SURINA M. No. 121.-Messrs. Lefroy & Wale to Visct. Castlereagh.-(Rec. March 30.) (Extract.) Paramaribo, 12th January, 1821. We think it proper to take this opportunity of acquainting your Lordship with the recent death of our Colleague, the Dutch Commissary Judge, M. J. P. Changnion. Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. C. E. LEFROY. April.) No. 122.-Messrs. Lefroy & Wale to Visct. Castlereagh.-(Rec. MY LORD, Paramaribo, 5th February, 1821. We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Letter of the 7th November last, inclosing the Copy of a Note from the Ambassador of the King of The Netherlands, at the Court of London, notifying that The Netherlands Brig the Swallow, then on her Cruize in the West Indies, would be furnished with a Copy of the Treaty of the 4th May, 1818, and of the Documents annexed thereto, on the subject of the restriction of the commerce in Slaves. The Swallow Brig has not yet arrived in this Port, nor have we heard of her being in any other part of the West Indies, and we are extremely sorry to say that a fresh arrival of Slaves, evidently not coming within the exception contained in the Dutch Prohibitory Ordonnance of the 1st September, 1818, and in obvious evasion of the Treaty of the 4th May, of the same Year, have within these few days been admitted into this Colony. We have, &c. Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. C. E. LEFROY. No. 123.-Mes rs. Lefroy and Wale to Visct. Castlereagh.-(Rec. Apr. 17.) We have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Letters of last December. We have communicated the information contained in the first, (viz. the names and description of the Ships of the British Navy, commissioned under the Treaty with The Netherlands, for the suppression of the illicit Traffick in Slaves) to the other Members of our Board; and we shall obey the directions of your Lordship, conveyed in the second, by communicating to your Lordship and to His Britannick Majesty's Representative at Brussels, the name of any British Subject engaged in this trade in violation of the 51st Geo. III. c. 23, whenever the legal evidence, necessary to make such communication available, shall be brought before us. We beg at the same time to observe, that as these importations are almost all under the French Flag, and probably accompanied by regular Documents, purporting the Negroes to be all Creoles, or old imported Slaves of the French Island, from which the Vessel professes to have procured them, although there can be no moral doubt of the contrary being the fact, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to procure evidence of privity to their African origin, sufficiently precise and conclusive against the Parties engaged, to ensure their conviction in a British Court of Justice, or in any way to prevent the continuance of the Slave-trade under this Flag, unless some additional measures for its suppression are taken by the French and Dutch Governments. It is painful to us to reflect, that we have scarcely been able to close a single Dispatch to your Lordship since our arrival, without mentioning some case of the admission of Slaves into this Colony, in evasion of the Treaty in the execution of which we have the honour to be employed; and we are compelled to add to the present, that in spite of the strongest remonstrance which we have thought ourselves at liberty to make to his Excellency the Governor-General, (who in consequence of the death of our late Colleague M. P. I. Changnion, the Dutch Commissary Judge, is now one of the Members of our Court,) 2 Cargoes of fresh Africans, under the French Flag, have been admitted into this Place since the date of our last Letter. We have, &c. C. E. LEFROY. Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. No. 124.-Messrs. Lefroy & Wale to Visct. Castlereagh.-(Rec. May 11.) We have the honour to acknowledge your Lordship's Letter of the 16th November, 1820, accompanied by a Copy of the list furnished to your Lordship from the Admiralty Office, under date of the 11th October, 1820, of such of His Majesty's Ships as are now cruizing, supplied with the Instructions referred to in the several Treaties with Foreign Powers for the prevention of the illicit traffick in Slaves, specifying the Names of their Commanders, and the Stations to which they belong. We have, in obedience to your Lordship's directions, communicated this information to the Board of Commission, of which we are Members. It is with regret we are made to perceive, by the continued admission of Slaves into Surinam, the inefficacy of the measures yet adopted to suppress the illegal traffick. We feel convinced, that as long as the French Flag is exempt from Foreign inspection, and the Authorities in this Colony as indifferent on the subject as they have hitherto shown themselves, so long will the Dutch Colonists find in the French Settlements a ready medium for the supply of Africans, in defiance of any restrictive Enactments at present in force. We have, &c. C. E. LEFROY. Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. No. 125.-Messrs. Lefroy and Wale to Visct. Castlereagh.-(Rec. May 21.) C. E. LEFROY. Viscount Castlereagh, K.G. No. 126.—Messrs. Lefroy and Wa'e to Joseph Planta, Jun. Esq. (Received May 21.) SIR, Surinam, 3d April 1821. WE beg leave to acknowledge the receipt, on the 26th ultimo, of your Letter, dated 29th December, 1820, informing us by Lord Castlereagh's direction, that His Netherland Majesty's Corvette l'Arend (l'Aigle) of 28 guns and 150 Men, about to sail for the East Indies, would be provided with a Copy of the Treaty of the 4th May, 1818, and the Documents thereto annexed, relative to the repression of the Slave-trade. We are, &c. C. E. LEFROY. Joseph Planta, Jun. Esq. THOMAS S. WALE. No. 127.-Messrs Lefroy and Wale to Visct. Castlereagh.