To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, [ca. August 1811]
From an Unidentified Correspondent
[ca. August 1811]
It is a fact that of the many Vessels that have for some months past enter’d the ha[r]bors of the U. S. pretending to be french privateers the Diligent Brig that arrived at Phila. is the only legal cruiser.1 It is not intended to include the national schooner No. 52 the rest are an edition of the Bucaneers of old who rob all Vessels they meet with having m⟨oney?⟩ with which they return to the U.S. & find a safe Assylum for their plunder, it is now nearly ten years since France has had a Colony in these seas from whence only on this side the atlantic a legal cruiser could be fitted.
The present Manner of freebooting is nearly as follows, a Number of Villains chiefly frenchmen Associate, purchase a Vessel procure a pass to clear her from a Custom House as an american take Guns on board by stealth, after going to sea they hoist French colors & have usually an obsolete piece of paper signed by Ferrand formerly governor of the City Santo Domingo or Ernouf former governor of Guadeloupe, they rob all they can over power take chiefly money fm. the Spaniards in the neighbourhood of Cuba or the Spanish Main, with their plunder they come to the U.S, no tribunal ever passes on the property if every Vessel of that discription immy on her arrival was taken possession of every paper on board seized & each of the crew separately examined the truth would out. If that expedient be not adopted our Country will justly bring on it the Vengeance of the civilized World as being a receptical for robbers. Ordonnoux, (in a Vessel called the Marengo) almost as famous as black beard is at this moment in the Delaware to the disgrace of our Country he has been permitted to Land between two & three hundred Thousand Dollars. The inclosed contains a sketch of his vessel.3 His first cruiser called the Emma he actually equiped at St Thomas, after loosing her owing to the vigilance of Rigaud the color’d chief of the Southern depar[t]ment of St Domingo he proceeded to the U.S. & sailed from charleston in a Vessel that was built at Baltimore of the same name as his former cruiser. When he left Charleston he had but twenty seven men & a few muskets he sailed for the coast of Cuba, where he fell in with & captured by boarding a spanish Packet well armed & [illegible] which enabled him to complete his armament as also to increase his crew from the survivors of the packet, many of whom joined him, the cruelty practiced when he boarded the packet is said to have been wanton in the extreme, his piracies were many & successful among them an English Vessel from Curracoa with Money. Is the U. S. a country of law & goverment if it is how can such pirates go unpunished. Let some one of the cruisers take him in the Delaware where he now is, or go in pursuit of him—examine his Vessel well & the truth will out.
RC and enclosures (NN). Undated; conjectural date assigned based on evidence in nn. Docketed “Anonymous” by Edward Coles. For enclosures, see n. 2.
1. On 27 Aug. 1811 the Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser reported that “the French brig Diligent, after dropping down the river, received her complement of guns, carriages, &c. from the Marengo, who, it is said, obtained them for this purpose in her late visit to New York.” The following day, the paper noted that the Diligent and Marengo had “put back into Cape May Roads.” The Baltimore Federal Republican of 31 Aug. 1811 published the report that “a heavy French privateer brig, the Diligence,” and “another large privateer schooner, the Marengo,” had “stationed themselves in the bay of Delaware.”
2. The French national schooner No. 5 arrived at Philadelphia around the beginning of August 1811. It was reportedly still there near the end of the month, when a correspondent observed that the vessel “appears to be the Exchange of Baltimore—the Exchange of Baltimore is plain to be seen on her stern—she is under seizure” and slated for trial (New York Commercial Advertiser, 5 Aug. 1811; Baltimore Federal Republican, 31 Aug. 1811).
3. The correspondent enclosed two undated clippings from an unidentified newspaper, according to the first of which “Ordonnaux, the pirate, now in the waters of the United States,” had fitted his ship Emma at Baltimore “with a few muskets,” and then “completed his equipment of men and arms from the different vessels he has robbed.” His former vessel, also called the Emma, had been seized and condemned in Haiti, where Ordonnaux and his crew were imprisoned “for a time.” The second clipping reported, “we some days [since] stated that capt. Ordonnaux, of the French privateer Marengo, had arrived in this city, with several trunks and boxes of treasure. We since learn, that he has deposited in our banks upwards of $200.000 in specie, 33,000 of which was taken from the English ship Exchange.” It added that the Marengo was “pilot boat built, 191 tons, carries 10 guns, and has a crew of 70 men.” A report similar to that given in the second clipping appeared in the New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, 28 Aug. 1811.