MOST EXCELLENT SIR,

Fourth Enclosure in No. 34.

Mr. Tolme to the Captain General.

British Consulate, Havana, Dee. 15th, 1839.

A NEGRO boy in the service of Mr. Dodd, an engineer in the Cerro, having reported to me that he was above two years back, kidnapped from Sierra Leone, and having stated so many particulars, that I entertain not the slightest doubt of the fact, I beg your Excellency to order the case to be enquired into, and the boy if what he states be true, placed at my disposal, in order to be restored to liberty and to his family.

I have also to request your Excellency to be pleased forthwith to direct Mr. Dodd to deliver up the boy to some one, with whom your Excellency may think fit to deposit him till the case is investigated, for I have reason to apprehend that it is Mr. Dodd's intention either to sell him, or send him away this very day.

Pleading the urgency of the matter as an apology for my addressing your Excellency on a Sunday.

His Excellency the Captain General.

I have, &c.

&c.

&c.

&c.

(Translation.)

Fifth Enclosure in No. 34.

The Captain General to Mr. Tolmé.

Dec. 16th, 1839.

I HAVE received your communication of the 15th instant, in which you are pleased to inform me of the declaration made to you by a negro in the service of Mr. Dodd, an engineer in the Cerro; and having given orders for the summary investigation of the case, I notify it to you in reply to your letters.

To the English Consul,

God preserve you, &c.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR,

Mr. Tolmé to the Captain General.

British Consulate, Havana Dec. 16th 1839. I HAVE had the honour of receiving your Excellency's letter of this date, informing me that a summary investigation of the case of the kidnapped negro, in service of Mr. Dodd, would immediately take place, and I therefore beg leave to call your Excellency's attention to the following facts:—

1. That the boy, though two years in this country, of which six months were passed in a Spanish plantation, knows scarcely anything of Spanish, and speaks English fluently.

2. That he is perfectly well acquainted with many people in Sierra Leone, with that place, and its customs.

3. That he can describe the schools there at which he was taught.

4. That he knows the persons at that place with whom he has served, among others Colonel Kingston.

5. That he remembers the name of a British ship of war, on board of which he was for six months on the African station;

And 6. That his description of the country in and proximate to the settlement of Sierra Leone, is such as no person but one who had long resided there could give.

The facts afford the strongest prima facie evidence of his being a British subject, and convince me that his master, Mr. Dodd, cannot by any possibility have papers, under which he is legally held in bondage.

I trust, therefore, that his case will be brought to an early conclusion, and the boy soon be placed in my hands to be restored to his country and his friends. I have, &c.

To His Excellency the Captain General. &c.

&c.

&c.

(Signed)

C. D. TOLME'.

MY LORD,

No. 35.

Mr. Tolme to Viscount Palmerston.

Havana, December 18th 1839.

(Received January 17th.

I HAVE the honour to enclose copies of the lists which have been furnished me, by my agents, of the vessels arrived in this port, during November, from the coast of Africa, after landing negroes, and of those which have cleared out at this Custom-house for that destination, and for the Cape Verds.

(I have, &c.

List of vessels arrived in the Port of Havana, after having, it is said, landed negroes on the coast.

Masters.

November 2 Portuguese Schooner "Felicedad," Felix with 235 negroes.

Josefina," Amelia," "Paz,"

Carvallo 313
Suarer

99

518 99 Machado 370

دو

Second Enclosure in No. 35.

List of vessels despatched at the Custom-house in November 1839, for the coast of Africa, and the Cape de Verds.

November 13 Spanish Schooner "Margareta," Mr. Falduendo Gallinas.

14 American

99

'Asp,
Eliza,"

MY LORD,

No. 36.

Mr. Tolmé to Viscount Palmerston.

Havana, December 18th, 1839. (Received January 17th.)

I HAVE had the honour of receiving your Lordship's Despatch Slave Trade, of the 12th of October, 1839, enclosing one copy of the Correiro of Lisbon, containing two notes, which Lord Howard de Walden was instructed some months ago to present to the Portuguese Government, on the subject of the African Slave Trade, carried on under the flag of Portugal, and which your Lordship desires me to cause to be reprinted, and to be circulated as extensively as possible.

I have requested the Captain General to direct the Censor to allow these notes to appear in the public papers, which I hope his Excellency will not refuse, but if so I shall take other means of complying with your Lordship's instructions.

No. 37.

Mr. Tolmé to Viscount Palmerston.

MY LORD,

Havana, December 18th, 1839. (Received January 17th, 1840.)

THE Governor-General of Jamaica, Sir C. T. Metcalfe, having written to me respecting two British subjects, "Wellington and Shirley," held in bondage in this country, I addressed the Captain-General on the 20th November last the letter on this subject, of which No. 1 is a copy.

His Excellency answered me in the terms of the Enclosure No. 2, and I replied to him in those of the Enclosure No. 3. The consequence was that His Excellency transmitted to me an authenticated copy of the proceedings in regard to Wellington, by which it appears that the orders for his release were sent to Santiago de Cuba as long ago as the 18th of May last. This document (the authenticated copy of the proceedings) I immediately forwarded in original to Mr. Pro-Consul Wright, and hope that the boy is now at liberty. About Shirley" nothing yet has been decided. If I do not now soon obtain his liberation, I shall again apply to the Captain-General on the subject.

