POWDER PROFITS & PRIVATEERS.
A Documentary History of the Virgin Islands
During the Era of the American Revolution
George F. Tyson. Jr.
Staff Historian
Island Resources Foundation
Occasional Papers I
Bureau of Libraries Museums & Archaeological Services
Department of Conservation & Cultural Affairs
POWDER PROFITS & PRIVATEERS
A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
DURING THE ERA OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
by
George F. Tyson, Jr.
Starf Historian
ISLAND RESOURCE FOUNDATION
OCCASIONAL PAPERS I
PUBLISHED BY
BUREAU OF LIBRARIES , MUSEUMS & ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION & CULTURAL AFFAIRS
1977
Dedicated to Alton A. Adams, Sr., an inspiration to all who
care about the history and culture of the Virgin Islands.
Copyright, 19 77
by George F. Tyson, Jr. and
Virgin Islands Bureau of Libraries, Museums and Archaeological Services
Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs
Government of the Virgin Islands
ISLAND RESOURCES FOUNDATION
Research and manuscript preparation for this project was made
possible by the Island Resources Foundation, a non-orofit,
public service, research and educational organization based
in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Foundation support derives
from an institutional commitment to furthering historical re
search and understanding in the Virgin Islands and through
out the Caribbean through sponsorship of a wide range of pro
grams, including archival surveys, interpretative studies, doc
umentary and bibliographic publications, and technical assis
tance to regional historic preservation and museum programs.
INTRODUCTION
The Virgin Islands are a chain of small islands in the
Caribbean Sea located forty miles east of Puerto Rico. At
the time of the American Revolution they were split into two
d i s t i n c t p o l i t i c a l u n i t s : t h e D a n i s h We s t I n d i e s b e l o n g i n g
to Denmark and the Virgin Islands held by Great Britain.
St. Croix, with a total population of 21,089 in 1773,
St. Thomas, with a population of 4,371 and St. John, with a
population of 2,402 were the main islands in the Danish clus
ter. Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Peter and Jost Van Dyke were
the largest of the British Virgin Islands, which had a com
bined population of 10,200 blacks and whites in 1774. Tort
ola, by far the most populous of these British islands, serv
ed as their administrative and mercantile capital.
All of the Virgin Islands were plantation colonies, grow
ing tropical staples, chiefly sugar and cotton, for export to
European metropoles. Because of their strategic geographic
location at the center of the West Indian archipelago, by the
time of the American Revolution the larger islands of St. Croix,
St. Thomas and Tortola had also evolved thriving mercantile
sectors which engaged in a brisk business with the European col
onies in the Caribbean and North America.
Like all other West Indian plantation colonies the Virgin
Islands had developed especially close commercial ties with
the temperate British colonies of North America. American ves
sels provided the islanders with essential foodstuffs, lumber,
manufactured goods, slaves and other necessities for slave
plantations in exchange for tropical staples such as sugar,
molasses, rum and coffee.
Although this complimentary commercial nexus had its ori
gins in the late seventeenth century, it was not until the
Seven Year's War (1756-1763) that it began to flourish and ex
pand. During this war between the French and British, many
North American merchants like John Hancock and Benedict Arnold,
who were later to figure so significantly in the American Re
volution, established prosperous mercantile empires by trading
legally and clandestinely in Virgin Islands waters.
As trade between the islands and the mainland prospered
and grew American mercantile firms began establishing trading
concerns in the islands, particularly in the Danish island of
St. Croix. In the years immediately preceeding the Revolution,
the Beekmans, Livingstons, Lawrences, Kortrights, Crugers, and
Cuylers of New York and the Yards, Whites and Durants of Phil
adelphia were among those mercantile families who established
residency in the islands for purposes of trade.
These commercial linkages naturally led to social and
c u l t u r a l i n t e r a c t i o n s - i n t e r a c t i o n s f o s t e r e d b y t h e f a c t t h a t
American mercantile firms were often headed by younger sons
of prominent American families. Within a few years of esta
blishing local residency, these ambitious young men had form
ed close connections with the leading planters and merchants,
married their daughters, acquired, in one way or another, plan
tation holdings, and assumed a prominent role in local affairs,
even gaining seats in the local Colonial Councils.
Typical of these enterprising Americans who settled in
the Virgin Islands was David Beekman, a member of a prominent
New York mercantile family. In 1763 David's half-brother Ger
ard had written to him advising that the best way to make his
fortune was by "disposing of your Pintly /penis?/ to some cle
ver girl,and letting her have use of it for a qobd Sugar Plan
t a t i o n . " D a v i d h e e d e d h i s b r o t h e r ' s a d v i c e . B y t h e t i m e o f
the Revolution he had established a lucrative mercantile firm
in St. Croix, married into a wealthy Cruzan family, acquired
several sugar estates and been elected to the local Colonial
Council.
At the same time fortune seeking continentals were settl
ing in the islands, many islanders emigrated to the mainland,
where not a few made significant contributions to the devel
opment of the new American nation. Alexander Hamilton, for
example, the first Secretary of the Treasury and one of the
Founding Fathers came to North America from St. Croix, where
he received his education and worked at Nicholas Cruger's
counting house. Abraham Markoe, a wealthy Cruzan planter who
left the Caribbean in 1772 to pursue his fortune in Philadel
phia, played an active role in the early stages of the Rev
olution. He helped to organize, and became Captain of, the
First Troop Philadelphia City Calvary; and his design for the
Calvary's flag, with its thirteen stripes symbolic of the union
between the colonies, may well have influenced the design of
the National standard of the newly independent nation. From
Tortola came Dr. William Thornton, an amateur architect who
designed the Capitol Building of the United States, the Phil
adelphia Library and many other colonial buildings. Thornton
was a close personal friend of George Washington and served
as Superintendant of the U.S. Patent Office.
Given these close commercial and cultural linkages with
the mainland colonies it is hardly surprising that the Virgin
Islands should have been engulfed in the conflict between
Great Britain and her rebellious American colonists. Ameri-
.can political principles found a receptive audience among the
islanders, who, like other West Indians, chafed under the pol
itical and economic restraints imposed upon them by their re
spective mother countries. Every American ship brought fresh
news about the ideas and events of the struggle for indepen
dence, and these stories were prominently featured in local
newspapers.
Quoted in Philip L. White, The_ Beekrans of New York in Politics and
Corrmerce, 1647-1877 (1956), p. 222.
i i
As revolutionary Principles and supporters circulated in
their midst Danish and British colonials grew increasingly
restless with colonial and mercantile restrictions, and, on
occasion, became aggressively outspoken in their demands for
more self government. The focal point of colonial grievances
in the Danish West Indies were the Burgher or Colonial Coun
cils of St. Croix and St. Thomas, whose journals for the years
1767-1780 provide, in the words of one scholar, "a fine source
of evidence of democratic stirrings among a colonial people
ruled by an eighteenth century absolute monarch* " ■*■
In the British Virgin Islands, whose colonials had gained
their own legislature in 1773, the demand for increased eco
nomic and political autonomy was particularly vehement. "I
never met with such a chaos, such a mass of Confusion & Dis
order as in the Virgin Islands - there is the bare shadow of
Subordination & Government," reported Governor William M.
Burt in 1777. In their struggle with the Governor Assembly
men stubbornly refused to enact laws, pay royal officials or
take the required oaths. Their unrest and defiance of auth
ority sprang from a desire to secure their own government
independent from that of the Leeward Islands and to be made
a Free Port. ^
While British and Danish Creoles reflected American in
fluences in their demands for greater political and economic
freedoms neither group ever seriously contemplated following
the American example of permanently severing the colonial con
nection. Like other West Indians they found themselves too
dependent on their respective mother countries for capital,
markets, imports and military protection.
1
Jean Louise Willis, "The Trade Between North America and the Danish
West Indies, 1756-1807, with Special Reference to St. Croix," unpublished
Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia University, 1963, p. 22.
2PRO.CO. 152/33, Burt to Germain, 30 July 1777.
3PRO.CO. 152/57, Burt to Germain, 1 November 1777, and CO.152/58, Burt
to Germain, 28 April 1778. Documents relating to constitutional problems
in Tortola during the revolutionary era will be published in a forthcoming
two-volume documentary history of the British West Indies during the Amer
ican Revolution which is currently being edited by the author.
i
l
l
Nevertheless, islanders sympathized with the Americans in
their struggle against arbitrary government from abroad. Sev
eral Virgin Islanders wrote letters to American friends, and
even to the Continental Congress affirming their commitment to
the American cause and pledging their assistance.
Pro-American sentiments among the Creoles, Danish neutra
lity and the quest for commercial profit by American and West
Indian seafarers insured that throughout the revolutionary war
Virgin Island waters seethed with maritime activity and con
flict. American privateers and merchantmen frequented local
waters in search of prizes, military supplies, markets for
American exports and protection in the friendly ports of the
neutral Danes. Enterprising Danish residents eagerly supplied
American mariners and their French allies with gunpowder and
arms (although the Danish King had declared the trade in mili
tary goods illegal), European manufactured goods, salt and
provisions; they bought American prize vessels and provided Yan
kees with Danish ship's papers which allowed them to sail to
French and Spanish ports as neutral traders. The Tortolians,
precluded from trading with the Americans by British laws on
trade and treason, enthusiastically took up privateering, and
made considerable profits by preying upon American and Danish
shipping. Legal and clandestine Danish assistance to the
American rebels and their French allies, together with the in
discriminate depredations of the rapacious Tortolian privateers
led to a series of diplomatic incidents between Great Britain
and Denmark which had repercussions in the capitols of Europe.
The full story of Virgin Island involvement in the rev
olutionary conflict is unfolded in the documents collected
herein. These documents, which have been assembled from a
wide variety of sources, are arranged and edited in a manner
calculated to acquaint the reader with the general outline of
historical events as they occurred. The documents, which con
stitute the facts of history, are allowed to speak for them
selves, in the belief that the story they tell is just as ex
citing and as informative as a work of historical interpreta
t i o n .
Virgin Islanders seeking information about their past have
had a very limited access to the records of that past, which
are stored in overseas archives, and in the case of the U.S.
Virgin Islands are recorded in a language (Gothic Danish) that
is neither spoken or understood by the indigenous population.
One consequence of this physical and linguistic separation
f r o m t h e h i s t o r i c a l r e c o r d i s t h a t o u t s i d e r s h a v e t r a d i t i o n a l l y
written, and continue to write, the history of the region,
thereby shaping historical perceptions, attitudes and knowledge.
Under these circumstances there exists a pressing need to make
the records of the past more available to the insular popula
tion; only then can a truly indigenous historiographical trad
ition be created and nurtured.
1See Section II below.
I V
It is hoped that this publication will make a modest con
tribution toward the development of a much needed locally gen
erated history; a history based on fact, not fiction. Documen
tary sourcebooks, such as this one, can go far in dispelling
the myths and biases which have too often shaped our local per
ceptions. Sourcebooks are valuable learning and research tools,
that will not only enable students and laymen alike to come dir
e c t l y i n t o c o n t a c t w i t h a c t u a l h i s t o r i c a l f a c t s , b u t w i l l e q u a l l y
help them develop an appreciation of the methodology of histor
ical inquiry and evaluation.
* • *
The editorial method used in this sourcebook is as follows
The book is divided into four topical sections, each arranged
chronologically. Each section contains a short introductory
headnote, and frequently an additional headnote precedes an in
dividual document or cluster of related documents. A source
note follows immediately after the conclusion of every docu
ment, and a key to abbreviations in the source notes is provid
ed immediately following this introduction. Explanatory foot
notes appear after the source note. There is a key word index
t o f a c i l i t a t e c r o s s r e f e r e n c i n g .
Where documents have been reproduced from manuscript, a
limited number of grammatical and spelling corrections have
been made with a view to making the text more understandable
to the general reader. Geographical locations have been spel
led out in full. In cases where the documents have been taken
from published sources, they are reproduced exactly as they ap
p e a r i n p r i n t .
Grateful acknowledgement is due by the author to the fol
lowing people for their assistance in this realization of this
publication: Dr. Edward L. Towle of the Island Resources Foun
dation for his unflagging support and encouragement; Ms. Judith
Towle and Kathy Finnerty of the Island Resources Foundation for
typing and proofreading the manuscript; Ms. Jeanne Allis and
June Lindqvist of the Enid M. Baa Public Library for facilitat
ing the publication of the manuscript; the librarians and staffs
of Baker Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Historical Soc
iety of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the John Car
ter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island; the Library of Con
gress and U.S. National Archives, Washington, D.C.; the Public
Record Office, London, and the William L. Clements Library, Ann
Arbor, Michigan for their help in locating archival material and
permission to reproduce it.
v
KEY TO SOURCE ABBREVIATIONS
B a n . L i b . B a n c r o f t L i b r a r y, B e r k e l e y, C a l i f o r n i a
B L B a k e r L i b r a r y , C a m b r i d g e , M a s s a c h u s e t t s
H S P H i s t o r i c a l S o c i e t y o f P e n n s y l v a n i a , P h i l a d e l p h i a ,
Pennsylvania
I R F I s l a n d R e s o u r c e s F o u n d a t i o n , S t . T h o m a s , V i r g i n
Islands
J A J J o u r n a l s o f t h e A s s e m b l y o f J a m a i c a 1 6 6 3 - 1 8 2 6 ,
14 Vols. (Jamaica, 1803-1826)
J C L B J o h n C a r t e r B r o w n L i b r a r y , P r o v i d e n c e , R . I .
L C L I B R A R Y O F C O N G R E S S , W a s h i n g t o n , D . C .
MD. ARCH. Maryland Archives, Annapolis, Maryland
P R O . C O . P u b l i c R e c o r d O f fic e , L o n d o n , C o l o n i a l O f fic e S e r i e s
PRO. ADM. Public Record Office, London, Admiralty Papers
PRO. WO. Public Record Office, London, War Office Papers
RG. #55, USNA Record Group No. 55, U.S. National Archives
U S N A U . S . N a t i o n a l A r c h i v e s , W a s h i n g t o n , D . C .
W L C W i l l i a m L . C l e m e n t s L i b r a r y , A n n A r b o r , M i c h i g a n
HAM. PAP. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Harold C.
