718466-1863-TREATY-BETWEEN-HER-MAJESTY-AND-THE-UNITED-STATES-OF-AMERICA-FOR-THE-SUPPESSION-OF-THE-AFRICAN-SLAVE-TRADE-SINGED-AT-WASHINGTON-APRIL-7-1862- — Page 5

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 3RD OCTOBER, 1863.

257

Annex (A) to the Treaty between Great Britain and the United States of America, for the Suppression of

the African Slave Trade, signed at Washington on the 7th day of April, 1862.

Instructions for the Ships of the British and United States' Navies employed to prevent the African Slave Trade.

ARTICLE I.

The Commander of any ship belonging to the British or United States' navy, which shall be furnished with these Instructions, shall have a right to search and detain any British or United States' merchant-vessel which shall be actually engaged, or suspected to be engaged, in the African Slave Trade, or to be fitted out for the purposes thereof, or to have been engaged in such Trade during the voyage

in which she may be met with by such ship of the British or United States' navy; and such Commander shall thereupon bring or send such merchant-vessel (save in the case provided for in Article V of these Instructions), as soon as possible, for judgment, before one of the three Mixed Courts of Justice established in virtue of the IVth Article of the said Treaty, that is to say:-

If the vessel shall be detained on the Coast of Africa, she shall be brought before that one of the two Mixed Courts of Justice to be established at the, Cape of Good Hope and at Sierra Leone which may be nearest to the place of detention, or which the captor, on his own responsibility, may think can be soonest reached from such place.

If the vessel shall be detained on the coast of the Island of Cuba, she shall be brought before the Mixed Court of Justice at New York.

ARTICLE II.

Whenever a ship of either of the two navies, duly authorized as aforesaid, shall meet a merchant- vessel liable to be searched under the provisions of the said Treaty, the search shall be conducted with the courtesy and consideration which ought to be observed between allied and friendly nations; and the search shall, in all cases, be made by an officer holding a rank not lower than that of Lieutenant in the navy; or by the officer who at the time shall be second in command of the ship by which such search is made.

ARTICLE III.

The Commander of any ship of the two navies, duly authorized as aforesaid, who may detain any merchant-vessel in pursuance of the tenour of the present Instructions, shall leave on board the vessel so detained, the master, the mate or boatswain, and two or three, at least, of the crew; the whole of the negroes, if any; and all the cargo. The captor shall, at the time of detention, draw up, in writing, a declaration, which shall exhibit the state in which he found the detained vessel; such declaration shall be signed by himself, and shall be given in or sent, together with the captured vessel, to the Mixed Court of Justice before which such vessel shall be carried or sent for adjudication. He shall deliver to the master of the detained vessel a signed and certified list of the papers found on board the same, as well as a certificate of the number of negroes found on board at the moment of detention.

In the declaration which the captor is hereby required to make, as well as in the certified list of the papers seized, and in the certificate of the number of negroes found on board the detained vessel, he shall insert his own name and surname, the name of the capturing ship, and the latitude and longi- tude of the place where the detention shall have been made.

The officer in charge of the detained vessel shall, at the time of bringing the vessel's papers into • the Mixed Court of Justice, deliver into the Court a certificate signed by himself, and werified on oath, stating any changes which may have taken place in respect to the vessel, her crew, the negroes, if any, and her cargo, between the period of her detention and the time of delivering in such paper.

ARTICLE IV.

If urgent reasons, arising from the length of the voyage, the state of health of the negroes, or any other

cause, should require that either the whole or a portion of such negroes should be disembarked before the vessel can arrive at the place at which one of the Mixed Courts of Justice is established, the Commander of the capturing ship may take upon himself the responsibility of so disembarking the negroes, provided the necessity of the disembarkation, and the causes thereof, be stated in a certificate in proper form. Such certificate shall be drawn up and entered at the time on the log-book of the detained vessel.

ARTICLE V.

In case any merchant-vessel detained in pursuance of the present Instructions should prove to be unseaworthy, or in such a condition as not to be taken to one of the three ports where the Mixed Courts of Justice are to be established in pursuance of the Treaty of this date, the Commander of the