[1570] [SMlTH to FORSYTH]
Consulate of the U.S. A., Matamoras, December 20, 1835. Sir: Mr Dickins's leller of the 30th of September lasl was
received al this office on the 16th instant.
I have the honor to inform you that the Mexican armed schooner General Bravo brought into this port, on the 2d instant, nine American prisoners, consisting of five passengers, the master, and three seamen, belonging to the American schooner Hannah Elizabeth. It appears that the prisoners set sail on board the Hannah Elizabeth, from New Orleans, on the 13th ultimo, bound to the port of Matagorda, Texas; that, on the 18th day of the same month, the said vessel stranded on the bar in attempting to enter Matagorda bay, in which unfortunate condition she was fired into ~y the Bravo, and boarded by twenty armed soldiers, under the command of two officers, who forcibly took the prisoners from the wreck on board the Bravo, where they were chained in the hold of that vessel until their arrival in this port, when they were landed in a naked, feeble condition, and placed under a guard of soldiers at the Brazos de Santiago; where they are still confined, having been pillaged of the most of their clothes, and put on short allowance during their imprisonment on board the Bravo. The commandant of this place, in answer to my inquires upon the subject, informed me, on the 14th instant, that the prisoners were captured in consequence of being found on board an American vessel laden with arms, ammunition, &c., destined to a port in Texas. It is not even pretended that they were soldiers in the actual service of an enemy, and, although the vessel might have been loaded with contraband articles of war, as alleged, the prisoners were under the protection of our flag, and exempt from imprisonment by virtue of the 16th article of the treaty. Not doubting that a Government whose flag protects the enemies of a neutral would enforce equal protection to its own citizens, I made an official representation to the local authorities, in behalf of the prisoners, on the 15th instant, demanding their immediate release, and protesting against the arbitrary, illegal proceedings of the commander of the Bravo. But, as my application proved wholly
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