Syrett, Vol. I," (New York, 1961)
Documents from the Public Record Office, London, appearing in this
book are reprinted with the kind permission of the Controller of
H.M. Stationary Office. Other documents appear with permission of
the Baker Library, Bancroft Library, Historical Society of Pennsyl
vania, and the William L. Clements Library.
v i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
I n t r o d u c t i o n 
1 - v
Section I. The Virgin Islands and North America on
t h e E v e o f t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n 1 - 2 5
Section II. An Arsenal of Democracy: The Virgin Is
lands and the Winning of American Indep-
e n c e 
2 6 - 5 5
Section III. Maritime Incidents in Virgin Islands Wat
e r s D u r i n g t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n 5 6 - 9 8
Section IV. A Quest for Freedom: Afro-Westindian Run
a w a y S l a v e s i n t h e R e v o l u t i o n a r y E r a 9 9 - 1 0 3
B i b l i o g r a p h y 
1 0 4
Index
105-114
SECTION I:
THE VIRGIN ISLANDS AND NORTH AMERICA
ON THF FVE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
On the eve of the American Revolution a symbiotic com
mercial connection had evolved between the Danish West
Indies, particularly the plantation colony of St. Croix,
and the British North American colonies. American mer
chants supplied the Danish islands with essential planta
tion stores, livestock, slaves and even some manufactured
goods in exchange for sugar, rum and molasses. One of the
most active principals in this growing trade was Nicholas
Cruger, a member of a leading New York mercantile family
who had established a residence on St. Croix. Sometime
between 1766 and 1768 Cruger employed the young Alexander
Hamilton as a clerk in his St. Croix business. Reflect
ing the entrepreneurial acumen that would make him Amer
ica's first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton rose guick-
ly within Cruger's firm to the point that Cruger placed him
in charge of his affairs whenever he made one of his per
iodic visits to the mainland. Hamilton's letters (the earl
iest on record) to various members of the Cruger family be
tween 1770 and 1772 (when he left St. Croix to attend school
in New York) provides an interesting insight into the nature
of pre-Revolutionary trade between the Danish and American
colonies.
1
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO NICHOLAS CRUGFR
ST. CROIX, 12 November 1771
I send you herewith Copies of my Letter's per Codwise & Cunn
i n g h a m , s i n c e w h i c h n o t h i n g h a s o c c u r e d w o r t h w r i t i n g . M a r k e t s a r e
j u s t t h e s a m e e x c e p t i n g i n t h e p r i c e o f B u t t e r w h i c h i s n o w r e d u c e d
t o 1 5 & 1 6 p e r a fir k i n . Yo u r P h i l a d e l p h i a flo u r i s r e a l y v e r y b a r = ,
b e i n g o f a m o s t s w a r t h y c o m p l e x i o n & w i t h a l v e r y u n t r a c t a b l e ; t h e
B a k e r s c o m p l a i n t h a t t h e y c a n n o t b y a n y m e a n s g e t i t t o r i s e . W h e r e
f o r e & i n c o n s i d e r a t i o n o f t h e q u a n t i t y o f flo u r a t M a r k e t a n d t h e
l i t t l e d e m a n d f o r i t I h a v e s o m e t h o u g h t n o t t o r e f u s e 8 * $ f r o m a n y
g o o d p e r s o n t h a t w i l l g i v e i t , t a k i n g 4 0 t o 5 0 B a r r e l s . U p o n o p e n
ing several barrels I have observed a kind of Worm very common in
flo u r a b o u t t h e s u r f a c e , w h i c h i s a n i n d i c a t i o n o f A g e . I t c o u l d
not have been very new when t'was shipd and for all these reasons I
c o n c e i v e i t h i g h l y n e c e s s a r y t o l e s s e n t h e p r i c e o r p r o b a b l y I m a y
b e o b l i g e d i n t h e e n d t o s e l l i t a t a m u c h g r e a t e r d i s a d v a n t a a e . A t
8 h y o u w i l l g a i n b e t t e r t h a n 1 0 r v s 2 p e r b b l w h i c h i s n o t s o b a d .
/ N e w 7 Yo r k flo u r o f 1 c w t . 3 g r s . ' 3 i s g l a d l y s o l d b y e v e r y b o d y a t
8 p s . 4 a t r e t a i l & a g r e a / t 7 p a r t o f y o u r P h i l a d e l p h i a w e i g h s b u t
l i t t l e m o r e s o t h a t 8 * 5 b y t h e q u a n t i t y i s m o r e t h a n a p r o p o r t i o n a b l e
p r i c e f o r t h e d i f f e r e n c e o f w e i g h t .
T h e r e i s s t i l l o n h a n d a b o u t 2 9 0 b a r r e l s . A l l L i g h t b o r n s i s
s o l d a t 9 & n e a r a l l y o u r F a t h e r s p e r D r a p e r a t 8 p s . A s t o b r e a d I
h a v e s o l d v e r y l i t t l e . I d o n t k n o w w h a t t o t h i n k o f i t .
T h e m a t t e r b e t w e e n M r. H e y l i g e r & M r. M a h a n i s s t i l l u n s e t t l e d .
M B a s t i a n F r e n c h w h o w a s t o h a v e b e e n a r b i t r a t o r f o r t h e f o r m e r i s
a t p o r t o r i c c o a n d h e p r e t e n d s h e c a n a e t n o o n e e l s e t o s u p p l y h i s
place. Mr. French is minutely expected & it is to be hoped that
when he arrives there will he a settlement....
SOURCE: HAM- PAP-
^Nicholas Cruger, Hamilton's employer in St. Croix, was a member of a leading
New York mercantile family and one of the foremost Americans living in and trad
ing to the Virgin Islands. See Florence Lewisohn, "Alexander Hamilton's West In
dian Boyhood," What So Proudly We Hail: The Danish West Indies and the American
Revolution (St. Croix, 1975).
2Abbreviation for real, a former Spanish silver coin, the eguivalent of the
Spanish bit, an eighth of a piece of eight. In the 1770's it was the eguivalent
of about 7 pence.
1 hundredweight and 3 guarter-hundredweight, the weight of one barrel of flour
4A Spanish piece of eight. The piece of eight was the eguivalent of the Span
ish dollar, known also as a peso. On St. Croix its value was approximately 6
shillings, 6 pence. H students who have used these letters erroneously have in
terpreted ps. to mean pence.
The situation alluded to arose from the fact that Nicholas Cruger owed money
to Rapzot (or Rapsart) Heyliger, and Cruger, in turn, was owed money by Alexander
Mahan of St. Croix. Cruger wished to have this affair straightened out by havinq
Mahan pay the money to Heyliger, but Mahan refused. French was then appointed
arbitrator of the dispute. From information in Harold C. Syrett, ed. The Papers
of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. I. (N.Y., 1961) p. 12.
* * *
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO TILEMAN CRUGER1
ST. CROIX, 16 November 1771
In behalf of Mr. Nicholas Cruger (who by reason of a very ill
state of health went from this to New York the 15th Ultimo) I have
the pleasure to address you by the long expected Sloop Thunderbolt,
Capt William Newton^, Ownd by Mess/rs^y Jacob Walton, John Harris
& Nicholas Cruger, the latter of whom has written you fully concern
ing her destination - which I need not repeat.
She has on Board besides a parcel of Lumber for yourself, sun
dry Articles on Account of her Owners, as per Inclosd Bill Lading
and when you have disposed of them you'll please to Credit each par-
tie for 1/3 of the proceeds. Mr. N Cruger's proportion of this and
the Ballance of your account hitherto will more than pay for his 1/3
Cost of her first Cargo up, and for the other two I shall endeavour
to place value in your hands betimes. I only wait for a line from
you to know what will best answer.
Reports here represent matters in a very disagreeable light
with regard to the Guarda Costo's which are said to swarm upon the
Coast, but as you will be the best Judae of what danger there might
be, all is submited to your prudent direction.
Capt Newton must Arm with you as he could not so conveniently
do it here.
Give me leave to hint to you that you cannot be too particular
in your Instructions to him. I think he seems rather to want exper
ience in such Voyages.
Messrs. Walton & John H Cruger are to furnish you themselves
with their respective proportions of the Cost of the several Cargoes
The Staves on Board if by any means convenient I beg may be re
turned by the Sloop. They will command a good price here & I sup
pose little or nothing with you. Could they be got at I would not
send them down, but they are stowd promiscuously among other things.
If convenient please to deliver the Hhds3 now Containina the
Indian Meal to the Captain as Water Casks and others should he want
them. I supplied him with 20 here. I must beg your reference to
Mr. Cruaers last Letter of the 2d Ultimo for other particulars....
Our Crops will be very early so that the utmost Dispatch is
necessary to import three Cargoes of Mules in due time.
SOURCE: -HAM.'PAP.
1A brother of Nicholas Cruger, who handled the Cruger's trading concerns on
Curacao in the Dutch West Indies.
2William Newton, a resident of St. Croix, who later married the widow of
Cornelius Kortright, who died in 17 73.
Abbreviation for hogsheads.
1
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO WALTON AND CRUGER
ST. CROIX, 27 November 1771
I h a v e n o w t h e p l e a s u r e t o a c k n o w l e d g e t h e r e c e i p t o f y o u r f a
v o u r d a t e d O c t o b e r t h e 1 9 t h . b y S l o o p T h u n d e r b o l t w h i c h a r r i v e d h e r e
on Wednesday Afternoon the 16th Instant, and on the Saturday morning
f o l l o w i n g I c l e a r d h e r o u t a n d g a v e t h e C a p t a i n h i s d i s p a t c h e s f o r
C u r r a c o a , b u t h e c o u l d n o t s a i l t i l l t h e m o r n i n g a f t e r . S h e l a n d e d
h e r e o n l y
23 Hhds Indian Meal
6469 Staves
20 bbls Apples
300 Boards Inch & half
21 Kegs Bread
& 646 Ropes onions
All the rest of her Cargo (I think) must turn out better at Cur
racoa than here, or at any rate not worse. Could I have landed the
superfine Flour conveniently and without detention I should have
done it, but the Captain told me it was stowed so promiscuously that
to get at it, would require some time. Wherefore I have sent it
down to take its chance with the rest of the Cargo, there being not
a moment of time to spare, our Crops are so forward. As to the 2
Hhds Indian Meal, the kegs of Water Bread, the few Staves, and I may
add the Boards that were sent down rather improperly; they could not.
be got at or I should have landed then.
The price of common NY flour here is 7^ & 8 ps. & I fancy it
cant well be less at Curracoa. There has been large quantitys of
Rye Meal brought here lately from Copenhagen, barrels weighing 250
nt. have been sold at 3^ & 4 ps. Tis true the quality is somewhat in
ferior to that of New york, but the difference of Weight is adequate
to the inferiority of Quality so that /New/ York Rye Meal would not
fetch above 4 ps. per barrel at most & must at least be worth as much
below.
This is nearly the case with every other Article sent down,
which youll observe per Inclosd price Current. I have desird Mr.
Teleman Cruger to return the Staves by the Sloop if they will be no
incumbrance to her and to give the 2 Hhds containing the Indian Meal
to Capt Newton for Water Casks. ' I supplied him with 20 here but he
thought he should want a few more. I am selling the Indian Meal at
23 ps. per Hhd & expect flO per thousand for the Staves (all for
Crop pay). The Apples were in every respect very indifferent. The
greatest part of them I sold at 20 rys & the rest at 12. Four Rys
per piece is the price of the Boards and per 2 ps. of the kegs of
Water Bread. As to the Onions I was glad to get rid of them alto
gether for 40 ps.
A large Sloop with 70 Mules from the Main arrivd two days ago.
The terms of Sale - Joes down - which gives me high hopes that he
will be obliged to go further, Cash of all kinds being very scarce
here. Even Danish bits are not to be had much less Joes.
The Captain talks largely of Dangers & difficultys upon the
Coast but no doubt exaggerates a good deal (by way of Stimulation).
Excepting this one circumstance (a little unfavourable) every
thing has a very promising aspect with regard to the price of Mules
this Season & I hope will continue so, but I imagine we are rather
too late for 3 Cargoes. This I shall be better able to judge of by
and by.
Concerning your Tea, you may depend I shall be stricly observ
ant of your directions.
And conclusively I beg leave to assure you Gentlemen that I
gave the Sloop Thunderbolt all the dispatch I could from here. The
Articles landed from on Board of her tho triffling were very tedious
and always take up more time than other things.
SOURCE: HAM. PAP.
Jacob Walton was the business partner and brother-in-law of Nicholas Cruger.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO TILEMAN CRUGER
ST. CROIX, 1 February 1772
Two days ago Capt Newton delivered me your favour without date
& 41 Mules in such order that I have been obliged to send all of
them to pasture, and of which I expect at least a third will die.
The highest offer made me for 20 of the best was 70 ps., whereas if
they had been in good order I could readily have obtaind f40 round,
which I all along entertaind the most sanguine hopes of. Thus you
see how unfortunate the Thunderbolts first Voyage has been. But we
must try a second time. Accordingly I have put on Board her some
Codfish, Rum & Bread as per Inclosd Bill Lading & wish them to a
good Market.
Capt Newton is to supply himself with Grass on his way down &
I must beg the favour of you by all means to buy or hire him a few
Guns which is agreeable to Mr. Crugers directions to me. I should
do it here if it were possible but there are none to be had upon any
terms whatever & it would be undoubtedly a great pity that such a
Vessell should be lost for the want of them. To hire would be pre
ferable - which Capt Newton tells me may be done at 20 ps per Month
for a p/ai_7r.
It is thought by Judges that the Sloop Thunderbolt ought to
carry 60 Mules. If you think so, please to desire the Capt to do it
I have mentioned it to him, but he insists that 48 are as many as
she can conveniently hold. The more she brings the better. But I
do not pretend to be a Judge of the matter & therefore leave it to
you. But Without the utmost dispatch her second Voyage may miscarry
like the first. Please to send by the Sloops return a full state of
accounts between you & Mr. Cruger that I may enter all things pro
p e r l y.
SOURCE: HAM. PAP.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO HENRY CRUGER1
ST. CROIX, 24 February 1772
The 9th Ultimo Capt Robert Gibb handed me your favour dated
December 19th 1771 covering Invoice & Bill Lading for Sundrys which
were landed in good order agreeable thereto. I sold all your Lumber
off immediately at fl6pm, luckkily enough, the price of that art
icle being now reducd to fl2*, as great quantitys have been lately
imported from different parts of the Continent. Indeed, there must
be a vast Consumption this Crop, which makes it probably the price
will again rise unless the Crops at Windward should fall short, as
is said to be the case, whereby we shall stand fair to be overstock
ed. The Oats & Cheese I have also sold, the former at 6 rys per
^Hereafter the lower case f before any number denotes British pounds Sterling.
6
Bushel & the latter at 9 Sti per 1 . Your Mahogany is of the very
worst kind or I could readily have obtaind 6 Sti per foot for it but
as /at7 present tis blown upon 4, tis fit only for end work.
Capt Gibbs was ready to sail seven days after his arrival but
was detaind two days longer by strong contrary Winds which made it
impossible to get out of the harbour. Believe me Sir Nothing was
neglectd on my part to give him the utmost dispatch & considering
that his Cargo was stowd very Hickledy-pickledy-the proceeding part
of it being rather uppermost-I think he was dispatchd as soon as
could be expected.
Inclosd you have Invoice of Rum & Sugar shipt in the Sloop
agreeable to your orders. I could not by any means get your Casks
filld by any of the planters but shall dispose of the Hhds, out of
which the Rum was started, for your account from which however will
proceed a small loss. Also you have account of Sloop's Port-charges
etc. which I hope & doubt not youll find right. Youll be a little
surprizd when I tell you Capt Gibb was obligd to leave his freight
money behind. The reason is this. Mr. Burling5 could by no means
raise his part. Tis true he might have been compeld by Law -but that
would have been altogether imprudent, for to have enforced payment
& to have converted that payment into Joes6, which were extremely
scarce, would have been attended with a detention of at least 10 to
12 days & the other freights were very triffling, so that the whole
now rests with me, and God knows when I shall be able to receive Mr.
