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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0419 and id is 1 raw text is: I DODS. 95.
THE 96 DIANA
1245
evidently [94] going to conduct a transaction of this nature, and for which purpose
he accompanies the ship to Africa. I observe he knows nothing of any money
being paid under this asserted transfer. I can have no doubt that this Court is
bound judicially to consider this as a British vessel, and that this Portuguese disguise
has been assumed for the mere purpose of protecting the property of British
merchants in a traffic which it was not lawful for them to engage in. I shall affirm
the sentence as to the ship, with costs.
June 6th. Judgment as to the cargo.
In this case, the Court has already disposed of the question as to the ship, which
had been fitted out at Liverpool with stanchions and other accommodations necessary
for vessels employed in the slave trade. In the first instance, the ship proceeded
to Madeira; and it was not till her arrival at Pernambuco that the Portuguese
flag was assumed : from Pernambuco she sailed to Bahia, and from thence to the
African coast, the same master continuing on board, though ostensibly in a different
capacity. The Court can have no doubt that the fraud of the British owners,
in this case, involves also the asserted Portuguese owners ; it is impossible to sever
the fraud of the one party from the fraud of the other. The fraudulent intention
of the party here was to be carried into effect by the fraudulent co-operation of
this De Silva, who was to become the instrument of a simulated transfer. I do
not mean to lay it down that if goods were put on board an apparently Portuguese
ship, though in reality a British ship, an innocent owner would be affected, bona fide
believing that he was embarking his property on board a Portuguese vessel; but
here the colourable owner of the ship is the [95] asserted owner of the cargo. I
consider the whole interest of the adventure to reside in the British merchants,
and that De Silva is merely lending his name and agency to further a deception
practised on British laws. Therefore I see no reason why the cargo should not
follow the fate of the ship, with which it is involved in one common fraud.
DIANA -(Berth6, otherwise Barclay). May 21, 1813.-The Courts of this
country will respect the property of foreigners engaged in the slave trade,
under the sanction of the laws of their own country.
[See Le Louis, 1817, 2 Dods. 215.]
This vessel, under Swedish colours, took on board at Gustavia, in the island of
St. Bartholomew's, a cargo of rum, sugar, tobacco, iron, dry goods, and powder,
which she carried to Cape Mount, on the coast of Africa, where the same were ex-
changed for 120 slaves ; and the vessel having received a number of these slaves
on board at Cape Mount, was, on the 11th of September 1810, seized by His Majesty's
ship Crocodile, Edward Henry Columbine, Esq., commander, and carried to
Sierra Leone, where proceedings were instituted against the vessel and cargo as a
forfeiture.
An information was filed on the part of the captors, and a claim was given by
the master for the ship and cargo as the property of Jean Turrenne, of the island
of St. Bartholomew, a subject of His Majesty the King of Sweden.
On the 13th of October the cause came on for hearing in the Vice-Admiralty
Court at Sierra Leone, [96] when the judge was pleased to condemn the ship and
cargo of slaves as prize.
From this sentence the present appeal was prosecuted.
Judgment-Sir W. Scott : This ship was seized off the coast of Africa, and carried
to the British settlement of Sierra Leone, where she was proceeded against and
condemned in the Vice-Admiralty Court there established. She was laden, at
the time of capture, with a cargo of slaves, which had been procured at Cape Mount,
and with which she is asserted to have been proceeding to St. Bartholomew, there
to import them on Swedish account. I see no reason to suppose that there were
any other than Swedish interests involved in this transaction, or that there was
any intention of landing the slaves at a British or Portuguese settlement, or indeed
at any other place than St. Bartholomew, the alleged port of destination. The
requisite number of slaves in that colony may not be large, but I presume that
labour upon that island, as upon others, is performed by slaves. It is impossible
for the Court, upon mere surmise and conjecture, to say that the ship was not going
to that island, or that she was going there for the purpose of colour only, and with
an ulterior destination to a British colony. The Court must look to the termination](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0419&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)