a partial and too precarious remedy; Government only declaring the unlawfulness of the pretended Artigan flag, can put an end to these evils and restore by that the course of mutual intimacy between our two nations. This is what I have the honor to put under his eyes with the most perfect confidence in his feelings and wisdom. Accept, &c., JOSEPH CORREA DE SERRA. No. 16. Mr. J. Q. Adams to the Chevalier de Serra. WASHINGTON, April 22, 1819. SIR: I had the honor of receiving from you a letter dated the 11th of December last, stating by the precise orders of your sovereign that the armed vessel, called the Irresistible, had been committing depredations and outrages on the coast of Brazil, and that, from the depositions taken there of various persons who had been on board of that vessel, it appeared that her commander, John Daniels, was of Baltimore, and all her crew were Americans. It has come to the knowledge of this Government that, within a very few days, John D. Daniels, supposed to be the person mentioned in your letter, has returned to the United States, and is now at Baltimore. The attorney of the United States for the district of Maryland, under instructions from this Department, will commence a prosecution against him if evidence shall appear sufficient for convicting him of having violated the laws of the United States, by outrages committed upon any of the subjects of Portugal. I have the honor of giving you this notice in reference to your letter above mentioned, and of requesting you to give directions that any testimony which may be material for the commencement of a prosecution, and which it may be in your power to indicate, may be made known to Elias Glen, the district attorney of the United States, at Baltimore, who is directed to prosecute, conformably to the laws, any person against whom the evidence obtainable shall be sufficient to warrant his conviction. Your letter has hitherto remained unanswered only because the person complained of having been without the jurisdiction of the United States, no measures could be taken to bring him to trial. I avail, &c., JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. The Chevalier de Serra to Mr. J. Q. Adams. PHILADELPHIA, November 23, 1819. SIR: I have the honor of submitting to you the following facts and considerations : During more than two years I have been obliged by my duty to oppose the systematic and organized depredations daily committed on the property of Portuguese subjects by people living in the United States and with ships fitted in ports of the Union, to the ruin of the commerce of Portugal. I do justice to and am grateful for the proceedings of the Executive, in order to put a stop to these depredations, but the evil is rather increasing. I can present to you, if required, a list of fifty Portuguese ships, almost all richly laden, some of them East Indiamen, which have been taken by these people during the period of full peace. This is not the whole loss we have sustained, this list comprehending only those captures of which I have received official complaints. The victims have been many more, besides violations of territory by landing and plundering ashore with shocking circumstances. One city alone on this coast has armed twenty-six ships which prey on our vitals, and a week ago three armed ships of this nature were in that port waiting for a favorable occasion of sailing for a cruise. Certainly,. the people who commit these excesses are not the United States, but nevertheless they live in the United States and employ against us the resources which this situation allows them. It is impossible to view them otherwise than a wide-extended and powerful tribe of infidels, worse still than those of North Africa. The North Africans make prizes with leave of their government, according to their laws, and after a declaration of war; but these worse infidels of whom I speak make prizes from nations friendly to the United States, against the will of the Government of the United States, and in spite of the laws of the United States. They are more powerful than the African infidels, because the whole coast of Barbary does not possess such a strength of privateers. They are numerous and widely scattered, not only at sea for action, but ashore likewise to keep their ground against the obvious and plain sense of your laws, since most generally wherever they have been called to the law, they have found abettors who have helped them to invade the laws by formalities. I shall not tire you with the numerous instances of these facts, but it may be easily conceived how I am heartily sick of receiving frequent communications of Portuguese property stolen, of delinquents inconceivably acquitted, letters from Portuguese merchants deeply injured in their fortunes, and seeing me (as often as has been the case) oppressed by prayers for bread from Portuguese sailors thrown penniless on the shores after their ships had been captured. The Executive having honorably exerted the powers with which your Constitution invests him, and the evil he wished to stop being found too refractory, it would be mere and fruitless importunity if I continued with individual complaints except by positive orders. This Government is the only proper judge of what constitutional depositions or arrangements may be established for the enforcement of the laws, and he alone has the means of obtaining them, which are constitutionally shut to any foreign minister; I trust in the wisdom and justice of this Government that he will find the proper means of putting an end to this monstrous infidel conspiracy, so heterogeneous to the very nature of the United States. Before such convenient means are established the efforts of a Portuguese minister on this subject (the only one of importance at present between the two nations) are of little profit to the interests of his sovereign. Relying confidently on the successful efforts of the Government to bring forth such a desirable order of things, I choose this moment to pay a visit to Brazil, where I am authorized by His Majesty to go. My age and my private affairs do not allow much delay in making use of this permission, and I intend to profit by the first proper occasion that may offer. The arrangements for my departure will require my personal exertions, and it will not be consequently in my power to make an early or long residence in Washington this winter. As soon as I shall be able, I will present myself there to pay my due obeisance to the President of the United States and my respects to you. SIR Mr. Joachim Barozzo Pereira, appointed by my sovereign consulgeneral of Portugal in these United States, is arrived in Philadelphia, and has shown to me his commission, accompanied by the official communication from the minister for foreign affairs. I have, consequently, the honor of presenting him to this Government in that capacity, and request the exequatur of the President to his commission. I present