Burlings part who is long Winded enough, Mr. Beckman7 begs to pre
sent his best Respects....
SOURCE: HAM. PAP.
^"Father of Nicholas Cruger and a prominent New York merchant active
in trade between New York, Bristol and the West Indies.
Abbreviation for stivers, a Dutch coin, the eguivalent of about
one penny.
Pound.
4 , 
i 
j
I.e., waterlogged.
Thomas Burling, a St. Croix merchant and member of the firm of
Burling and Van Wyck.
Abbreviation of Johannes, a Portuguese coin worth about f5 at
that time.
David Beekman, a St. Croix merchant who had formerly been Nicholas
Cruger's partner, was a member of an influential New York mercantile
f a m i l y.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO NICHOLAS CRUGER
ST CROIX, 24 February 1772
....I now congratulate myself upon the pleasure of addressing
you again, but am sorry I shall be obligd to communicate some dis
satisfactory occurrencies.
Your Sloop Thunderbolt arrivd here the 29th of the preceding
Month with 41 More Skeletons. A worse parcel of Mules never was
seen; she took in at first 48 & lost 7 on the passage. I sent all
that were able to walk to pasture, in Number 33. The other 8 could
hardly stand for 2 Minutes together & in spite of the greatest care
4 of them are now in Limbo. The Surviving 4 I think are out of Dan
ger, and shall likewise be shortly sent to pasture. I refusd two
great offers made me upon their first landing to Wit 70 ps. a head
for the Choice of 20, and 15 ps. a Head for the abovementiond In
valids, which may give you a proper idea of the condition they were
in. Taking this along with it-that if they had been such as we had
reason to hope they would be-I could with pleasure have had f40 round
so unfortunate has the Voyage been. However by sending them to pas
ture I expect to get flOO round for those now alive. 17 are already
gone at that price and as they recruit fast the rest I hope will soon
go at the same. I pay 2 ps. a Head Montly for pasturage. The Sloop
was 27 days on her passage from the Main-not for want of swiftness,
for tis now known she Sails well, but from continual Calms & the
little wind she had was quite against her. Capt Newton seemd to be
much concernd at his 111 luck tho I believe he had done all in his
power to make the voyage Successful. But no Man can command the
Winds. The Mules were pretty well chosen & had been once a good par
cel. I receivd only a few lines from your Brother: no Sales nor any
thing else; he excusd himself being Sick. I desird him as directed
to furnish the Sloop with a few Guns but she went intirely defence
less to the Main; notwithstanding several Vessels had been obligd to
put back to get out of the way of the Launches with which the Coast
swarms. When Capt Newton urgd him to hire a few Guns for the Sloop
He replied to this effect-that I only had mentioned the matter to
him but that you had never said a word about it. This last time I
mentioned it again & begd the Captain to hire 4 Guns himself if your
Brother did not which he has promisd to do. The Expence will not be
above 15. or 20 ps., and one escape may not be followd by a second,
neither do I see any reason to run the risque of it. I sent down on
your account 10 Hhds Codfish, 8 Hhds Rum, 40 Philad- barrels & 8
Teirces Bread. The Rum Cost 2/7*5 & is worth 5 bits a Gallon at Cur-
acoa. I believe those Articles will answer pretty well.
Upon application to Mr Heyns I found I had been misinformd &
that Mr. Hunter had no Attorney here; whereupon I wrote him a Letter
to St. Thomas & have sent him three Copys of the Same without re
ceiving any answer. Mr. Ringger1 is here and is going over in a day
or two. I intend to give him a Letter & beg he'll ask for an answer
and send it over. I am a good deal surprisd at Capt. Hunters Silence
Brig Nancys Accounts are inclosd. The Tea is arrivd; it Cost
20*2 Sti, but there is a discount of 4 per Ct^ for prompt payment. I
shall send Copy of the Invoice & c. to Mess/rs^/ Walton & Cruger.
The Lumber you contracted for is arrivd & I am a good deal puzzled
t o f u l fil y o u r e n g a g e m e n t s ; i t i s r a t h e r e a r l y y o u k n o w t o r e c e i v d
& Cash is scarce. Mr. Beekman would Ship on Freight which would
ease the matter but he can receive none yet. However I must man
a g e s o m e h o w o r o t h e r. I t w o u l d b e a p i t y t o p a y d e a d f r e i g h t .
A s t o i n t r o d u c i n g W i n e , i t d e p e n d s u p o n C i r c u m s t a n c e s . T h e r e
i s n o n e h e r e a t p r e s e n t a n d i f y o u r s c o u l d b e b r o u g h t w h i l e t h e
s c a r c i t y c o n t i n u e s , i t w o u l d n o t b e d i f fic u l t t o o b t a i n p e r m i s s i o n
t o l a n d i t . O t h e r - w i s e i t w i l l b e i m p r a c t i c a b l e , u n l e s s o u r G e n
eral2 who is momently expected should bring any new indulgence con
c e r n i n g t h a t a r t i c l e . B u t t h e w h o l e i s a c h a n c e .
M a n y c h a n g e s o f O f fic e r s a r e t a l k d o f ; i n p a r t i c u l a r t i s s a i d
J u d g e S e v e l w i l l b e s u p e r c e d e d b y J e g e r 4 t h e i n f o r m e r & t h e C o l l
e c t o r b y t h e p r e s e n t C o m p t r o l e r, w h i c h i s a l l t h a t o c c u r s t o m e n o w
SOURCE: HAM. PAP.
■^John Rengger, St. Croix merchant and husband of Nicholas Cruger's
s i s t e r - i n - l a w .
2 U l r i c h W i l h e l m R o e p s t o r f f , G o v e r n o r G e n e r a l o f S t . C r o i x f r o m
J u n e 8 , 1 7 7 1 , t o A p r i l 5 , 1 7 7 3 .
3 E v a n H . S e v e l ( o r S e v i l ) , j u d g e o f t h e S t . C r o i x U p p e r C o u r t .
4Hans Jeger, who was a resident and property owner in St. Croix
u n ti l 1 7 7 5 , w h e n h e sa i l e d fo r C o p e n h a g e n .
* * *
T h e D a n i s h i s l a n d s , l i k e a l l o t h e r N e w W o r l d c o l
o n i e s , w e r e s u b j e c t t o a m e r c a n t i l i s t i c s y s t e m d e
s i g n e d t o r e g u l a t e t h e i r c o m m e r c e t o t h e a d v a n t a g e
o f t h e M o t h e r C o u n t r y. M o s t t r o p i c a l p r o d u c t s h a d
t o b e s e n t d i r e c t l y t o D e n m a r k i n D a n i s h v e s s e l * .
H o w e v e r, i n r e c o g n i t i o n o f t h e i s l a n d s ' g r e a t d e p
e n d e n c y u p o n t h e m a i n l a n d c o l o n i e s f o r f o o d s t u ff s
a n d p l a n t a t i o n s u p p l i e s , e x c e p t i o n s w e r e m a d e i n
t h e r e g u l a t i o n s t o p e r m i t a p e r c e n t a g e o f l o c a l l y
produced rum, molasses and sugar to be shipped to
N o r t h A m e r i c a i n A m e r i c a n s h i p s . D u r i n g t h e r e v o l
u t i o n a r y e r a N o r t h A m e r i c a n - D a n i s h We s t I n d i a
t r a d e r e l a t i o n s w e r e g o v e r n e d b y t h e D a n i s h O r d i n
ance of April 9, 1764, which made St. Thomas and
S t . J o h n f r e e - p o r t s , a l l o w e d N o r t h A m e r i c a n s t o
i m p o r t p r o v i s i o n s , p l a n t a t i o n s t o r e s a n d s l a v e s o n
p a y m e n t o f a 5 p e r c e n t d u t y, a n d p e r m i t t e d i s l a n d
e r s t o s e l l c o t t o n a n d s u g a r t o N o r t h A m e r i c a n m e r
c h a n t s u p t o o n e - h a l f t h e p r i c e o f t h e i r i m p o r t e d
c a r g o , w h i l e t h e r e m a i n i n g o n e - h a l f c o u l d b e i n
<zi
Christiansted Wharf 1815
molasses and rum. Partly because of this and
other liberalized regulations the trade of the
Danish islands with the mainland expanded app
reciably in the revolutionary era. Neverthe
less, as the following letter makes clear, Amer
ican merchants trading with St. Croix faced some
imposing obstacles. The letter sets forth some
of the conditions confronting American merchants
who traded with St. Croix.
CHARLES READ, JR. TO JAMES PEMBERTON 2
ST. CROIX, 8 March 1774.
...In answer to your request relative to this Island and its
trade, I am to acquaint you that the King of Denmark ... bought this
Island from the King of France for 140 thousand pounds, who granted
it to a Company /the Danish West Indian Company/ to settle and grant
the lands subject to such regulations as his Danish Majesty and his
Council of Commerce should from time to time make; and that the pro
duce of it should be shipped in Danish bottoms to Copenhagen. It
imposed no duties of imports. After sometime_they imposed 5% on all
imports but salt meat, which was 25% from No/rth/ America. That they
should have liberty to export sugars to half the value. Thus it con
tinued until January last, when the duty of 25% was lowered to 5% with
like liberty, but a prohibition to butter and cheese. In January
the King's Ordinance for weighing all goods and selling by Danish
weight, and for Stamping all Books ... was proclaimed. This made
a great stirr among the people, but they have been obliged to sub-
mitt, as no ... account or receipt is valid unless Stamped. But
as to the goods tho' weighed, they put their price upon the casks.
In order to put a final stop to the trade for English goods a pia-
card was published ten days ago that all dry goods then in the Island
should be Stamped, but that in 12 days thereafter if any were found
in the shops, stores or Nearo baskets, they should be forfeited and
and owners fined. These Negro baskets are in the nature of our foot
pedlars and the best families in the Island have several of them. It
has been known here that on petition of the Danish ship masters ...
the liberty of exporting sugar under the faith of which cargoes have
been landed, has been suspended till the Danish ships are loaded,
and tis feared something like it will be done this year; if it should
it will involve many people in great distress; but the Government is
despotic and the General and his Council can banish any person from
the Island and confiscate his estate. There are many Courts here
and some of them might be useful, but the fees are very exhorbitant
and such a shocking venality reigns thro' the whole that an English
man cannot bear the thought of. Tis no uncommon thing for a Judge
to set his price on his Judgement, which if you don't readily pay
you are either delayed til your patience is worn out, or, if the mat
ter is not clear as the day ... he may bring a Judgement against you.
All the Judaes buy, or rather form, the offices from the Crown and it
has been known that a subscription has been handed about to enable a
judge to live and pay rent.
10
B u t t o r e t u r n t o t h e t r a d e . A t p r e s e n t t h e I s l a n d i s o v e r
stocked and Sugars now on hoard the Brigs cost 48/ and some addit
i o n a l e x p e n s e , p l u s 3 % f o r p e r m i s s i o n , i f y o u h a v e n o t a l l d u e t o
you that you want to take, you must buy from those who have ...
T h e r e i s a l a r g e c r e d i t g i v e n h e r e , y o u c a n n o t e x p e c t y o u r p a y u n
t i l t h e C r o p , a n d y o u a r e o f t e n o b l i g e d t o w a i t a s e c o n d . R u m i s
h e r e g e n e r a l l y l o w e r t h a n i n t h e E n g l i s h I s l a n d s . . . a n d q u i t e a s
g o o d , b u t t h e n t i s n o n - i m p o r t a b l e w i t h y o u . N / e w _ 7 E n g l a n d m e n w i l l
v e n t u r e a t i t . T h e l a n d e d e s t a t e s i n t h e I s l a n d a r e g e n e r a l l y d i p t
i n a m o r t g a g e c a l l e d t h e D u t c h L o a n , w h e r e t h e y t o o k b i l l s f o r 3 . 6
9 months, and a year ... and the mortgages were seconded and sent
h o m e a n d a l l b u t t h e fir s t b i l l s p r o t e s t e d a n d t h e m o r t g a g e s h a d
f a i l e d . T h i s w i l l g r e a t l y a f f e c t m o r e t h a n o n e h a l f o f t h e I s l a n d
a n d r e n d e r c r e d i t v e r y p r e c a r i o u s . T h e P o r t c h a r g e s o f a B r i g a t i n e
are about 25 to 30 pence, besides her duties, which are so much and
in' a month ... a Chamber of Commerce may make these double. This
t r a d e c a n n o t b e c a r r i e d o n w i t h o u t m u c h s m u g g l i n g . . . .
SOURCE: PEMBERTON PAPERS, HSP .
For a concise discussion of the famous Ordinance of 1764 and Danish West In
dia - North America trade generally see Jean L. Willis' excellent study "The
Trade Between North America and the Danish West Indies 1756-1807, With Special
Reference to St. Croix," Columbia University, Ph.D., 1963.
2A prominent Philadelphia merchant with an extensive West India trade, Pem-
berton was apparently discouraged by Read's letter from trading with St. Croix,
for there are no further letters from or to that island in his correspondence.
The trade of the Danish islands with British North
America suffered a setback when Great Britain enacted
the Sugar Act of 1764, which prohibited the importat
ion of all foreign produced rum into her continental
colonies. In an unsuccessful effort to counteract
the threat which this pernicious decree posed to St.
Croix' lucrative rum trade, the British inhabitants of
that island sent a petition to the House of Commons
praying that St. Croix be exempted from the Sugar Act.
This petition, reproduced below not only provides some
idea of the importance of St. Croix' trade with North
America, but underscores the prominent economic, soc
ial and cultural influence of Englishmen in the histor
ical development of that Island.
PETITION OF THE BRITISH RESIDENTS OF ST. CROIX, 1765.
To t h e H o n o u r a b l e t h e C o m m o n s o f G r e a t B r i t a i n , t h e P a r l i a
ment assembled:
11
iff DIK1X5FX 7)
ST. CROIX 1767
The Case Of a considerable Number of
British and American Merchants, and of
the British Inhabitants and Proprietors
of the Island of Santa Cruz:
SHEWETH,
That the Island of Santa Cruz is situate in Lat. 17 10', and
Long. 313° 20'; and belongs to the King of Denmark.
In the Year 1741 , the Danes entered upon a Plan of settling
it; but the Undertaking was attended with so little Success, that
they soon had Recourse to the Invitation and Fncouragement of For
eigners, but the Establishment of every Regulation which could tend
to render their Introduction pleasing to themselves and advantaa-
eous to the Island.
2
The Example of Mr. Tuite , an English Gentleman, who made a
very large Purchase in Santa Cruz, in 1749, and the considerable
Profit which he reaped from it, induced many others, English,
Irish, and Scotch, to become Proprietors; insomuch, that it was
computed, that at least One-half of the Island was, in 1760, the
a c t u a l P r o p e r t y o f B r i t i s h S u b j e c t s . A t t h i s Ti m e , i t i s b e l i e v e d ,
there are 1200 Families in Santa Cruz; and that, if these, 700 are
B r i t i s h .
