To James Madison from John Graham, [ca. 13 January 1817]
From John Graham
Newyork [ca. 13 January 1817]
Capt Austin of the Ship Persia states the circumstances of an illegal Blockade to which he was subjected in the Port of one of the Native Powers in India, by the British altho they were not at war with that Power.
Also commercial Regulations in India.1
RC (DNA: RG 59, ML). Undated; conjectural date assigned based on Henry Austin to James Monroe, also undated but filed at 13 Jan. 1817 (ibid.). Unaddressed; addressee identified as JM by his reply in bottom margin.
1. Austin’s letter to Monroe with its enclosures (18 pp.) informed the State Department of an order in council issued by the East India Company blockading the ports of “Mondavee & Moondia” (Mandvi and Mundra) in the Gulf of Kutch on the grounds that the company was at war with the rajah of Mandvi. If the blockade remained unchallenged, Austin claimed it risked destroying American trade to Asia while costing him a loss of up to $100,000 on his voyage. Filed with this letter are two letters to Austin from the commander of HMS Zebra, both dated 5 Jan. 1816, stating that Austin could not land or take on cargo at Mandvi and Mundra; a 6 Jan. 1816 note from Horace Hale, first officer on the American Persia, to the effect that an officer of the East India Company had told him while Austin was ashore that the company was not at war with Mandvi but with a rajah in the interior; an 8 Jan. 1816 letter from the commander of HMS Favorite to Austin authorizing the Persia to set out for Muscat; an affidavit sworn by Austin before a notary public in New York on 13 Jan. 1817, narrating the difficulties he had encountered during the voyage of the Persia; a copy of Austin’s 9 Nov. 1815 letter to Evan Nepean, president of the British Council in Bombay, complaining about his inability to obtain supplies or sell cargo in Bombay unless he intended to make a return voyage directly to the United States; the reply by Nepean’s secretary, dated 17 Nov. 1815, stating that Austin’s ship would be given every indulgence in obtaining refreshments and stores in Bombay provided he cleared out for another port in British India; and a printed copy of “Regulation X” issued by the East India Company in 1813 governing the conditions under which trade could be conducted with the Presidency of Bombay (ibid.). During his voyage Austin also traveled up the Euphrates River from “Bursa (Basra) to Bagdad” and took away “several of the bricks which are supposed to have been materials in the Temple of Belus” in “ancient Babylon” (Daily National Intelligencer, 7 Jan. 1817).