also Mr. Henry Hutton, as vice-consul of Portugal in the port of New Orleans, and all the others of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, and request the necessary exequatur. Permit me, sir, to profit of this occasion to offer my thanks to this Government for the law that prohibits the entrance of privateers in the most important ports of the Union, and for the other that declares piracy the landing and committing outrages ashore on foreign lands. I acknowledge the salutary influence of the Executive in obtaining these ameliorations. The courts of justice also seem to take a more adequate view of the practices about which I have been forced to importunate [156] this *Government by my reiterated complaints. At least, henceforward, those who engage in such pursuits will have in prospect a lesser chance of impunity. Undoubtedly, the aforesaid provisions will diminish the evil, but something remains still to be done to suppress it entirely. In the full persuasion of the sincere wishes of this Government to put a final stop to practices so contrary to the friendly intercourse between our two nations, I propose to have the honor of submitting to your consideration my views on this subject, in the occasion of personally paying my respects to you, and taking my leave, previous to my visit to the Brazils. I beg, &c., JOSEPH CORREA DE SERRA. No. 19. The Chevalier de Serra to Mr. J. Q. Adams. [Translation.] PHILADELPHIA, June 8, 1820. SIR: I think it my duty to represent to this Government that the Portuguese ship Montalegre was brought to Baltimore twenty-two months ago, a prize to a so called Artigan privateer, and has been all this time the subject of litigation with the Artigan captors, American citizens. Past things are not intended to be in any way the object of this communication, but merely the prevention of future evil. In the 1st of this month this ship was sold by judicial authority in Baltimore, under the hammer, to Captain Chase, a notorious privateersman, standing under an indictment for piracy. It is to be immediately fitted as a privateer (and a formidable one it will prove by its size and strength, which are those of a good frigate) to cruise against the Portuguese Indiamen, and the command of it to be given, as it is assured, to the notorious Captain Taylor. I have not the least doubt that the supreme Executive of this nation has both the power and the will of putting a stop to this hostile armament, particularly when, as in this case, he has timely information which will be successively put under his eyes, at every stage of this inimical attempt on the Portuguese commerce. I beg, &c., JOSEPH CORREA DE SERRA. No. 20. The Chevalier de Serra to Mr. J. Q. Adams. [Translation.] WILMINGTON July 16, 1820. SIR: I am ordered by my sovereign to lay before this Government the names and value of nineteen Portuguese ships, and their cargoes, taken by private armed ships, fitted in the ports of the Union by citizens of these States. The values have been ascertained by the proper courts of justice, and revised with all care and attention by the royal board of commerce. In proportion as the value of the other ships stolen is in the same manner ascertained, their names, and the amount of losses, will be laid before this Government. His Majesty, consistently with his friendly and equitable sentiments toward the United States, wishes that this affair be treated with all that candor and conciliating, dignified spirit that becomes two powers who feel mutual esteem and have a proper sense of their moral integrity. In this spirit I have, the honor to propose to this Government to appoint commissioners on their side, with full powers to confer and agree with His Majesty's ministers in what reason and justice demand. It is not expected that a Government who, in every occasion, has so steadily and nobly protected the just pretensions of his own citizens, like that of the United States, may have the least difficulty in concurring with such candid views of a sovereign who feels, equally with them, what he owes to himself in the protection of his subjects. The ships are the following: 1. D. Pedro de Alcantara. 2. S. João Baptista. 3. D. Miguel Forjàz. 4. Sa. Maria Vencedora. 5. Thalia. 6. S. João Protector. 7. Monte Alegre. 8. Louisa. 9. Logo the Direy. 10. Lord Wellington. 11. Ninfa de Lisboa. 12. General Sampaio. 13. Perola. 14. Paquete de Porto. 15. Conde de Cavalleiros. 16. Globo. 17. Carlota. 18. Flora. 19. Sra. da Piedade. The amount of their value which is reclaimed is 492,918 milreas, which, at the common and general rate of milreas in your market, is equal to $616,158. I am proceeding to an excursion in the mountains, at the end of which I intend having the honor of seeing you in Washington. The reason of my mentioning this is because a written answer, which you might possibly give to this communication, would naturally miss me. SIR: I have had the honor of receiving your notes of the 4th and 8th ultimo. The exequaturs for Mr. Pereira, as consul-general of Portugal, and of Mr. Hutton, as consul at New Orleans, and the other ports of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, have been made, and transmitted to you. The acts of Congress to which you refer, in the first of these notes, may be justly considered as affording the most decisive proofs of the determination, both of the legislature and the Executive, to discharge, witb the utmost fidelity, all their duties toward friendly nations, and particularly toward that whose representative you are. In remarking that the section of the statute for the further punishment of piracy, which brings the landing and committing acts of robbery on a foreign shore within the definition and penalties of that crime, was obviously suggested by a case of that description which had occurred in a Portuguese island, I take satisfaction in the assurance that your Government will perceive in that provision a proof of the earnestness with which the United States cherish the most friendly dispositions toward your country. It will give me pleasure to receive any further communication, verbal or written, from you, which may contribute toward the same effect; and I am authorized to assure you that, upon the information contained in your note of the 8th instant, such measures have been and will continue to be taken, under the direction of the President, as are within the competency of the Executive, and may serve to maintain inviolate the laws of the United States applicable to the case. I avail, &c., JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. No. 22. The Chevalier de Serra to Mr. J. Q. Adams. [Translation.] WASHINGTON, August 26, 1820. SIR: In consequence of the wish you expressed in our last interview, I have the honor of transmitting to you the names of the officers of the Navy of the United States who, in October 1818, embarked and served on board the armed schooner General Artigas, Captain Ford, under the |