66

MOST EXCELLENT SIR, Havana, November 20th, 1839. I HAD the honour so long ago as the 24th November, 1838, to address your Excellency on the subject of a young man named "Wellington," who in the year 1834 was kidnapped in Jamaica, brought to Santiago de Cuba, and after legal inquiry as to his quality, was deposited with the Protector of Slaves, to be delivered up to the British authorities whenever claimed, but who, notwithstanding these facts, and in spite of application for his release made by their Excellencies the Marquess of Sligo and Sir Lionel Smith, successively Governors of Jamaica, and by myself in the name of the latter, is still held in bondage.

Her Majesty's ship "Racer," arrived this day from Port Royal, brings me despatches from his Excellency the Right Hon. Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, the present Governor-General of Jamaica and its dependencies, by which I am desired again to call your Excellency's notice to the matter, as I have now the honour of doing.

I am also to request your Excellency to be pleased to cause inquiry to be made as to the case of a person called Henry Shirley, who it seems was stolen from Jamaica by a Mr. Antonio La Damont, or La Dezma, a shopkeeper of Santa Cruz, once owner of a schooner trading to Montess Bay, called the Lucea; for this unfortunate individual, Shirley, though discharged by the late Governor of Santa Cruz, is still held in slavery; and I am further to ask, if this statement be true, of which there is little doubt, that Shirley may likewise be set at liberty.

The justice and benevolence which characterise your Excellency's administration are a sufficient guarantee for the release of these unhappy people, as soon as the iniquity and cruelty of their detention engage your Excellency's attention: but when, moreover, I learn, from public documents, that Her Catholic Majesty's Government has expressly declared to Her Britannic Majesty's Representative at Madrid, that the penalties of the Spanish laws upon those who venture to commit the crime of kidnapping a freeman are as severe as those of England can be," and that Her Majesty the Queen would issue orders to the Captain-General of Cuba to persevere in his zealous investigation for the delivery of free British negroes, illegally and surreptitiously reduced to slavery," I am convinced that your Excellency will not

only liberate the two individuals, who are more peculiarly the subject of the present despatch, but likewise others who may be or become enslaved under similar circumstances, and punish with the utmost severity of the law those who are the authors of their misfortune.

I HAVE received your communication of the 20th, with reference to the theft of a youth named Wellington, who was taken to St. Jago de Cuba, and has been claimed at the dates mentioned, and I beg to say that I shall opportunely inform you of the result.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR,

Mr. Tolmé to the Captain-General.

Havana, December 2nd, 1839. I HAVE received your Excellency's communication of the 28th ultimo, announcing, in reply to my letter of the 20th, with reference to the theft of a youth named Wellington, who was conveyed to Santiago de Cuba, and who was previously claimed, "that your Excellency would opportunely inform me of the result."

I shall have the honour of transmitting a copy of your Excellency's Despatch, to his Excellency the Governor-General of Jamaica, with whom the claim of Wellington originated, as well as to Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State, for their information; and I should ill perform my duty did I not also take leave to recall to your Excellency's mind, that it is now more than five years since Wellington was stolen from Jamaica, and acknowledged by the authorities of Santiago de Cuba to be so, and did I not respectfully urge your Excellency to cause immediate measures to be taken for the boy's release?

It is likewise right that I should observe to your Excellency, that my letter of the 20th ultimo did not apply to Wellington alone, but also to Shirley; yet of the latter your Excellency, in reply, takes no notice. I have therefore again to bring his case before your Excellency, and I am enabled to do so the better by enclosing the copy of a letter from him, which since I last addressed your Excellency upon the subject I have received from his Excellency Sir Charles Metcalfe. I solicit your Excellency's attention to both these claims, as belonging to a class in favour of which Her Catholic Majesty's Government, in its communication with that of Her Britannic Majesty, has expressed itself most decidedly, and one which the latter will never cease to agitate till it has secured, what it so justly pretends to, the liberation of all its kidnapped subjects.

No. 38.

Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Tolmé.

Foreign Office, February 20th, 1840.

CIRCULAR sending Papal Brief on Slave Trade.

(See No. 10, p. 8.)

MY LORD,

No. 39.

Mr. Tolmé to Viscount Palmerston.

Havana, March 3rd, 1840. (Received April 22nd.)

On the 17th December last I had the honour of addressing your Lordship, relative to a British subject named Daniel Speck, who had been kidnapped from Sierra Leone, and was then held in bondage in this island.

I have now the satisfaction to announce, that my endeavours to procure this boy's freedom have been crowned with success: he has, by a formal act of the Tribunals, been placed at liberty.

Presuming that his first desire would be to return to his family and friends, I offered him a passage home, by way of England. But he preferred to take service here for the present, and has in consequence accepted a situation in a respectable foreign family, where he earns about 301. sterling a-year, knowing at the same time that, as he is under my eye, his rights will be secured to him; and that whenever he wishes to go back to Africa he has but to apply to me for the means of doing so. I have, &c.

(Signed)

The Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B.,

C. D. TOLME.

I HAVE received your Despatch marked Slave Trade, of the 3rd of March, 1840, stating that the British negro, Daniel Speck, who had been kidnapped from Sierra Leone, and was held in bondage at the Havana, had been set at liberty by a formal act of the Tribunals, and had taken a situation in a respectable foreign family in that city.

It appears to me, that this individual has a bad chance of remaining practically free, while in the service of a foreigner, and in a colony in which so many persons of his colour are kept in slavery; and I therefore think it desirable that he should be sent home to Sierra Leone.

I have accordingly to instruct you to have him conveyed to Sierra Leone by the first safe opportunity which may offer, and to report to me the steps you may take for this purpose.