¶ To David Montagu Erskine. Letter not found. 11 March 1807. Acknowledged as received in Erskine to JM, 19 Mar. 1807, where it is described as “relative to the Schooner Morning Star of Providence, as also a Protest made by the Master and other Persons formerly belonging to the above mentioned Schooner.” A copy of the protest, dated 17 May 1806 (4 pp.), is filed with Erskine to JM, 11 June 1807 (DNA: RG 59, NFL, Great Britain, vol. 4). The protest states that the schooner set sail from Providence, Rhode Island, on 10 May 1806 “in good order and condition” with a cargo of “a few puncheons of rum, Molasses &c.” bound for Washington, North Carolina. Five days later an unidentified British ship stopped and damaged the Morning Star with “three Vollies of small Arms,” boarded it, and impressed one member of its crew. That evening the Morning Star sprang a leak, and after encountering rough seas and windy conditions, it went aground near Ocracoke the next day and could not be saved. The signers of the protest blamed the loss of the schooner and its cargo on the British attack and the weather rather than on any negligence on their part. The statement was sworn before notary public John Wallace of Carteret County, North Carolina, by the Morning Star’s William Aldridge, master; Jeremiah Randall, mate; and William Rustin and Joseph Alsatt, seamen.