Boston, June 30, 1801. CITIZEN COMMISSARY,-As indents of supplies for several departments on board of the corvette Le Berceau are daily presented to me, I wish to call to your remembrance that my instructions from the Secretary of the Navy admit me only in directing the repairs and the equipment, to restore the corvette to the state she was in anterior to her coming into possession of the United States.-I cannot, therefore, you will see, be justified in furnishing any arti cle whatever for her use, that was not on board at that period. If it should at any time happen, therefore, that any article required by the indents should not be immediately furnished, I must beg of you to attribute it to the necessity I feel in adhering to the instructions. In supplying the hammocks and blankets, I probably departed from them; but as humanity required it, my feelings compelled me to furnish those articles.

In any instances where evidence cannot be obtained of the exact quantity, number or quality of any deficient article, I presume a discretion is placed in me to decide what ought to be done. In those instances it has been and will be my disposition to observe a liberal conduct, presuming such to be the disposition of our government. I will state, as an instance, the cordage and sails furnished the cor

vette.

The articles necessary to complete her equipment and stores, that are to be furnished by the United States, being all ready to be delivered, I hope that orders will now be given to receive them on board without delay. As it must be desirable to extinguish the daily expenses of subsisting the crew, joined to my wish that she may be in readiness for sea as soon as possible, induces me to make this request.

I trust that some arrangement will shortly be made for supplying any articles that may be required for the use of the corvette, which I may not feel myself warranted in furnishing; but the want of such articles ought not to protract the operations that are necessary to prepare her for sea. I am, &c.

Mons. Guirard.

SAMUEL BROWN.

Extract of a Letter from Samuel Brown, Navy Agent at Boston, to Levi Lincoln, Esq. without date, but received August 27, 1801.

THE capture was made on the 12th of October, 1800. On the 14th November the corvette arrived here; on the 17th she was libelled and condemned, with her guns, apparel, appurtenances and effects, at the district court in December term, 1800. On the 30th of that month she was dismantled, and sold on the 15th of January last by the marshal of the district; and bought in for the United States by order of Stephen Higginson and Co. I cannot find that there was any property taken on board of her that was not libelled, excepting such as was given up to the officers by the captain of the Boston at the time of capture.

The instructions, I received from the Secretary of the Navy on the subject of her repairs, authorized me" to ascertain the state she was in at the time of her capture as to her armament, stores and provisions, and to cause her to be put in the same condition to be delivered up to the French government." I have presumed it was the meaning of the instructions, though not fully expressed, that the corvette should be restored, in all respects, to the condition she was in immediately anterior to the commencement of the action with the Boston. I have therefore endeavoured, in directing the repairs and furnishing the supplies, to be governed as far as possible by this principle, which I made known to such of the principal workmen employed in the repairs as appeared to be expedient. But an adherence to the rule, with a few exceptions, was soon found impracticable, but every departure produced an expense to the United States; for example, the stays, shrouds, and all the cordage were unavoidably replaced with new for old. The rule of course was violated, as the old was not worth more than two thirds the price of new. The corvette was in this respect therefore placed in a better condition than she was at the commencement of the action; but the United States lost by it the difference in the value of the new and old cordage. This was also the case with her sails, with her masts, spars, tops and caps; with the carpenters work, with the iron work, and with

many other supplies too numerous to be detailed here. Her stores, &c. thus furnished may, I presume, be estimated to be worth on an average thirty per cent. more than the stores they have replaced.

Georgetown, 6 Vindemiaire, year 10. (Sept. 28, 1801.)

It is with much pleasure that citizen Pichon communicates to Mr. Madison the enclosed extract of a letter, which he has just received from governour La Crosse. It will shew the disposition which animates this officer, as well as the spirit in which his instructions are conceived. General La Crosse, in the same despatch, while replying to the instances, which citizen Pichon, as is known to Mr. Madison, had made to him, for indemnifying immediately the five or six cases of prizes, which come within the treaty, opens to him with great confidence, the motives which have induced him to refer the claims for restitution to the government. The 1st is the exhausted state of his funds. The 2d, the obligation, which he really and conscien tiously believed himself under, of referring the question to the council of prizes, which, according to the law whereby it is established, pronounces in the last resort; the prizes in question being posterior to its establishment. The 3d motive is, the desire which he has to receive from government answers to some questions which he had proposed upon this kind of business, his present instructions not being sufficiently particular for him to act upon. The general, besides, assures citizen Pichon of two things: First, That immediately upon the decision of the council being known, he will pursue the captors with all possible severity, Second, That he will himself, as soon as the minister replies to his questions, use all his efforts to indemnify the sufferers.