The Course of Trade, which took Place in Consequence of these
Settlements, was this: The American Merchant supplied the British
and Danish Planter of Santa Cruz with Negroes and every Utensil em
ployed in Cultivation, Provisions, Lumber, Stock, and all Sorts of
British Manufactures for Apparel and Furniture; in Return for which,
the British American Merchant received the Rum, Sugar, and Cotton
of the Island.
EVERY STAGE OF THE FREIGHT WAS PERFORMED IN BRITISH BOTTOMS.
It is believed, that this Trade has been so far extended, that,
for 'several Years preceding 1764, the annual Amount of the Value of
the Produce, which Great Britain drew from the Island of Santa Cruz,
was, at least fl20,000.
The Importance and national Advantage of this Commerce is eas
ily collected, both from the Nature of the Exports which the Island
takes, and of the Produce in which it pays for them.
As to the Exports to the Island; the Island of Santa Cruz is
supposed to have a resident Stock of Negroes, to the Number of
16,000; 12,000 of which are computed to have been bought, within
Seven Years past, of the British Merchants: 1100 is the annual Sup
ply required to repair and keep up the original Stock: each Negro
should be calculated at f30 and therefore it is evident, that, be
sides f360,000 received by the British Merchant, for the Introduc
tion of 12,000 of the original Stock, the Island of Santa Cruz, as
12
long as the Commerce continues upon the Footing on which it stood 
from 1749 to 1764, and the British Merchant continues to furnish 
it with Negroes, will annually pay to Great Britain f60,000 for 
Slaves only. 
To this should be added, upon a moderate Estimate, 
for Lumber, Provisions, Utensils, Manufactures, etc. the Sum of 
f60,000; which together made f120,000. 
As to the Nature of the Produce of the Island, and the commer~ 
cial Application and Benefit of that, it will hardly be denied, 
that the British West India Islands are not able to serve the North 
Americans with the Rum which their Consumption and Commerce require; 
and therefore it is hoped, they will not object to the Importation 
of such a Quantity of it, as Santa Cruz is now known to make, upon 
Conditions which leave a clear and ample Preference to their own 
Produce, and which will only not leave the British Trade with an 
Island, so near British in all real Benefits of Commerce, upon the 
same Footing, and under the same Hardships and Prohibition, with 
the French Sugar Settlements. 
As to the Sugar grown in the Island, it is not wished on the 
one hand, to consider it any otherwise than as all other Foreign 
Sugars; and on the other, it is presumed, that the Freight of these, 
like all other Foreign Sugars, will be permitted in British Bottoms. 
With respect to Cotton, it is needless to observe, how much 
our extensive improving Cotton Manufacture suffers, for want of an 
Encrease of this Material; but it is essential to observe, that un-
less the British Merchant be enabled to buy the Santa Cruz Rum, by 
being admitted to have a Market for it, it is now become impossible 
for him to depend either upon the Freight of the Sugars, or the 
Purchase of the Cotton. 
For since the Act of Parliament passed in 1764 3 , prohibiting 
the Importation of all Foreign Rum into the Plantations, the Court 
of Denmark has issued an Edict, by which its Inhabitants are forbid, 
in the Purchase of any foreign Commodities, to pay more than One-
half of the whole Value in Sugars; Denmark proposing thereby, to 
counter-act the Operation of our Statute of Prohibition, by making 
the Sale of Rum necessary to the Purchase of Sugar at Santa Cruz. 
This Regulation, with the Act of Prohibition, as Things now stand, 
must soon destroy the whole British Trade with Santa Cruz; for with-
out Rum, the British Merchant cannot vest his entire Cargo, the 
Growth of COTTON being not more than enough to make 25 per Cent. on 
the Value of the remaining Half of the Cargoes; the Island yield-
ing no other material Produce, and the current Money being a base 
Coin, not to be got at its real Value, and not capable of a Foreign 
Currency. 
The British Proprietors of this Island, having thus ventured 
humbly to represent the real Situation of it, the Nature, Extent, 
and Articles of the Trade carried on there, from the Several Parts 
of His Majesty's Dominions, and the final Balance of it to the 
Great reasonable Favour of the Parliament, not expecting to be put 
upon the same Footing with the British West Indian Islands; but, 
13 
on the Contrary, solliciting only that, being British Subjects, and 
in so large a Proportion Proprietors of an Island, titularly Danish, 
but to almost every Purpose of Commerce actually British, it may be 
thought not unreasonable to give them, in the Admission of so small 
a Quantity as 7000 Hogsheads of Rum, a middle Situation between our 
own West India Islands, and the Foreign Settlements in general: ·and 
that, not merely for the Sake of the Sale of this Quantity of Rum, 
but to prevent the Loss of the several Branches of Trade, and the 
Exportation of the several British Manufactures, which the Edict 
beforementioned has now rendered dependent upon it4. 
SOURCE: 
WEST INDIA MANUSCRIPTS, IRF. 
1 Actually, Denmark purchased St. Croix from France in 1734 and settlement 
commenced immediately. 
2Nicholas Tuite, formerly qf Montserrat, who owned several plantations on St. 
Croix. 
3 The Sugar Act of 1764. 
4It would appear that the effects of the Sugar Act were not as disasterous as 
anticipated. 
An active smuggling network, chiefly through Connecticut, was soon 
in operation, and at the start of the American Revolution St. Croix was provid-
ing 13 percent of all rum imported into the thirteen colonies. 
See John J. 
McCusker, Jr., "The Rum Trade and the Balance of Payments of the Thirteen Contin-
ental Colonies, 1650-1775," University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D., 1970, p. 351. 
*** 
On the eve of the American Revolution the Danish West 
Indies were governed by an authoritarian political sys-
tem which vested absolute power in the hands of the Dan-
ish King and his representatives. 
The British referred 
to the system as despotic, and indeed, in contrast to 
the British colonial system which accorded powerful col-
onial assemblies with considerable control over local 
affairs, this assessment rings true. 
In the Danish col-
onies all decisions respecting local government were 
made in Denmark. 
Local assemblies, known as Burgher 
Councils, did exist in both St. Thomas and St. Croix, 
but their role was advisory and administrative, and sub-
ordinate to the Governor-General. 
For the most part the 
islanders suffered silently under authoritarian rule. 
Occasionally, however, a particularly on~rous regulation 
would galvanize them into action, leading to demands for 
a more responsive colonial administration and increased 
self-government. 
One such incident occured on the eve 
of the American Revolution, when in 1773 the King of Den-
mark imposed a Stamp Act on his colonial subjects. 
This 
act, so similiar to the infamous Stamp Act which had first 
sparked American resistance to despotic rule eight years 
14 
earlier, required that stamps had to be purchased 
for most public and private transactions. 
News of 
this exacting regulation provoked immediate discon-
tent in the islands, as is illustrated by the first 
two documents reproduced below. 
Perhaps inspired 
by events in America, one hundred and forty Cruzan 
merchants and planters petitioned Denmark in January 
1774, to repeal the act. 
When their plea fell on 
deaf ears, the St. Croix Burgher Council sent a fol-
low-up memorial, part of which is reproduced in the 
third selection below. 
Characteristically, Denmark 
ignored the Cruzap remonstrances and the despised 
Stamp Act remained in force. 
PETER MARKOE TO ABRAHAM MARKOEI 
ST. CROIX, 4 March, 1774 
... The Stamp Act 2 was put in Force about a week ago. 
It is 
looked upon as the greatest Grievance This Island has ever Rnown. 
The Money arising from this Tax, though very considerable, is the 
smallest Part of the Grievance. 
The cruel Restraint it lays upon 
Trade, the Embarrassment it occasions to many (and indeed to al-
most all the) Inhabitants, who are ignorant of the Laws and Lan-
guage of Denmark, and the numberless Opportunities it affords to 
Government of punishing those, who transgress thro' Ignorance and 
not thro' Design, will be severely felt by all Ranks. 
The Inhab-
itants have petitioned the Burgher-Council and the Burgher-Counci1 3 
have petitioned or intend petitioning the King to have it repealed . 
I have been informed that it is your Intention I should go to 
England this Spring to take Orders. 
But as I have heard nothing 
of it immediately from yourself, I should be glad if you would sig-
nify your Pleasure to me on that Subject by the first Opportunity. 
As I have Reason to believe you never concurred heartily in my De-
sire of being a Clergyman, I am willing to think no more of that 
Way of Life; nevertheless if I find that you heartily approve of 
it I will abide by my first and most prevailing Inclination. 
Several Friends have of late hinted to me the Advantages and 
Emoluments I might acquire by being acquainted with the Danish 
Laws and Language they have assured me that the present set of Law-
yers are of the lowest Class, both with Respect to Character and 
abilities; that if a Man respectable in Character and Connection 
were to practise the Law in these Islands he would most assuredly 
make his Fortune, be of infinite Service to his Friends, and af-
ford Protection to the greater Part of the Inhabitants, who are 
certainly very much harrassed by a Parcel of Petti-foggers. 
It 
is too well known that a Man of broken Fortune and Broken Character 
15 
in Copenhagen has immediate recourse to St. Croix to reestablish 
both. 
It is very certain that they often retrieve their Fortunes. 
As for their Characters, they may be esteemed by their own Party; 
but it is a lamentable Truth that any of his Majesty's Subjects 
born an Englishman who has a Dane for his Competitor stands a very 
poor Chance at Law •..• 
SOURCE: 
ABRAHAM MARKOE JR. LETTERS, MARKOE PAPERS, HSP. 
lAbraham Markoe was a wealthy Cruzan planter and merchant, who had recently 
taken up residence in Philadelphia. 
His fascinating story is well told by 
Florence Lewisohn in Chapter I of her pamphlet, "What So Proudly We Hail" 
The 
Danish West Indies and the American Revolution, (1975). 
Peter Markoe, Abraham's 
son, remained on St. Croix to manage the family's affairs. 
2Decreed in Denmark in 1773, this Act required stamps to be purchased for most 
public and private transactions. It particularly hurt merchants, who were re-
quired to fill out so many papers. 
3In January, 1774, one hundred and forty Cruzan merchants and planters pet-
itioned the King of Denmark for the repeal of this exacting regulation, but to 
no effect. 
*** 
FROM A CORRESPONDENT IN ST. CROIX 1774 
When heaven, indulgent blessed this land 
with peace and plenty crown'd 
Like heavenly dew von Prock's* hand 
dispens'd his kindness round. 
But base ingratitude soon took place 
In these polluted times 
Heaven sent a scour age to all our race 
to expiate our crimes. 
It pity our deplored state 
Heaven changed the mighty woe 
Till seeing what was wrapt in fate 
Might prove our overthrow. 
But what repentence have we shewn 
To Heaven's indulgent care 
Tho' storms and hurricanes we have known 
When Roegstorp* governed here. 
O! be that name forever dear 
While age to age shall roll 
When storms and plagues and famine near 
Think on his generous soul. 
In vain we weep, in vajn we sigh 
16 
His loss lament in vain 
No friendly aid, no help is nigh 
Nought best despair and pain. 
For now behold an impious hand 
To curse our wretched race 
Has dealt destruction round the land 
And made the Stamps take place. 
May Heaven appeased reverse our fate 
While horrors haunt his bed 
And sleepless vengeance ever wait 
To blast his guilty head. 
Amen. 
*These gentlemen when they governed St. Croix made the happiness of 
the people the rule of their conduct, but the present governor /Pet-
er Clausen7 has levied a tax by way of a Stamp on the inhabitants 
of that Island, which greatly distresses them, especially those born 
in the British Dominions, who forget they live in an arbitrary Gov-
ernment. 
SOURCE: 
THE CARIBBEAN AND GENERAL GAZETTE, 5 FEB RUP-..RY , 1774. 
*** 
PETITION OF THE ST. CROIX BURGHER COtJN:::IL TO THE KING OF DENMARK, 1774 
... your Majesty's as well as other Colonies in the West Indies 
cannot subsist without the assistance of North America as from thence 
we are continually furnished with all kinds of Provisions and Lum-
ber which no State or Power in Europe can by any,means do; for it's 
well-known, that North America has for some years past even saved 
great parts of Europe from famine by her assistance of corn wheat 
and flour. 
We for that reason have always enjoyed the privilege of 
that trade to this colony through the Indulgence of your most grac-
ious Majesty's Royal Predecessors, but under such restrictions as 
made provisions amount to us almost double of what was ordinarily 
paid by other colonies. 
Now that the stamp paper is enforced we 
must expect that the North Americans will entirely forsake us as 
the very name of stamp paper is obnoxious to them and will operate 
to us a prohibition, should this be the case, the Planters here will 
be obliged to turn a considerable part of their sugar plantations 
into provisions. 
This will greatly distress the planters/ however 
necessary for the support of Life/ and lessen your Majesty's rev-
enues, and also put a stop to the advantage our Mother Country reaps 
from the Sugar Colonies .... 
SOURCE: 
QUOTED FROM JEAN LOUISE WILLIS, "THE TRADE BEThTEFN NORTH AMERICA 
AND THE DANISH WEST INDIES, 1756-1807, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
ST. CROIX," PH.D. THESIS,COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
1963, p. 81. 
17 
PHILIP FRENEAN 
During the revolutionary era most North Americans 
viewed the Danish West Indies as valuable trading 
partners; a source of personal profit, or, during 
the war, as an arsenal of democracy. 
But at least 
one American, the poet Philip Freneau, who lived 
on St. Croix in the years 1776-1777, perceived them 
in a different light. 
Seeking a sanctuary from the 
pressures and demands of the revolutionary struggle 
in which he had been an active participant, Freneau, 
similar to today's tourist, regarded St. Croix as 
a tropical paradise in which man could reestablish 
contact with luxuriant nature. 
Freneau's prose 
"Account of the Island of Santa Cruz" and his poem 
"the Beauties of Santa Cruz" written in 1776, pro-
vide us with a unique glimpse of that island at the 
outbreak of the struggle for American independence 
as seen through the sensitive eyes of the "poet of 
the revolution". 
The reader's attention is partic-
ularly drawn to Freneau's anti-slavery sentiments, 
which were an early expression of America's anti-
slavery movement. 
PHILIP FRENEAU: 
ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND OF SANTA CRUZ: 
CONTAINING 
AN ORIGINAL POEM ON THE BEAUTIES OF THAT ISLAND. 
IN A LETTER TO 
A.P. ESQ. 
As I resided a considerable time on the island of Santa Cruz, 
it is but natural I should say something concerning it. 
The appear-
ance of this island as you approach it from the ocean, is inexpress-
ibly beautiful. 
The whole isle is divided into square plantations 
cutting each other every way at right angles. 
The verdure of the 
canes, which are of a most lively green, afford a pleasure to the 
eye which is not so striking in any northern country. 
Santa Cruz is 
about 28 or 30 miles in length from east to west; and at most is 
not more than 4 miles broad, and in general much less . 
••• There are two towns on St. Cruz, Bassend or Bassin, so call-
ed formerly by the French, i.e. Bason, in respect to the harbour, 
and a smaller town at the west end called by the Danes Frederick-
stadt, at the other is Christianstadt. 