-(Rec. Aug. 8.) IN obedience to the commands communicated to us by your Lordship, we have the honour to inform you, that on the 19th instant, the French Schooner l'Aurore, which sailed from Guadeloupe on the 18th of last month, commanded by M. l'Oiseau, disembarked in the Town of Paramaribo 143 Slaves, consigned to Mr. Solomon de la Para, a resident Proprietor in this Colony. We have no hesitation in giving it as our opinion, derived from actual observation, that this Cargo is of a description similar to those which we have before noticed to your Lordship, the Negroes having evidently been recently imported from Africa; at the same time, we think it proper to add, that since the 16th February, when we last had occasion to acquaint your Lordship with the arrival of 2 Cargoes of Africans, we understand that 2 or 3 Slave-vessels have been refused admittance to this Port; upon what grounds, we are unable to inform your Lordship, no communication on the subject having been made to us by the Colonial Authorities. We have, &c. C. E. LEFROY. Viscount Castlereagh, K.G. No. 128.—Messrs. Lefroy and Wale to Joseph Planta, Jun. Esq. (Received August 13.) SIR, Paramaribo, Surinam, 3d June, 1821. WE beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your Letter of the 27th of February, acquainting us, by the direction of Viscount Castlereagh, that it had been notified to him by the Ambassador from the Court of The Netherlands, that His Netherland Majesty's Frigate Melampus, of 350 Men, 44 guns, commanded by Captain Le Man, which is about to sail for the East Indies, will be provided with a Copy of the Treaty of May 4th, 1818, and with the Documents thereto annexed, relating to the repression of the Slave-trade. We are, &c. C. E. LEFROY. Joseph Planta, Jun. Esq. No. 129.-Messrs. Lefroy and Wale to the Marquess of Londonderry. (Received September 14.) (Extract.) Surinam, 4th July, 1821. WE have the honour to inclose a Proclamation of the Governor of Surinam, promulgating the Copy of a Decree of His Netherland Majesty, dated the 16th April, 1821, on the subject of the importation of Slaves into this Colony. Your Lordship will immediately perceive that this Decree leaves the case just were it found it, imposing no new restriction whatever on the Trade, inasmuch as none of the neighbouring Colonies are affected by the prohibition. The French Colonies, your Lordship is aware, are amongst those whose Sovereigns have prohibited the African Slavetrade; yet it is from them chiefly, as we have informed your Lordship, that importations to Surinam of new Africans have been made. C. E. LEFROY. THOMAS S. WALE. The Marq. of Londonderry, K.G. (Inclosure.)-Proclamation of the Governor of Surinam, publishing the Decree of the King of The Netherlands, of 16th April, 1821. Gazette of the Government, No. 5.—(Translation.) WE, Cornelius Rynhard Vaillant, Knight of the Order of The Netherlands Lion, Governor-General, ad interim, of the Colony of Surinam, Commander-in-Chief of the Land and Sea Forces in the same, &c. &c. To all who shall see these presents, or shall hear them read, greeting: We notify, that his Excellency the Minister for Publick Instruction, National Industry, and the Colonies, having, under date of April 22d last, transmitted to us a Decree of His Majesty, dated Brussels, April 16, 1821, (No. 59.) of the following tenour: We, William, by the grace of God, King of The Netherlands, Prince of Orange Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, &c. [See Page 31]. In order that no one may plead ignorance of the above, we direct these to be published and affixed in all Places where it is customary, to be immediately circulated in the Plantations, and to be inserted in the Government Gazette. Given at Paramaribo, Colony of Surinam, July 2d, 1821, the 9th Year of His Majesty's Reign. C. R. VAILLANT. No. 130.-C. E. Lefroy, Esq. to the Marq. of Londonderry.-(Rec. Nov. 7.) MY LORD, Surinam, 6th September, 1821. WITH the most sincere regret I have to announce to your Lordship the death of my late friend and Colleague, Mr. Wale, which took place in the night of Monday last, the 4th instant, of the usual tropical fever. His loss will not easily be supplied to me, nor I think to the particular service in which he was engaged; a service equally obnoxious to the Europeans and Creoles, and even such of the Slaves themselves as look forward, from any prospect of emancipation, to the advantages of Slave-holding in their turn; and in this Colony rendered still more delicate and difficult, from the existence of local feelings; notwithstanding which, Mr. Wale completely succeeded in conciliating the esteem of all classes of the Inhabitants, without compromising, in the slightest degree, the high principles of justice and philanthropy in which his employment originated; and his abrupt and premature removal has excited as general and unaffected a sympathy as any event which has occurred here since my arrival. I have, &c. The Marq. of Londonderry, K.G. C. E. LEFROY. No. 131.-C. E. Lefroy, Esq. to the Marq. of Londonderry. (Extract.) Surinam, 6th December, 1821. 1 AM happy to report to your Lordship, an assurance which his Excellency has this morning given to me, not only of the sincerity of the Dutch Government, in their determined co-operation with that of His Britannick Majesty, evinced in their Instructions to him, to put down the execrable traffick in Slaves, but of his own; and that he has, within these few days, refused admission to a Slave-vessel under the French Flag, notwithstanding the strongest importunity for its admission, and that he is inost anxious to shut the Port entirely to such Cargoes; but that great difficulties arise from the connivance of the Authorities in the French Islands, from whom the Vessels (whatever be the character of their Cargoes) are frequently furnished with Documents of undoubted authenticity. The Marq. of Londonderry, K. G. C. E. LEFROY. M |