1. The enclosures (4 pp.) are copies of: (1) the 23 Apr. 1806 deposition of William Hobin, second mate of the New York brig Ontario, Leffingwell, before New York notary John Keese, stating that he was at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, on 10 Mar. 1806 and aboard the schooner Aspasia, Puntine, of New York, while Captain Puntine was ashore and Daniel Laden was acting mate; Laden ordered the crew to heave anchor, and they refused several times, which led to a scuffle during which a black sailor went overboard and drowned after swimming back and forth between the Aspasia and the schooner John, which was fastened to Aspasia at the bow. Hobin stated that several ropes had been thrown to the seaman, but he had refused to grasp them, and that he believed the sailor drowned “thro’ his own obstinancy” and not from any injury he had sustained aboard the Aspasia or in his fall overboard; and (2) Ontario mate Richard P. Bates’s same–day deposition that he had been aboard the John at the time of the incident and that he fully agreed with the facts as stated in Hobin’s deposition.

2. On 5 May 1806 Clinton wrote to “the Governor O[r] Commander in Chief” of Guadeloupe, “the Chief Criminal Judge, the Magistrates of the said Island and all or any persons whom these presents may concern,” enclosing documents proving Daniel Laden’s innocence of the charge for which he was imprisoned, stating that he was “the father of a family—a man of good character and a Citizen of the United States” and asking that Laden be delivered to the bearer of Clinton’s letter or allowed “to return without molestation” to New York (NNC: DeWitt Clinton Papers; 1 p.).