Bassend is situate upon a 
pretty level spot at the foot of a mountain close to the water side; 
it may contain 5 or 600 houses, some of them very handsome build-
ings of stone, but in general of wood. 
The harbour is defended from 
the sea by a continued reef of rocks upon which the sea breaks with 
a continual roar. 
There are only two narrow passages through this 
reef into the harbour, one for ships the other for sloops and ves-
sels of a moderate draught of water. 
This harbour will contain 2 
or 300 sail of vessels, and is always as smooth as a mill-pond, with 
excellent anchoring ground in one, two, three, or four fathoms, but 
not much more I believe. 
Within the harbour is a small island con-
taining three or four acres of ground, upon which is built an ele-
gant edifice for the use of the king's pilot who keeps his look-out 
from hence for all vessels that heave in sight. 
The pilot is here 
a man of consequence, being ranked as a king's officer, and keeps 
18 
only one small sloop-rigged boat with a deputy, who, with three or 
four Negroes, conducts all the business: 
There is a town wharf here 
but not water enough for any thing but boats to come alongside; all 
the shipping are obliged to lie at anchor. 
Within a stone throw of 
this wharf to the eastward stands a handsome fort, called Christian-
swaern, which commands the whole harbour. 
Bassend is twelve miles 
from the most eastwardly part of the island, and as well as Frede-
rickstadt, is situated upon the north side. 
From this town up to 
the east end of the island is generally laid out in plantations of 
cotton, or else pasture lands for keeping mules, sheep, neat cattle 
and the like: 
But when you travel from Bassend down towards the 
west, the scene is inexpressibly charming, and even those that have 
no taste to admire the beauties of nature, would at the view be 
forced to confess that the vales of Paradise were now displayed to 
the eye in their primeaval beauty. 
From the summits of the hills 
which rise with an easy ascent, you look forward as far as the eye 
can reach over the most enchanting plains and little vallies. 
On 
the right hand towards the north are high mountains bordering on the 
sea covered with wood. 
To use the words of Milton, 
"Mountains on whose barren breast, 
The labouring clouds do often rest." 
Towards the south the land sloped away with a gentle descent towards 
the sea, which you have in sight all the way. 
The square plantations 
of sugar cane with their regular intervals; the tall cocoa-nut trees, 
with the planter's habitations surrounded with orange and other fruit 
trees; the exact straightness of the road and the charming mildness 
of the climate, give one the idea of an inchanted island, or such 
as we read of in romance. 
Too much cannot be said of the happy cli-
mate of this and the neighbouring islands. 
The sky is ever serene 
and unclouded in comparison to that of the northern countries; there 
are never any heavy continued rains, the land is watered by gentle 
showers, and it is the rarest thing in the world to lose sight of 
the sun ~or two hours together after he is above the horizon. 
The 
days and nights are pretty equally divided, each never being much 
more or less than twelve hours. 
From ten o'clock in the morning 
til four in the afternoon the heat is somewhat troublesome, but even 
then you are fanned with a brisk dry wind always from the eastward, 
which renders it as least tolerable. 
The evenings and nights are 
cool and refreshing. 
The moon and stars shine with an extraordinary 
brightness, owing I suppose to their reflection on the water of the 
ocean, which surrounds these happy lands. 
The town at the west end 
is but mean and ordinary, consisting of a fort, and perhaps 80 or 
90 wooden houses. 
The harbour is nothing but an open road, where 
however ships lie in the utmost security at their moorings, the bot-
tom being good for anchorage, and the wind always offshore. 
About 
two miles to the eastward of this town along the seashore, is the 
estate of capt. Hanson, into which the sea has formed a beautiful 
little bay, called Buttler's Bay, about 100 yards across; it has a 
sandy shore and an excellent landing, though all the rest of the 
shore is sharp craggy rocks. 
My agreeable residence at this place 
for above two years off and on during the wars in America, renders 
the idea of it but too pleasing, and makes me feel much the same an-
xiety at the distance from it as Adam did after he was banished from 
19 
the bowers of Eden. 
The only disagreeable circumstance attending this island, which 
it has in common with the rest, is the cruel and detestable slavery 
of the negroes. 
"If you have tears prepare to shed them now." 
A 
description of the slavery they endure would be too irksome and un-
pleasant to me; and to those who have not beheld it, would be in-
credible. 
Sufficient be it to say, that no class of mankind in the 
known world un~ergo so complete a servitude as the common negroes 
in the West-Indies. 
It casts a shade over the native charms of 
the country; it blots out the beauties of the eternal spring which 
Providence has there ordained to reign, and amidst all the profu-
sion of bounties which nature has feattered, the brightness of the 
heaven, the mildness of the air, and the luxuriancy of the vegetable 
kingeom, it leaves me melancholy and disconsolate, convinced that 
there is no pleasure in this world without its share of pain. 
And 
thus the earth, which were it not for the lust of pride and domin-
ion, might be an earthly paradise, is, by the ambition and over-
bearing nature of mankind, rendered an eternal scene of desolation, 
woe, and horror; the weak goes to the wall, while the strong pre-
vails; and after our ambitious phrenzy had turned the world upside 
down, we are contented with a narrow spot, and leave our follies 
and cruelties to be acted over again, by every succeeding genera-
tion. 
But to return: 
the only natural failing I know of here, is, 
the hurricanes, which are storms of wind that blow with an incon-
ceivable fury, and often carry away all before them. 
They are so 
much the more dangerous, as they do not blow steadily from one 
point, but often go round the compass in less than half an hour. 
There are melancholy remains in Santa Cruz, of the havoc they made 
in 1772. 
There was also one on Sept. 7. 1776, while I was on the 
island. 
It exceeded any thing I had ever seen before; but however 
did not do much damage, the strongest of it not lasting above six 
hours. 
I believe the best thing I can do with the rest of this paper 
is to transcribe a few dull heavy lines which I composed near two 
years ago on the spot. 
Sick of thy northern glooms, come shepherd seek 
less rigorour climes, and a more friendly sky: 
Why shouldst thou toil amidst that frozen ground, 
Where half year snows a barren prospect lie? 
When thou mayst go where never frost was seen, 
Or north-west winds with cutting fury blow; 
Where never ice congeal'd the limpid stream, 
Where never mountain crown'd its head with snow. 
Two weeks, with prosperous gales, thy barque shall bear 
To isles that flouish in perpetual green, 
Where richest herbage glads each shady vale, 
And ever-verdant plants on every hill are seen. 
Nor dread the dangers of the billowy deep: 
Autumnal gales shall safely waft thee o'er: 
20 
Put off the timid heart, or man unblest, 
Ne'er shalt thou reach this gay enchanting shore. 
So some dull minds, in spite of age and care, 
Are grown so wedded to this globe below, 
They never wish to cross death's dusky main 
That parting them and happiness, doth flow. 
Tho' reason's voice must whisper to the foul 
That Nobler climes for man the Gods design. 
Come shepherd haste the rising breezes blow: 
No more the slumbering winds thy barque confine. 
From the vast caverns of old Ocean's bed, 
St. Cruz arising laves her humed waist: 
The threatening waters roar on every side; 
For every side by ocean is embrac'd. 
Sharp craggy rocks repel the surging brine, 
Whose cavern'd sides by restless ocean wore, 
Resemblance claim to that remoter isle, 
Where once the prince of winds the sceptre bore. 
Betwixt the Tropick and the Midway Line, 
In happiest climate lies this envy'd isle; 
Trees bloom throughout the year, flowers ever blow, 
And fragrant Flora wears a lasting smile. 
No lowering skies are here; the neighbouring sun, 
Clear and unveil'd his brilliant journey goes; 
Each morn emerging from the azure main, 
And sinking there each evening to repose. 
In June's fair month, the spangled traveller gains 
The utmost limits of his northern way, 
And blesses with his beams cold lands remote, 
Sad Greenland's coast and Hudson's frozen bay . 
. The shivering swains of those unhappy climes 
Behold the mid-way monarch thro' the trees: 
We feel his friendly heat, his zenith beams 
Temper'd with cooling showers and trade-wind breeze. 
No threatening tides upon our island rise: 
Gay Cynthia scarce disturbs the ocean here: 
No waves approach her orb, and she as kind 
Attracts no water to her silver sphere. 
The happy waters boast, of various kinds, 
Unnumber'd myriads of the scaly race: 
Sportive they play above the delug'd sand, 
(Gay as their clime) in ocean's ample vase. 
21 
Some streak'd with burnish'd gold resplendent glare; 
Some cleave the limpid deep all silver'd o'er; 
Some clad in living green delight the eye; 
Some red, some blue, of mingled colours more. 
Here glides the spangled dolphin through the deep; 
The Bulky, spouting whales more distant stray; 
The huge green turtles wallow through the wave, 
Well pleas'd alike with land or water they. 
The rainbow cuts the deep of varied green; 
The well fed grouper lurks remote below; 
The swift bonetta swims and flies by turns; 
The diamond coated angels kindle as they go. 
Delicious to the taste, salubrious food, 
Which might some frugal Samian sage allure, 
To curse the fare of his abstemious school, 
And turn for once a cheerful Epicure! 
Hail, verdant isle! through they dark woods I rove, 
And learn the nature of each native tree-
The fUstic hard, the poisonous manchineal, 
Which for its fragrant apple pleaseth thee. 
Enticing to the small, fair to the eye, 
But deadly poison in the taste is found: 
o shun the dangerous fruit, nor taste, like Eve, 
This interdicted fruit in Eden's ground. 
The lowly mangrove fond of wat'ry soil; 
The white bark'd gregory rising high in air; 
The mastic in the woods you may descry; 
Tamarinds and lofty plumb trees flourish there. 
Sweet orange groves in lonely vallies rise, 
And drop their fruits unnoticed and unknown: 
The cooling acid limes in hedges grow; 
The juicy lemons swell in shades their own. 
Sweet spungy plumbs on trees wide spreading hang; 
The happy flavour'd pine grows crested from the ground. 
Plump grenadillo's and guava's small, 
With melons in each wood and lawn abound. 
The conic form'd cashew, of juicy kind, 
Which bears at once an apple and a nut; 
Whose poison coat indignant to the lips, 
Doth in its cell a wholesome kernel shut. 
The plaintain and banana flourish here, 
Of hasty growth, and love to fix their root, 
Where some soft stream of ambling water goes, 
To give full moisture to their clustered fruit. 
22 
No other trees so vast a leaf can boast, 
So broad, so long --- through these refresh'd I stray; 
And tho' fierce Sol his beams directly shed, 
Those friendly leaves shall shade me all the way, 
And tempt the cooling breeze to hasten there, 
With its sweet odorous breath to charm the grove, 
High shades and cooling air, while underneath, 
A little stream by mossy banks doth rove. 
Where once the indian dames inchanted slept, 
Or fondly kiss'd the moon light eves away: 
The lovers fled, the tearful stream remains, 
And only I console it with my lay. 
Pomegranates grace yon vale, and sweet-sops there 
Ready to fall, require thy helping hand; 
Nor yet neglect the papaw nor mammee, 
Whose slighted trees with fruit unheeded stand. 
Those shaddocks juicy shall thy taste delight; 
And yon higg fruits that over-top the wood, 
And cling in clusters to the mother tree--
The cocoa nut, rich milky healthful food. 
Cassada shrubs abound, whose poison root, 
Supplies the want of snow-white northern flour: 
This grated fine, and steep'd in water fair, 
Forsakes each particle of noxious power. 
But chief, the glory of these Indian isles, 
Springs from the sweet uncloying sugar cane: 
Hence comes the planter's wealth: Hence commerce sends 
Such floating piles beyond the western main. 
Whoe'er thou art, that leav'st thy native shore, 
And shalt to fair West-India climates corne, 
Taste not the enchanting plant -- to taste forbear, 
If ever thou would'st reach thy much-lov'd horne. 
Ne'er through the isle permit they feet to rove, 
Or if thou dost, let prudence lead the way; 
Forbear to taste the magic sugar-cane; 
Forbear to taste what will complete thy stay. 
Whoever sips of this inchanting juice--
Delicious nectar, fit for Jove's own hall, 
Returns no more from his lov'd Santa Cruz, 
But quits his friends, his country, and his all, 
And thinks no more of horne --- Ulysses so 
Dragg'd off by force, his sailors from the shore, 
Where Lotos grew; and had not force prevailed, 
They never would have sought their country more. 
23 
No annual toil inters this juicy plant, 
The stalks lopp'd off, the fresh'ning show'rs prolong, 
To future years, unfading and secure, 
The root so vig'rous, and the juice so strong. 
On yonder peaked hill fresh harvests rise, 
Where wretched he --- the Ethiopian swain, 
Oft o'er the ocean turns his wishful eyes, 
To isles remote high luming o'er the main. 
He pants a land of freedom and repose, 
Where cruel slavery never sought to reign. 
a quit 
thee them, "my muse, and tell my why 
Yon abject trees lie scatter'd o'er the plain? 
These climes, lest nature should have been too kind, 
And man have sought his happiest heaven below, 
Are torn with mighty winds, fierce hurricanes, 
Nature convuls' d in every form of ,.,roe. 
Scorn not yon lonely vale of trees so rest: 
There plaintain groves late grew of lovely green---
The orange Flourish'd and the lemon bore---
The genius of the isle dwelt there unseen. 
Wild were the skies, affrighted nature groan'd, 
As though approach'd the last decisive day---
Skies blaz'd around, and bellowing winds had nigh 
Dislodg'd those cliffs and tore those hills away. 
And how, alas! 
could these fair trees withstand, 
The killing fury of so fierce a blast, 
That storm'd along the plain, seiz'd every grove, 
And delug'd with a sea yon mournful waste? 
But now the winds are past, the storm subsides, 
All nature smiles again serenely gay, 
The beauteous groves renew'd--how shall I leave 
My green retreat at Butler's verdant bay. 
Sain would I view my native climes again, 
But murder marks the cruel Briton there---
Contented here I rest, in spiteof pain, 
And quaff the enlivning juice in spite of care. 
Winter and winter's gloom are far remov'd, 
Eternal spring with smiling summer join'd. 
Absence and death, or heart corroding care, 
Why should they cloud the sunshine of the mind? 
The drowsy pelican wings home his way, 
The misty night fits heavy on the sea, 
Yon lagging sail drags slowly o'er the main. 
Night and its kindred glooms are nought to me. 
24 
To-morrow's Sun new paints the faded scene; 
Though deep in ocean sink his western beams, 
His spangled chariot shall arise more clear, 
More radiant from the drowsy land of dreams. 
Then shepherd haste, and leave behind thee far, 
The bloody plains and iron glooms above, 
Quit thy col.d northern star, and here enjoy, 
Beneath the smiling skies this land of love. 
Soon shall the genius of the fertile soil, 
A new creation to thy view unfold, 
Admire the works of nature's liberal hand, 
And scorn the vulgar bait, all-potent gold. 
Yet if persuaded by no lay of mine, 
You still admire your climes of frost and snow, 
And pleas'd prefer above our southern groves, 
The darksome forests that around thee grow,---
Still there remain---thy native air enjoy, 
Repel the tyrant who thy peace invades, 
While pleas'd I trace the vales of Santa Cruz, 
And sing with rapture her inspiring shades. 
