a Department of the Government not under your immediate control. This practice was, I believe, first introduced towards the close of last year, and has latterly become almost universal. Vessels of the de scription I allude to, the names of which I have submitted to Your Excellency at the time of their respective arrivals, being announced as having come from Sisal, and sometimes from the Islands of St. Thomas, of Curaçoa, and even in one instance from the British Island of Antigua, at which Port and Islands, particularly at the last, there is little doubt that they never had touched. In the Reports which I have considered it to be my duty to make to my Government upon the subject of the illicit Slave Trade carried on with this Island, I have always stated the many obstacles which the Authorities have to encounter in their endeavours towards the suppression of that traffic; and I have felt inclined, until the introduction of the above-mentioned practice, to attribute the existence of that evil to the present state of the Law, rather than to other less justifiable causes. Very improbable it certainly was, that Vessels which sailed for the Coast of Africa for the purposes, as they professed, of legitimate commerce, should one after another return in ballast; that others should, notwithstanding, venture to follow their example, and even the very same Vessels sail again for that Coast, and again return, still without one single exception, all in ballast; but, nevertheless, it was possible that they might have taken their measures so well, as effectually to clude the vigilance of those whose duty it was to examine them, and, if possible, detect the illegality of their proceedings. The Case, however, appears to me to be at present different. The Vessels that now sail for the Coast of Africa, although no reasonable doubt can exist of the real object of their voyages, and although upon their return it is matter of notoriety and public conversation, that they disembark cargoes of Negroes on the Coasts of this Island, are notwithstanding officially announced as arriving in ballast from places at which, as I have before stated, there is little doubt they had not touched. No less than 41 Vessels have sailed in the course of the present year from this Port alone for Africa, of which number five have already returned under the circumstances here related; and there is too much reason to believe that the Papers of these have not been examined as they ought to have been. Were the Papers and Crews of such Vessels immediately upon their arrival to undergo a rigid examination, I am confident, that not only would an end speedily be put to the practice alluded to, but the illicit Slave Trade carried on here would be materially checked. I confidently appeal to Your Excellency for the conclusion neces-` sarily to be drawn from the existence of the state of things I have described, the effect of which has been to relieve those engaged in the Slave Trade from all apprehension on the part of their own Government, and to increase that traffic in this Island to a degree credible only to those who witness it. I have the honour to avail myself, &c. His Excellency the Captain General. H. T, KILBEE. No.90.-H. T. Kilbee, Esq. to Mr. Secretary Canning.-(Rec. Jan. 31.) SIR, Havannah, November 28, 1824. SOME days ago I heard a report that the Spanish Privateer Brig, Romano, was off the Southern Coast of this Island with a cargo of three hundred and fifty Negroes, and that she had been seen by the Spanish Schooner of War Bellona, which arrived here on the 19th instant. This Brig, as you will recollect, was formerly reported by me as having sailed from hence under very suspicious circumstances; and your attention has since been called to her in the Case of the Portuguese Brig Maria de la Gloria, which was captured by her on the Coast of Africa. Shortly after I heard the above-mentioned report, I waited upon the Captain General, and requested that he would have the goodness to inform me if it was correct. His Excellency replied that it had been reported to him that the Romano was on the Southern Coast with a cargo of Negroes, which it was her intention to land. That he had consequently issued orders to all the Authorities on that Coast to be on the alert, and to adopt all the means in their power to prevent the landing of the Negroes, or, in the event of their being landed, to intercept them. He also stated that he had heard, though not officially, that the Bellona, during a cruise on the Southern Coast, had seen the Romano at anchor near the mouth of the River Guanimar, and had sent her boat to inquire what vessel it was; and that the Captain of the Romano had replied, that he did not acknowledge any but the Constitutional Government of Spain, that his object was to land a cargo of Negroes, and that if the Bellona did not immediately depart, he would take measures to compel her. The Bellona was accordingly under the necessity of desisting from proceeding any further, her force being very inferior. The Romano mounts 14 guns, and has a Crew of upwards of 150 men; while the Bellona has only 10 guns, and her Crew is, I believe, not complete. The Romano has thus virtually acknowledged herself to be a Pirate, which her actions had sufficiently demonstrated before. I have the honour to be, &c. The Right Hon. George Canning. H. T. KILBEE. No. 91.-H. T. Kilbee, Esq. to Mr. Secretary Canning.—(Rec. Jan. 31.) THE Only answer I have as yet received to the Note which I informed you, in my Despatch of the 15th instant, I had addressed to the Captain General, is that of which a Translation is enclosed, in which His Excellency merely states that he had transmitted my said Note to the Intendant, to whose Department it belonged to adopt the proper measures in the Case. As the Captain General had frequently, and upon one occasion most explicitly, stated to me that the investigation of the abuses, to which I had called his attention, belonged to the Naval Department, I took an opportunity of recalling this to his recollection. His Excellency admitted that that had been his opinion, but stated that, upon further inquiry, he had lately ascertained that, although it was the duty of the Naval Officer, called the Commandant of “ Matricula,” to keep a Registry of the names of the Sailors who arrive in Spanish Vessels, that Officer has no authority whatever to examine them respecting the place of their departure or the object of their voyage:-And that to the Department of the Intendant it exclusively belongs to investigate all Cases of contraband of whatever description they may be, and consequently those of illicit Slave Trade. On the 16th instant the French Brig, Marie, P. Dauret, Master, arrived here in ballast, and was announced to have come from the Danish Island of St. Thomas'; but it is currently reported that she had really come direct from the Coast of Africa with a cargo of upwards of four hundred Slaves, which she had landed on some part of the Coast of the Island, previous to her entrance into this Port. I have the honour to be, &c. The Right Hon. George Canning. H. T. KILBEE. (Enclosure).-The Capt. General to H. T. Kilbee, Esq.-(Translation) Havannah, November 17, 1824. SIR, IN consideration of the motives stated by you in your Official Letter of the 14th instant, and as it belongs to the Department of His Excellency the Intendant to adopt the proper measures, I have transmitted to him your aforesaid Letter this day for the corresponding effects. God preserve you many years. FRANCISCO DIONISIO VIVES. H. T. Kilbee, Esq. No. 92. Mr. Secretary Canning to His Majesty's Commissioners. GENTLEMEN, Foreign Office, March 17, 1825. THE Despatches of Mr. Kilbee up to the 11th of December, 1824, have been duly received. His Majesty's Government have taken into consideration the purport of Mr. Kilbee's Letter of the 20th of September, 1824. His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Madrid has been instructed to make representations to the Court of Spain upon the subject of the maintenance and disposal of Slaves, the cargo of Vessels captured under the Treaty with that Country for abolishing the Slave Trade. Directions have been given by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that the several Tenders which may be detached from a King's Ship in the West-Indian Seas shall each be furnished with the signed Instructions required by the Treaty I am, &c. His Majesty's Commissioners. GEORGE CANNING. |