General La Crosse also advises citizen Pichon that he will be under the necessity of imposing a duty upon the entry and exportation of merchandise from the colony. When the measure is taken, citizen Pichon will be informed of it, and he will communicate it to Mr. Madison, whom he prays to accept his respects.

With the Note of
L. A. Pichon of
Sept. 28, 1801.

Extract of a Letter from Rear Admiral La Crosse, Captain General of Guadaloupe and its Dependencies, to Citizen Pichon, Commissary General, Charge des Affaires of the French Republick, dated 14 Fructidor, year 9, (September 1, 1801.)

"A VERY important object, that of the vessels of the United States carrying away our black cultivators, obliges me to take a very rigorous resolution against those who so audaciously violate the publick law. Lately Lately an American captain took six, which he carried off with him. He was arrested and convicted of the offence. But in taking general measures upon this subject, I thought that I ought to give a proof of the indulgence of the French government towards the subjects of a nation, with which we ought to be intimately connected. I shall be glad, if you will confer upon it with the Secretary of State of the United States, because I am convinced beforehand, that he will find no measures severe enough for punishing such a violation of the laws of our territory. You will do me the greatest pleasure to give me your ideas, and his, upon this subject.

LA CROSSE.

Boston, October 31, 1801.

SIR, I now enclose an account of the repairs made on, and the supplies furnished to the French national corvette Le Berceau, agreeably to your instructions of the 2d of April last, amounting to $32,839 54 cents, to wit: Supplies from publick property $18,345 10 cents, and bills discharged by cash for repairs and supplies, $14,494 44 cents. As some of the indents for supplies were not made out till a short time previously to her departure, I have not therefore been able to furnish the account before this time. I have thought it would be proper, in order to show as fully as possible, the state of her equipment, to begin the account by detailing the supplies furnished from the inventory of the stores purchased with the hull of the corvette by Messrs. Higginson and Co. the late agents; but

presuming the cost of those stores has been forwarded to the navy department, I have supposed it to be unnecessary to carry out a price against them. The supplies furnished from the property of the publick follow next, in the account, to which I have affixed a price. And lastly, the bills for repairs and supplies which have been discharged by cash.

Some of the stores of the inventory of Le Berceau were left on hand after the equipment, which with a quantity of old copper taken from her bottom, have been delivered to major Gibbs, whose receipt is enclosed.

In your letter of the 8th July, you have advised that it would be proper for me to state particularly, by letter to your department, the repairs and supplies received by the Le Berceau at the publick expense. You have also directed to be stated the precise condition she was in, as to her equipment of every kind, on the delivery to the officers appointed on the part of the French Republick to receive her. On the 23d June she was formally delivered up, but, as many of the supplies to her were necessarily made after that time, I conceive the object intended would not be embraced by stating her condition at that period. I think there is no better way of ascertaining the repairs and supplies she received at the publick expense, and the condition of her equipment at the termination of the supplies, than by a reference to the account, which I hope you will think to be sufficiently explanatory. But it may not however be amiss in me, to make some general observations on the subject. I shall therefore say, that the best shipwrights, blacksmiths, caulkers, joiners, mast-makers, riggers, and other workmen in this place, were employed on the repairs, that their work was well executed, and that the materials furnished for the purpose, were of the best kind. That wherever the copper on her bottom appeared to have received any injury, it was repaired with new. In these respects there cannot be a doubt of her being placed in a better condition than she was in at the period immediately anterior to the action with the Boston. Her masts, bowsprit, spars, tops and caps, were all new, and made in the best and most substantial manner. Her shrouds, stays and cordage were also all new, and of the best quality, being made of the finest yarns, excepting about four tons of the latter, supplied from the inventory purchased by the