SOURCE: 
THE UNITED STATES MAGAZINE, VOL. I. NO.2 (FEB. 1779) pp. 81-8. 
lA longer version of this poem, and a biographical sketch can be found in 
Poems of Freneau, ed. Harry H. Clark, (New York, 1929). 
25 
SECTION II: 
AN ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY: 
THE VIRGIN ISLANDS AND THE WINNING OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 
26 
A shared colonial experience, together with the myriad social, economic 
and cultural bonds that linked the inhabitants of the Danish islands with those 
of the continent helped generate considerable sympathy among the islanders for 
the Americans in their struggle for independence. 
Influenced by visiting Amer-
ican merchant seamen, resident patriots like Philip Freneau, and local newspaper 
accounts of the revolutionary contest many Danish and British islanders endorsed 
the democratic tenets which animated the American rebels. 
The first three letters reproduced below clearly illustrate that philos-
ophical 
commitment as well as economic self-interest induced many Danish West 
Indian residents to actively aid, and even fight for, the rebel cause. 
The let-
ters of John Smith and Daniel Roberdeau show that at least some British Virgin 
Islanders also sympathized with the rebels, but that in their case any overt as-
sistance similar to that practiced by the Danish islanders could result in con-
fiscation of property and social ostracism. 
JOHN HEYLIGERI TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 
ST. CROIX, September 1776 
My Attachment to your Continent by the tenderest 
& most en-
dearing Connexions of Affinity 
& Friendship, the Zeal and Ardor 
I feel for the glorious Cause of Liberty 
& Justice in which you 
are embarked, and my ardent Wishes for your Prosperity and Success 
in your present laudable Struggle against Tyranny 
& Oppression, 
and that your happy Country (happy indeed, if it can under your 
Sage 
& prudent Counsels, inspired and directed by unerring Pro-
vidences, vindicate and ascertain the sacred Rights which it claims, 
& hand them down to a remote Posterity) may be in all futures Ages 
an Asylum & Sanctuary for the Sons of Want & Oppression of all Na-
tions: incline me to render you every Assistance within the narrow 
Sphere of my Ability & Influence. 
It is with this View that I have 
taken the Liberty to recommend to your Attention and Friendship the 
Bearer Lieutenant von Hederick, by Birth a German, who has from his 
Infancy been trained up in the military Life, and is esteemed an Ex-
perienced well disciplined Officer, and to be endured with every 
Accomplishment which can adorn the Character of a good Soldier. 
Hearing that you were raising and embodying four battalions of his 
Countrymen, who were to be commanded only by German Officers, altho' 
in much honour and actual Service on this Island, where during Eight 
Years Residence he has supported a very unexceptionable good Char-
acter, He immediately proposed himself for the Continental Service, 
provided he could be properly recommended.to your Honourable Body, 
and might expect Promotion adequate to his Merit. 
And altho' I have the Honour of being personally acquainted 
but with few Gentlemen of your very respectable Body, I gladly un-
dertook this Office, & it gives me particular Pleasure in assuring 
you that it's highly probable that several other very respectable 
Officers in this Island may be inclinable to follow his Example, pro-
vided they could meet with due Encouragement. 
You well know the Nature of our Government; Lieutenant Heder-
ick's ostensible Motive therefore for going to your Continent is 
the Recovery of his Health. 
And if he is well received, I make no 
27 
Doubt, others of our best Cfficers will in a short time find them-
selves indisposed also; for I have the honour to assure you that 
most of the Danes of this Island, and the Germans almost to a 
~1an, 
are warmly attached to your glorious Cause. 
I can only add, that if in any Thing I can serve you while 
here, you may lay your Commands on him who is with the most perfect 
Esteem. 
SOURCE: 
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS PAPERS, USNA. 
lThe head of a prominent Cruzan family which had come from St. Eustatius, Hey-
liger was perhaps the richest planter in St. Croix at the time, as well as a 
leading merchant with considerable commercial connections in North America. 
*** 
CORNELIUS HAIGHTZ I TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 
ST. CROIX, 3 September 1776 
I take the Liberty to recomend 
Lieutenant Hederick to you be-
ing a gentlemen in the king of Denmark's service. 
His brother is 
Capt. of the fort in this !sland. 
He has been in the army since a 
child and he comes to serve you and America in general with a good 
heart. 
He gives up his commission here on purpose to serve in 
America in the grand struggle for Liberty. 
He has many Letters 
of recommendation, and I hope he will meet with Encouragement from 
the honorable Congress. 
SOURCE: 
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS PAPERS, USNA. 
lA St. Croix merchant. 
*** 
JOHN HANSONI TO JOHN HANCOCK 
ST. CROIX, 14 August 1776 
To Say any thing in Recommendation of myself will be presump-
tuous, to promise much will be idle; for events depend on the Al-
mighty. 
I foresee an Independency must of Necessity be declared. 
I am a friend & Ever have been to the Righteous Cause of America, 
& as such, I offer you my heart & hand, if I can be of Service at 
this Critical Moment. 
If my Service is accepted, please to inform 
me time enough to Settle my affairs here & to find a fast Sailinq 
frigate to Conduct myself & family to America - if she is of force, 
I may probably bring you one of King Georgey's frigates with me. 
I am with Hearty wishes for your Success. 
28 
SOURCE: 
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS PAPERS, USNA. 
IAn American merchant and plantation owner in St. Croix, Hanson's sympathy with 
the American cause probably owed much to Philip Freneau, who worked as his sec-
retary. 
See Florence Lewisohn The American Revolutions Second Front: Persons & 
Places Involved in the Danish West Indies & Some Other West Indian Islands (1976), 
pp. 22-3. 
*** 
1 
JOHN SMITH TO TENCH COXE 
TORTOLA, 22 October 1774 
I was in St. Croix my dear Tench at the Time of Duncan's 
Arrival. 
It is impossible for you to conceive the pleasure which 
the Sight'of a Philadelphia Vessel gave me. 
No one, can have an 
Idea of it, but he who like me is separated from so agreable a 
circle of Friends & Acquaintances. 
You could not have shown a greater Mark of your Friendship 
than in sending me good Tidings concerning my dear Connexions in 
Philada. 
Their Welfare & happiness is so essential to my own that 
you must need think I am very anxious ·to hear often from them •... 
I am highly pleased with the Bishop of St. Aspath's speech2 . 
No one can read it without glowing with the Zeal of the Patriot. 
The Perseverance of the Americans in opposing the Measures of Ad-
ministration gives me the greatest Pleasure, & I am induced to 
think from their Unanimity that we shall extricate ourselves out of 
our present Difficulties & entirely frustrate the Wicked Designs of 
him who proudly said that he would lay all America at his feet. 
I 
shall be obliged to you for any News you can collect, for being 
hearty i'n the Cause of America I am desirous of being acquainted 
with every Step that her Patriots take in Defence of Liberty .... 
SOURCE: 
TENCH COXE PAPERS, HSP. 
1 John Smith was a resident of Tortola. 
Tench Coxe was a young Philadelphia 
merchant, whose commercial ventures in the West Indies and elsewhere during the 
American Revolution helped launch him on an ,extremely successful career as a 
businessman and statesman in the new American Republic. 
2A speech in favor of the American colonists in their dispute with the Bri-
tish government. 
*** 
29 
~ 
DANIEL ROBERDEAU TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 
PHILADELPHIA, 9 July 1781 
To the Honorable the Delegates of the United States of North America 
in Congress Assembled-~ 
The remonstrance of Danl.Roberdeau, Citizen of Pennsylvania. 
Most respectfully sheweth, 
That among other cruelties of the British Nation in carrying on 
their offensive operations against these United States, he indiv-
idually sustains a species of Barbarism contrary to the known max-
ims of war among civilized Nations. 
That he has no possible means of redress but by claiming the 
protection of the Supreme authority of these States, which pro-
bably may also reach the cases of others, the leige Subjects thereof. 
That the aggrievance complained of is a law of the Island of 
Tortola, under the Jurisdiction of Great Britain, whereby your Re-
monstrant is deprived of a very considerable part of his Estate, in 
particular of the benefit of a Bond from a certain John Purcell an 
Inhabitant and Possessour of a large landed Estate, and other Ef-
fects in the Island aforesaid, or was so possessed when, by an Ini-
quitous law of said Island, your Remonstrant's Interest was confis-
cated on Account of his well known attachment ot the American cause. 
That even if no other such case should occur, your Remonstrant 
prays he may be allowed to depend Individually for protection on 
your Honorable House, that, in any treaty of peace that may happen, 
restitution of his property so as aforesaid violated may be stip-
ulated; or that so much of British property may be also confiscated 
as to make good to your Remonstrant the principal and Interest of 
said bond, as also his claim of just Debts due from other Inhabit-
ants of said Island, whereby the Honor of the united States may be 
vindicated, as well as the property of your Remonstrant secured. 
SOURCE: 
CONTINENTAL CONGRESS PAPERS, USNA. 
*** 
Throughout the revolution Danish West Indians supplied Americans with a wide 
assortment of European goods particularly, gunpowder and other war material. 
Technically, much of this trade was illegal, for in May, 1775, Governor Clausen 
prohibited islanders from exporting arms and powder to the Rebellious colonies. 
A few months later King Christian IV issued an edict specifically forbidding the 
exportation of any war material into the Danish islands and prohibited Danish 
subjects to engage in any trade involving such goods1 • 
The character of this 
commerce at the outbreak of the revolution is indicated by the following four 
documents. 
30 
G.C. TC ADMI~~L PARRy2 
ST. CROIX, 10 May 1775 
By this opportunity I take leave to communicate that a combin-
ation is between this place & the Brittish Collonies of America. 
I 
am informed this cay that they have Shipped from this place to Nor-
folk in Virginia. 42 Barrells of Gun Power & several pieces of Can-
non.... 
They have 36 Barrells more ready to Ship & 8 pieces of 
Cannon. 
I 
h~ve wrote to Lord North relative to this matter. 
Lest 
my letter would be opened & being under an arbitrary Government, I 
am apprehensive to sign my Name. 
I live in Charles Town, South 
Carolina, where I would be glad to execute any of your commands 
land7 from whence I will sign my name in full. 
A line directed to 
G.C~ at the Coffee house, Charles Town, South Carolina will come to 
hand. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. ADM. 1/309. 
1For these prohibitions see Aage Rasch, "Forbudet at 4 oktober 1775 mod eksport 
of vaaben til de amerikanse opr¢rere," Historik Tidsskrift, IV, (4 Hefte, 1961), 
pp. 467-82. 
2Commander-in-Chief of the British Leeward and Windward Squadro~ 
*** 
WILLIAM NE.IL TO CHARLES CARROLLI 
BALTIMORE, 12 February, 1776 
Before this no doubt you have heard of ill fate of the schoon-
er Nancy at St Eustatia, I have as yet no letters from my Capt or 
supercargo 
I daily expect to hear from them-as soon as I do shall 
advise you -
as to the vessels being taken that account is confirm-
ed different ways which I am sorry for -
I have provided a Cargo of 
flour some time ago expecting the Schooner in and had no doubt of 
her bringing ammunition which would have got me a permission to have 
loaded her out on my own accot -
I have a good deal of money due me 
from St Croix a Dannish Island near St Statia. if your honourable 
Council would give me liberty to send a Schooner I now have here, 
to that place where I have a number of Correspondence which I know 
to be true friends to our cause and will go 3 or 4 m Red Oakstaves 
some 
flour and Indian meal and corn and send her immediately to St 
Croix, purchase such goods as I wanted 
order powder etc. if to be 
got and take it to St Croix in a small craft where it might with 
great safety be put on board my vessel - the money that is due me 
there and the Cargo I would send out would I think buy near 2000f 
value of a back Cargo -
so eligible is this plan to me that I have 
laid before you that if you give me permission I will risque it all 
on my own accot and will give all the arms, ammunition, etc. I may 
get in, the first offer of all to the Council of Safety -
should you 
31 
be afraid that by granting f..e this premi tion you would be troubled 
with many other applications it need not be known to any but that 
she goes on accot of the province ...• 
SOURCE: 
CORRESPONDENCE OF COUNCIL OF SAFETY, MD. ARCH. 
lA prominent Maryland businessman and member of the Maryland Council of Safety. 
*** 
NICHOLAS BROHN1 TO CAPTAIN REMEMBRANCE SIMMONS 
PROVIDENCE, April 17, 1776 
You being Master of the Sloop Sally and Ready for the Seas, My 
orders & Directions are that you Imbrace every Good Oppoty to Gain 
your Passage in the Most safest way you Can According to the Best of 
Your Judgement, To St. Croix & There Dispose of your Cargo to the 
Best Advantage & take a few hhds of the very best Sugar not to Ex-
ceed 10 hhds and fill up your Vessel with Good Rum, which you will 
Indeavour to purchase without the White Oak Shaken hhds you have on 
bord and the remainder of your Cargo you will layout in 3/4 Cannon 
& 1/4 pistle Powder If to be had Cheep enough to Ansr. which you 
Will not Exceed 1/2 pr 8 P 1b - but expect it will be for much less 
if So you Will layout all the Money you have more than to purchas 
the Sugar & Rum as Aforesaid In Powder, and Small Arms, which you 
are to pick up whereever you Can & May buy any part of a Gun locks 
or Barrels or any Parts You Can get, if Reasonable, 
If yu find the 
Island in Grait Want of any thing you have, you Must Demand Power & 
arms for it -
You must Take Grait Care to Imploy the very best of 
Coopers who will be Carefull to make your Cask Tight, If the Powder 
& arms is not to be had reasonabbly You have Liberty to layout the 
remdr. Your Money in Any Sorts of Goods which you May think will 
Answer best -
According to the best You Judge as Steel, Course Lin-
nen, (but not fine Linen) Checks, Hankerchiefs, pins, paper, pepers, 
nutmegs, Cotton, Ravens, Duck etc. 
You are to be exceeding Cautious 
About getting home & fall in to the Back of Nantucket or Vinyard, & 
after you get in to Some Safe Harbor to give Me Notice if you find 
you Cant Come with Safety into this Colony -
Your Commissions for 
doing the Buissness is to be 5 pCt for Sales & 2 1/2 for Returns, be 
sure to make no bad Debts, or leave none behind -
Your Priveledge 
Out is to be 2m. of Hoops which you are to take the Chance of with 
All on Deck as well as those in your hold & to loose a proportion as 
yours: 
Bears to the Whole if any loss & 8 hhds of the Common size 
with Cargo ••.. 
If Anything Shod happen with you to Render you In-
capable of doing the Buisness Your Mate is to take the Command & 
follow these My Orders -
If your Vessel wont Load with Rum & Sugar 
As Aforsd you'l take Some Smaller, as Beer Casks etc. filled with 
Rum to fill up -
Wishing a Good Voyage & safe Return .... 
SOURCE: 
NICHOLAS BROWN PAPERS, JCBL. 
lA prominent Rhode Island merchant with an extensive trade in the West Indies. 
