To John Jay from Floridablanca, 8 October 1781
From Floridablanca
[le 8. Octobre 1781]
Il est arrivé a la Corogne une Frégate de Guerre Americaine; conduisant a son bord deux Soldats deserteurs du Regiment D’Irlande infantorie. Le Commandant de la Province les a reclaimé comme de Raison, mais le Capitaine refuse de les rendre sous quelques Pretexts, disant entre autres que tout son monde appartient a S. M. T. Cretn. Excuse qui n’est pas du tout vraisemblable, puisque si les Officiers & l’equipage etoient sujet du Roi de France on auroit en Tort de faire reconnoitre ce Batiment pour Frégate des Etats Unis sous pavillon de l’Amerique. D’ailleurs ces Deserteurs ayant passé à un vaisseau de Guerre François, et le Commandant Espagnol les ayant alors reclamé l’on declara sous parole d’honneur qu’ils ne s’y trouvient pas, de façon que meme en regardant la Frégate comme Française, on auroit lieu d’attendre qu’ils fussent rendus.
Le Comte de Florida Blanca a cru indispensable d’instruire Mr. Jay de tous ces faits; bien persuadé qu’il aura la complaisance d’ecrire par la premiere Poste au Capitaine dans des Termes convenables afin qu’il se prete à rendre les Deserteurs, bien entendu qu’ils ne seront point punis, et fineront leurs Engagements dans leur Corps, ou autre plus apportée.
Mr. Jay est trop raisonable pour ne pas comprendre qu’il seroit Injuste qu’un Batiment quelconque se presenta dans un Port, uniquement pour exiger et recevoir toute sorte d’honnetés & D’Egards (sans autre Titre ou Engagement prealable) & qu’en meme Temps il refusa de rendre des sujets qu’il aura a son bord, appartenants au Souverain Territorial, au nom duquel on lui faisoit ces memes Politesses.
[Translation]
[8 October 1781]
An American frigate1 has arrived at Coruña, having on board two Soldiers, deserters from the Irish Infantry Regiment. The Commander of the Province has claimed them as one might expect, but the Captain refuses to hand them over under certain Pretexts, saying among other things, that all his people are French, an Excuse that is not at all plausible, since if the Officers & crew were subjects of the King of France, it would have been improper to have this vessel recognized as a United States Frigate under the American flag. More-over, these Deserters having fled to a French Warship and the Spanish Commander having then reclaimed them, it was declared on word of honor that that they were not there so that, even supposing the frigate to be a French ship, there is reason to expect that they should have been surrendered.
The Count de Florida Blanca believed it indispensable to inform Mr. Jay of these facts, being fully persuaded that he will be so good as to write by the first Post to the Captain in such Terms as to induce him to surrender the Deserters; it being understood that they will not be punished, and will finish their Enlistments in their own Corps, or in some other better paid.2
Mr. Jay is too reasonable not to understand that it would be Unjust for a Vessel to appear in a Port solely to claim and receive all sorts of attention and marks of respect (with no other Title or previous commitment), and at the same Time to refuse to deliver any subjects that it had on board belonging to the Territorial Sovereign in whose name all these tokens of respect have been rendered.3
LbkCs, in French, embedded in JJ to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 28 Apr. 1782, below, DNA: PCC, item 110, 2: 14–15 (EJ: 4188); NNC: JJ Lbks. 1 and 6; CSmH (EJ: 3437). Translation in , 5: 338–39. C, in French, with Spanish headnote, dated 6 Oct. 1781, SpMaAHN: Estado, leg. 3884, exp. 16, doc. 3 (EJ: 12117).
1. The 44-gun frigate South Carolina, formerly the Indien, was lent by the French government to the chevalier de Luxembourg, who leased it to Alexander Gillon, commodore of the South Carolina navy, for a period of three years, on condition that it would be employed exclusively in cruising for prizes, one-quarter of the value of which was reserved to Luxembourg as compensation. See James A. Lewis, Neptune’s Militia (Kent, Ohio, 1999), 21–23.
2. On the South Carolina’s crew, see Lewis, Neptune’s Militia, 26, 28. For JJ’s instructions to Gillon, see his letter of 9 Oct., below.
3. JJ embedded copies of this letter and his reply of 9 Oct. 1781 in his letter to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 28 Apr. 1782 (both below), adding that Floridablanca had apparently reassessed the situation and implicitly rescinded his claim that Gillon was carrying deserters.