32 
INTELLIGENCE FROM ST. CROIX 
ST. CROIX, 27 October, 1776 
Tho' I have not the honor of being known to you, I trust that 
this letter will not be considered either officious or intrusive. 
To give an account of oneself is certainly awkward; nor would 
I attempt it on any except the present occasion. 
I must therefore 
beg leave to inform you that I left London, the place of my resi-
dence, last June & there had the honour of being known to several 
high in office. 
Bef~re I left England I took leave to mention to 
Lord George Germaine 
that I was confident the Americans carried on 
a Trade with the Danish Islands, & that I should endeavour to find 
out when here what Vessels had & were trading to those Islands, & 
that I would transmit any. intelligence I might collect to such a 
quarter as I thought might produce good effects. 
His Lordship did 
me the favor to approve of what I mentioned. 
I have brought an in-
troduction ..•• to the Governor of the Danish Islands, and shall re-
side some Months in them to dispose of or to put two Plantations I 
have at St. Thomas on a better footing. 
These Circumstances I 
could wish to avoid mentioning, but I think every person is bound 
when he gives any intelligence to convey some Acct. of himself. 
I 
must confess however that whatever intelligence I may give arises 
in some degree from interested motives, for I have property both 
real & personal on the continent, which I am persuaded cannot be 
beneficial to me unless Great Britain reduces the American insur-
gents to a proper obedience to its Legislative authority ..•. 
It has given me pleasure to hear of the number of Captures made 
by His Majesty's Ships under your Command; but notwithstanding their 
vigilance several Vessels (generally small) have got in here. 
I 
have been but 16 days here, & six Schooners have arrived from the 
Provinces of North Carolina, Maryland, & Pennsylvania. 
As to what 
they bring it is of no consequence, but they all return with a few 
Articles (&those ~uch wanted by the deluded people on the continent) 
such as oznaburgs 
a little powder, Sugar & Rum. 
As to Powder, it 
is fortunately very scarce, or they would not have met with so scanty 
a supply. 
Two days since, one of the above Schooners (Packer Master) 
sailed for America, & amongst other Articles did with some difficulty 
procure ten small Casks of Powder; but my astonishment was great to 
find such a Commerce countenanced by Government here. 
The Vessel 
went out under American Colours, saluted the Fort, & had the Comple-
ment returned, the same as if She had been an English or a Danish 
Ship. 
I take it for granted that a similar conduct is observed in 
the Islands of St. Thomas & St. John belonging to the Crown of Den-
mark. 
This Island is now unquestionably well supplied with Provi-
sions, so that the favourable reception of American Vessels cannot 
arise from necessity. 
Two of the six Vessels I have mentioned are 
at West-end3harbour, the other three at Basse-end4 , & will all sail 
in the course of a fortnight .... 
SOURCE: 
ADM. 1/309. 
33 
lThe leading Secretary of State in the British Ministry during the Way of Amer-
ican Independence. 
2Linen clothing, usually for slaves. 
3predericksted. 
4Christiansted. 
*** 
The British Navy made every effort to supress the pern1c1ous commerce that had 
developed between the American rebels and their allies in the Danish islands. 
Ships of war were placed on constant patrol off St. Thomas and St. Croix with in-
structions to intercept all illegal commerce. 
However, this blockade placed a 
heavy burden on the undermanned British fleet and it wasn't until the end of 1776, 
when the Navy was reinforced by swarms of privately commissioned privateers oper-
ating out of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, that the British m~naged to 
achieve any degree of success in their preventative efforts. 
VICE-ADMIRAL JAMES YOUNGl TO PHILIP 
STEPHENS2 
ANTIGUA, 30 August, 1775 
In Consequence of the Letter I received from Captain Bryne of 
the Pomona Sloop the 4th, Instant, ...• setting forth that a Schoon-
er from North America arrived at the Island St. Croix in order to 
procure Gunpowder for America and offering any Money for the Pur-
chase etc.; and it having since then been intimated to me by Per-
sons of Credit at this place that it is believed the North American 
Traders do procure Gunpowder and other Warlike Stores from this Is-
land and His Majesty's other Charibbee Islands in these Seas, as 
well as from the French, Dutch, and Danish Islands. 
I have there-
fore, in Order to prevent (as far as I may be able) a practice so 
pernicious and dangerous to His Majesty's Service wrote to the Gov-
ernors and the Commanders in Chief of all His Majesty's Charibbee 
Islands to acquaint them with my having received the above informa-
tion, and requested they may immediately direct proclamations to 
be issued through the different Islands in their respective Govern-
ments to forbit the Exportation of Gunpowder and other Warlike Stores 
from any of them for the Space of Six Months. 
And I have given Or-
ders to the Captains of his Majesty's Ships Lynx, Pomona, and Argo 
to search all Vessels they may fall in with that are bound to Amer-
ica and strictly to examine whether they have on board any Gunpow-
der or other Warlike Stores, and should they find any such, to Seize 
said Vessels and bring them forthwith to me .... 
I must further desire you will represent to their Lordships 
Lof the Admiralti! that should the present troubles in America Con-
tinue the Squadron under my Command is much too small to prevent ef-
fectually the Exportation of Ammunition, etc. from all the Islands 
within the Extent of my Command; and that I intreat their Lordships 
will be pleased to increase the Number of Ships to be employed in 
34 
these Seas and thereby enaLle me to put an End to a Trade so very 
pernicious, and prevent for the future any Supply of Ammunition and 
Warlike Stores to be carried from hence to the North Americans dur-
ing their present unnatural Hostilities. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. ADM. 1/309. 
IJames Young, Cowmander-in-Chief of the British squadron in the Eastern Car-
ibbean from 1775 to 1777. 
2 Secretary to the Admiralty. 
*** 
VICE ADMIRAL JAMES YOUNG TO PHILIP STEPHENS 
ANTIGUA, 7 April 1776 
I must again beg leave to renew my Application to their Lord-
ships to send out some Ships to reinforce the Squadron under my Com-
mand, as with the few now here, it is impossible for me to carryon 
the King's Service in the manner I could wish, or effectually to put 
a stop to the Trade which the Americans carryon to the French, Dutch 
and Danish Islands; and prevent the returns being made to them in 
Warlike 
Stores, for notwithstanding the Assurances given me by the 
French Governors to the Contrary, I am well convinced by other auth-
entic Information, it is done openly. -
The Powder goes by small 
Quantities at a time, in such like Vessels as Virginia Pilot Boats, 
that steal out in the night, and by fast Sailing escape our Cruizers . 
.... The Prizes taken by the King's Ships under my Command, have 
been of great Service to these Islands by bringing in Supplys of 
Provisions to the, that were destined to other places (none can now 
be Shipped from America, to the English Islands, the Runners must 
therefore all be intended for the French, Dutch and Danish Islands), 
and had the Squadron employed in these Seas, consisted of a suffi-
cient 
number of Ships, they would certainly have taken much great-
er number of American Vessels and thereby have prevented consider-
able Supply of Gunpowder being sent to the Rebels; which Article 
they pay for in Provisions etc. at the enormous price of a Dollar 
pr pound. -
The French Governors complain about our Ships Cruiz-
ing off their Ports, and taking Supplies of Provisions etc. coming 
to them; however I flatter myself, their Lordships will be of opin-
ion that the strong necessity of the present times, makes this step 
absolutely necessary: 
The French have at present three Frigates of 
Thirty six Guns in these Seas, and between four & five Thousand Troops 
at the Islands Guadalupe, and Martinica. 
I must also observe to their Lordships that there are great num-
bers of the disaffected Americans, in all the French, Dutch and Dan-
ish Islands, and even in our own Islands, from whence they can easily 
35 
get away to the others; and.it is believed here, they have on foot 
a design to Arm and fitt out Vessels from the Foreign Islands, (where 
they can readily be supplied with what Stores are wanting for that 
purpose,) and Cruize for our Trade in these Seas; which were they 
to do, would greatly distress the English Islands: The Planters and 
Traders here, are very apprehensive of this, and talk of applying to 
me for Convoy to their homeward bound Ships: 
this I am sure at pre-
sent I cannot comply with, 'tho they assert they have intelligence 
from America, that Ships of Force are arming there, which are said 
to be intended to intercept the homeward bound West-India Ships both 
from these Islands and Jamaica (an account of this Intelligence I 
intend sending Rear Admiral Gay tonI by the first Packet that goes 
from hence to Jamaica,) as there may be some cause for their Fears .. 
SOVRCE: 
PRO, ADMIRALTY 1/309. 
1 Clark Gayton, Commander-in-Chief of the British squadron based at Jamaica. 
*** 
VICE ADMIRAL JAMES YOUNG TO PHILIP STEPHENS 
ANTIGUA, 9 March, 1777 
... 1 have likewise received their Lordship's lof the Admiralty7 
Order of the 19th Oct. last with Copies of the DanTsh Edict and Dutch 
Proclamation to prevent carrying any Military or Naval Stores from 
their West India Islands to any of the Rebellious Colonies in Amer-
ica. 
I beg to inform their Lordships that well knowing such an il-
licit Traffick was Constantly carried on, both from the Dutch and 
Danish Islands (notwithstanding the orders and Directions of their 
Respective Masters to the Contrary, as well as my repeated repre-
sentations to their Governors to put a Stop thereto) I have always 
kept, and shall still continue to do so, some of His Majesty's Ships 
Cruizing off the Islands lof7 St. Eustatia, St. Martins, St. Barth-
olomew, St. Croix and St.-Thomas, where they have taken (and after-
wards condemned as Prize) a great Number of Vessels Trading with 
produce to and from the American Colonies; but they have not hith-
erto been able to take any with Military Stores -
they being car-
ried in small Armed Vessels like ... Virginia Pilot Boats, which Sail 
much too fast to be catched by any of His Majecty's Ships under my 
Command .... 
SOURCE: 
PRO. ADM. 1/309. 
*** 
36 
NICHOLAS CRuGER TO COXE, TRUMAN & COXE 
ST. CROIX, 15 March, 1777 
... We have a Number of Armed Vessels out of the English Islands, 
Particularly out of Tortola, So that it would be advisable in yr. 
Fecomending to anyone you Ship wth. o.n my Accot. to avoid Coming 
Near that Islan0, the Safest way I Can Recommend is to get well to 
the Southward and make the South Side of this Island. 
There is also 
a Frigate Stationed to Leeward of Porto-rico. 
Of Late there has 
been a Number of Vessels Taking & Carried into Tortola, amongst ~lch. 
is a Brio. of our friend J.W. from Philada. to this Port Taking 
Near that Island by one of their Pickeroons, who Carry from 4 to 6 
& 8 S~all guns & about 20 to 30 Men. 
For the Present I must Decline 
your offer of a Farther Concern, But when a Proper Occasion offers 
I will Chearfully embrace it •..• 
SOURCE: 
TENCH COXE PAPERS, HSP. 
*** 
H.K. TO LORD GEORGE MACARTNEyl 
ST. THOMAS, 11 April, 1777 
Having obtained leave from the Governor of the Danish Islands 
to ship some Negros to Tobago and the time that the Vessel is al-
lowed to remain here being expired, I have but a few moments to 
spare to inform your Lordship that the report of letters of repri-
sals being granted has already greatly discouraged the trade to 
America. 
Even this little Island is well guarded by Tortola priva-
teers which are of infinite Service . 
..• Many Vessels are expected here in the Course of two or three 
weeks. 
They have established Societies of Insurance in America on 
Vessels from the Islands to the provinces. 
The usual Insurance /rs7 
20 percent; when they heard privateers were fitted out, it rose 5 -
percent. 
When I have more time, I shall trouble your Lordship with 
many particulars. 
Next week I set off with the Commandant of this 
Island for Porto Rico. 
The Court 
of Hadrid have at last Changed 
their miserable policy with respect to that Island and have granted 
a noble Domain to a French Duke whose title I think is Crillon, who 
is very high in the Service of Spain. 
Since that grant some part-
icular persons are permitted to visit the Island. 
This Island I 
hope will one day be oursi if so, it will merit the appellation of 
Britania minor. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. c.o. 101/20. 
1 Governor General of Grenada, the Grenadines and Tobago. 
37 
After 1776, British diplomatic and naval iniatives managed to effectively halt 
the munitions trade between the Dani.sh islands and the rebellious colonies, and 
to curtail generally the overall commerce between the two regions. 
Nevertheless, 
commerce between the two trading partners did not cease altogether. 
Islanders 
continued to aid the American rebels by supplying their venturesome merchants 
with essential European goods like woolens in exchange for American staples such 
as tobacco and indigo. 
This commerce was encouraged by American diplomatic re-
presentatives and the Continental Congress. 
Moreover, the Danes indirectly aided 
the American cause by carrying on an extensive trade with the French islands, 
thus effectively neutralizing efforts by the British to starve them into submis-
sion. 
The Danish islands became particularly important to the achievement of 
American independence following the British seizure of St. Eustatius in March 
1781, when many American and European mercantile houses from that Dutch entre-
pot re-established themselves in St. Thomas transforming that island into the 
commercial center of the Caribbean during the closing years of the war. 
FRANCIS LEWIS TO STEPHEN SAYREI 
PHILADELPHIA, 10 August, 1779 
Your letter, together with that from Mr. Fabritius 2 (whose high 
character I was well acquainted with when at Copenhagen,) was laid 
before Congress, who are very sensible of the advantages that would 
accrue in a commercial intercourse with Copenhagen, as several sup-
plies of Russian manufactures might be obtained through that channel; 
but we are at the same time apprehensive the Danish Court are too 
much influenced by that of G/reat7 B/ritain7 to wink at such a com-
merce, though it may be advantageous-to the subject .... 
Your scheme of sending out goods in Danish bottoms, to St. Croix 
or St. Thomas, is feasible, and where we could lodge tobacco, indigo, 
etc., to be returned in said ships for payment; but the risque of 
captures between this and the islands is full as great; however, I 
shall urge Congress to make an attempt in one or the other mode; it 
will be therefore necessary that you and Mr. Fabritius inform me, 
with the names of agents in both islands, who may be appointed by 
you to receive such effects •.•. 
SOURCE: 
EDMUND C. BURNETT, ED. LETTERS OF MEMBERS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 
VOL. IV (WASHINGTON, D.C., 1923) p.362. 
lLewis was a member of the Continental Congress. 
Stephen Sayre was in Denmark 
trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a commercial treaty. 
For a survey of Danish-
American relations during the American Revolution, see Soren Fogdall, Danish-
American Diplomacy 1776-1920 (1929). 
2C•A• Fabritius, who was then seeking to obtain a loan for America in Europe. 
*** 
CHARLES BIDDLEl: 
ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE TO ST. THOMAS 1779 
38 
... In July Mr. Hodge concluded to send the Eclipse to the 
West Indies on freight. 
Seme of my friends soon loaded her with to-
bacco for St. Thomas, anr I agreed to join her ••.. 
We sailed from Beaufort the 10th of August. 1779. 
The sloop 
drawing a great deal of water we struck hard upon the Bar, and I 
expected, as she was very weak in her bottom, she would have been 
stove. 
However, we got off without receiving any injury. 
We had 
the prize brig and some small vessels under our convoy. 
Near St. 
Thomas we fell in, at different times, with two or three small pri-
vateers, but none sufficiently strong to engage us. 
We arrived at 
St. Thomas without any accident. 
I sold my cargo to the Royal Dan-
ish Company, which at that time was just established. 
When I came 
to discharge it, to my great mortification, I found that a good deal 
of the tobacco was very much damaged, which could not have happened 
on board the sloop, for she did not leak. 
The company sent me word 
that as the tobacco was not merchantable they must return it. 
I 
waited on, and told them I was very sorry to find the tobacco not 
so good as it should be, but that it would be very bad policy in 
them, as I was the first American from whom they had purchased, to 
dispute about the cargo, that the Americans would then be afraid to 
deal with them, whereas if they behaved generously and friendly it 
would induce them always to give the company a preference. 
After 
some consultation they agreed to take it. 
I never went on the wharf 
when they were examining the cargo, but it made me ashamed to think 
what trash I had brought, and if the company had not purchased, it 
would not have been sold. 
They behaved extremely well. 
While lying here Mr. Bull, an inhabitant of Tortola, a native 
of New England, who appeared warmly attached to his country, came 
down to see if any of his countrymen would engage to go upon an ex-
pedition against Tortola. 
He complained of being ill-treated there 
because he was an American and wished well to their cause. 
I in-
quired if he had never given any occasion for being ill-treated. 
He 
declared he had not, but that he did say there and everywhere that 
he wished well to the American cause. 
He reminded me of a German 
servant woman of my mother's, who complained of being beaten by her 
husband. 
My mother, knowing her violent temper, said to her, "And, 
well, Katy, did you say nothing to provoke your husband?" 
"No, Mis-
tress, indeed I did not. 
The worst words I said to him were that 
he was a good-for-nothing scoundrel." 
Mr. Bull was of a warm tem-
per, and probably his ill-treatment was brought on him by his im-
prudence. 
Mine being the strongest American vessel in the port, 
Bull was very desirous of my going. 
He said there was hardly any 
person in the fort, that we could land a few men and get possession 
of it, and then should command the shipping. 
When I considered that 
Tortola was a place of rendezvous for privateers, and as I believed 
it could be very easily taken, I had a great inclination to go, and 
for two or three nights could not sleep for thinking of it. 
My of-
ficers were all eager to go. 
However, when I reflected it would be 
exceeding my instructions, and if any accident happened it would be 
a great inju~y to ~y friend Hodge; and that setting such a crew as 
I should be obliged to take ashore, would probably occasion the ruin 
39 
and perhaps murder of some innocent people, I determined not to go. 
The day before I sailed two of my gaol birds getting drunk, de-
serted, and enlisted in the garrison. 
As we had rather teo few for 
our guns before, and there was a privateer off the west end of the 
island said to be waiting for us, I waited on the Governor, who had 
treated me with great politeness upon a former occasion, to endeavor 
to get the men back; but when he knew my errand he told me they 
should not be delivered up, that they were not my countrymen, and 
they had a right to enlist. 
It was in vain to argue with him. 
I 
therefore shipped two others. 
vfuen cleared out and ready for sea I 
dropped down abreast of the fort and hoisted American colors. 
This 
was what they had refused to allow us, and we were obliged to hoist 
a white flag. 
They soon hailed me from the fort, "Haul down them 
colors." 
Upon my refusing they threatened to sink me; but I knew 
their guns were out of powder, and therefore disregarded all they 
said, keeping my colors up and drum a-beating until the afternoon, 
when we weighed and stood out of the harbor. 
When almost clear of 
it a black Curacao man, whom I had shipped in the room of one of the 
men who had deserted, jumped overboard and swam on shore. 
I made 
some of the marines fire ahead of him to frighten him, but he dived, 
and seemed to regard their firing as little as I did the threats of 
the officers in the fort. 
Off the west end of the island we discov-
ered the privateer said to be waiting for us. 
She was close in with 
the land, and did now show any inclination to corne out, with which I 
was full as well pleased as I should have been to see her bear down 
upon us •.•• 
SOURCE: 
CHARLES BIDDLE, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES BIDDLE 1745-1821 (Philadelphia, 
1883), pp. 121-125. 
lCharles Biddle was an American merchant seaman from Philadelphia. 
*** 
, BENJAMIN YARD l TO TENCH COXE 
ST. CROIX, LOctober-Novernbe~l 1780 
•.• Mr. Markoe's2 affairs bore so bad an appearance at his death 
that it was very doubtfull whether any of his running Accounts would 
be paid or not. 
The Executors, however, consented to Act under the 
Dealing Court 
which prevents their being liable for any thing more 
than comes into their hands - their Friendship and regard for Mr. 
Markoe's Family has been the means of preventing his Estates from 
being sold, and the favorable Crops made since with the high Price 
produce has bore will, I hope, enable them to payoff all his Debts, 
and reserve something handsome for the Family. 
They have as yet re-
fused to pay any Interest on open or indeed any Accounts which is 
agreeable to our laws. 
He owed me about f130 which I have not yet 
been able to get. 
The Interest amounts to near f40 which I shall 
loose unless Major Heyliger, who is an Heir as well as an acting 
40 
Executor, will consent to allow it. 
He arrived here from Copenhagen 
a few Weeks ago. 
I shall take an opportunity of addressing him on 
the Subject and hope to be able to receive your money early next 
spring. 
The Surrender of Charles Town with the very capital defeat of 
General Gates hav~ given American affairs a very unfavorable turn; 
should the British Fleet be successful against the French at Road 
Island, the consequence may be fatal .... 
We have had a most violent Gale of wind lately which lasted 
from Wednesday the 11th until Monday following -
longer than I ever 
knew a Gale to last. 
It was by no means as Severe as the Hurricane 
in 1I77 72, and has done but little dama~e to our Island (except in 
the-Canes), not a Vessel in our Port the least Injured owing to the 
great Security of our Harbour. 
But in the Harbours of the Windward 
Islandlsl more damage has been done than was ever known. 
The English 
Fleet lay ready at St. Kitts to sail in a few days. 
They are all 
drove to Sea and numbers must be lost. 
50 Sail of Vessels arrived 
the 
Evening before at Martinico, everyone of which put out, and 
at least one half of them must be lost. 
We have two or three of 
them wrecked on our Coast: 
part of their Cargos will be saved. 
The 
number of wrecks seen about our Island is incredible. 
A number of 
dead Bodys have been thrown up in our Bays. 
The damage Statia has 
received must exceed every thing you can conceive: 
near three hun-
dred Sail of Vessels lay there, many of which foundred at their An-
chors; not a Sinqle one, even the Admiral, a 64, was able to ride it 
out. 
I saw a Mate of a Vessel that put in here since the Gale who 
assured me that before he left the Road, the Sea broke over the tops 
of the lower Houses and Stores on the Bay and this was only the be-
gining of the Gale. 
The Quantity of Tobacco provisions and dry 
Goods that must have perished from its continuing so long is immence. 
We have had no Vessel from there since all our Accounts are from Cap-
tains who put out. 
Tortola, St. Thomas and I believe every Island 
in the West Indies must have suffered greatly. 
The two Americans 
being chased in here has proved very fortunate; neither Vessels or 
Cargoes has received the least injury, when, had they arrived at 
their destined Port (St. Eustatius) in all probability they would 
have lost both. 
I was very near loosinq a fine droging Sloop that 
cost me f1200: 
She slip her Cable as West end and luckly got into 
a Safe bay at St. Johns. 
I had no accounts of her until this Morn-
ing when a Vessel who had Sheltered in the same bay arrived and in-
formed of her safty. 
I fear I shall yet be a considerable Sufferer 
Isince7 I had flOOO worth of Tobacco on board a Ship in Tortola who 
was only waiting for the fleet. 
She was drove on Shore, but all her 
Cargo will be Saved I expect. 
I am insured, but the disapointment 
of its not getting to Market with the loss of the use of the money 
is very considerable. 
I have as much more at St. Kitts which I-I 7 
have as yet no Account of and anxiously wait Accounts from there.~ .. 
SOURCE: 
TENCH COXE PAPERS, HSP. 
lA Philadelphia merchant who resided in St, Croix during most of the American 
Revolution. 
Yard was appointed the first U.S. Counsel to the Danish islands in 
1791. 
41 
2Abraham Markoe. 
*** 
UNSIGNED LETTER TO GENERAL JOHN VAUGHANl 
ST. EUSTATIUS, 1781 
..• The Capture of the Island of St. Eustatius effectually de-
prives the Rebels on the Continent of America of every external re-
source excepting what they may hereafter find in the Danish Islands 
and a Trade with Europe. 
The Danish Islands may in some time hence 
make up in some degree the inconveniences that both must experience 
in the loss of this Colony to the Dutch. 
I submit to your Excell-
ency's wisdom the means of preventing it. 
In the meantime, the. Dan-
ish Merchants established there have neither the Merchandize to sup-
ply their immediate wants, nor Ships to carry away such Articles of 
produce as may be sent to the Islands for Sale •••• 
The Danes at St. Croix and St. Thomas, at which last Island a 
royal Company on a liberal Establishment and with very extensive pri-
viledges, has lately opened a large Field of Commerce, sends Holstein 
Beef, Pork, and Butter to the French Markets in large Quantities, 
and at a price much below the first Cost of Irish Provisions. 
The 
Danish Agents have power to send the King's Ships as Convoy for the 
Vessels he dispatches. 
1St. Thomas7 will very soon become a power-
ful Rival to this Island; whose Trade receives no protection, and is 
burthened with excess of Expence .••. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. w.O. 1/51. 
1 Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in the Eastern Caribbean. 
Vaughan and 
Admiral George B. Rodney had captured the Dutch island qf St. Eustatius in March, 
1781. 
*** 
ADMIRAL GEORGE BRYDGES RODNEyl TO PHILIP STEPHENS 
SAINT EUSTATIUS, 25 April 1781 . 
... 1 must desire you will please to acquaint their Lordships, 
that till this Day, by the Arrival of the Acteon, with his Convoy 
at Barbadoes, I did not receive his Majesty's Instructions relative 
to the Explanatory Article of the Treaty of 1670, with Denmark, 
which I shall instantly distribute to every Ship under my Command, 
and take particular Care that it is strictly complied with. 
However, I must beg that you will represent to their Lordships, 
that ever since I have had the Honour to command his Majesty's Ships 
in these Seas, every Respect has been paid to the Danish Flag, nor 
42 
has any of my Cruizers taken any Danish Vessels, except one that 
was taken in the Dutch Convoy, loaded by Dutch Merchants at St. 
Eustatius, bound to Amsterdam; and the Captain of which Danish Ship 
voluntarily declared, that the whole was Dutch Property, and agreed 
to carry it to England, upon being paid his proper Freight and all 
Expences. 
The Islan~ of Martinique being in the utmost Distress for Want 
of Provisions, and at this Time closely blockaded by the greatest 
Part of his Majesty's Fleet, under my Command, I signified the same 
to his Danish Majesty's Governor of St. Croix, and acquainted him, 
that should there be the least Insult offered to the Danish Flaq, 
upon h.is Excellency's signifying the same to me, the Persons offend-
ing should be called to the strictest Account, as I should take 
Care to keep up that Harmony that so happily subsisted between our 
Courts, by shewing every Respect to his Danish Majesty's Flag; but 
my Duty obliges me to acquaint their Lordships, that the Produce 
of the French Islands, particularly Guadaloupe, is transported in 
Danish Bottoms; Danish Frigates, and Merchant Ships under their 
Convoy, frequently going to that Island, and returning loaded with 
its Produce. 
I have suffered none of his Majesty's Ships under my Command, 
to stop or detain them, being fully convinced of the numerous and 
unjust Enemies his Majesty has already to contend with, and unwill-
ing to give any cause or Pretence for their Increase, however glar-
ing the Conduct of a neutral State might appear, by transporting, 
in Time of War, the Produce of an Enemy's Island, which, in Peace, 
they were not allowed even to approach under Pain of Confiscation. 
Their Lordships may be assured that every Altercation shall be 
avoided as much as possible, and no just Cause of Complaint given .... 
SOURCE: 
PRO. ADM. 1/314. 
1commander of the British Navy in the Eastern Caribbean. 
*** 
CHARLES BIDDLE: 
ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE TO ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN 
1781 
... 1 engaged to go from Philadelphia in a Letter of Marque brig, 
called the Active, to St. Thomas. 
We had eight four pounders; the 
crew consisted of ten men and four boys, besides the two mates and 
myself, with Dr. Valentine Standley, a passenger. 
We left the Capes 
in company with a large fleet the 15th of November, 1781. .•. 
We had a good passage, and fell in with nothing until we made 
St. Thomas, when we saw off the harbor a brig, which we found was 
a British cruiser. 
It was early in the morning when we first dis-
covered her; she was beating up, and we were going before the wind. 
43 
Finding as she drew near that we could have no chance by fighting 
her, I determined to go into St. Johns, if we could get there. 
We were both becalmed off the west end of the island, and we got oars 
and rowed for the harbor. 
They got out their boats and towed their 
vessel to cut us off. 
I had been in this harbor with the Eclipse, 
and knew they had a single fort. 
They got within gunshot of us sev-
eral times, and would have taken us, if they had not been too eager. 
When within shot, they pulled around to give us a broadside, by 
which means we got a considerable way ahead. 
They did this without 
doing us any injury whatever. 
Had they continued rowing without fir-
ing a shot, they would have been alongside before we could have 
reached the harbor. 
They kept firing (and many of their shot reached 
the shore), until I hailed the fort to know why they did not fire. 
They then fired a shot which struck the water under her boltsprit. 
She than hauled off. 
We learned afterwards that she was a King's 
Brig. 
The master of her deserved to be broken for not taking us. 
My crew behaved very well, escept one man whom I thought before this 
day, was afraid of nothing. 
He, however, endeavored to get down the 
fore scuttle. 
Whenever the brig pulled round to fire, my crew gave 
them three cheers, and were anxious to return the fire, but. I knew 
if we broke off any of the men from the oars, we must be taken, and 
therefore would not suffer it. 
I went from St. Johns the same day 
in my boat to St. Thomas. 
Mr. Mitchell, an old friend, settled,here, 
told me to be careful of the Governor; if he knew it was me who had 
insulted their fort he did not know what would be the consequence. 
I found here my friend Falvey. 
He was in partnership with a Thomas 
Reilly, under the firm of Falvey and Reilly. 
I sold my cargo, which 
consisted of flour and tobacco, to Mr. Lisle, a native of Philadel-
phia, who was married and settled in Tortola. 
Mr. Mitchell was his 
surety. 
After delivering the'cargo, he was to have returned and paid 
me in four days. 
He was gone ten. 
I was very uneasy, and Mitchell 
more so, fearing he would not return. 
However, he came the tenth 
day, and paid me honestly. 
He had been det~ined collecting the mon-
ey, which was in new half Johannes, which I at first thought he had 
been coining at Tortola. 
I purchased some rum at St. Johns, and 
having procured what dry goods I wanted, sailed from St. Johns the 
13th of December. 
Just before we sailed, Standley applied to me to 
take him back, but he had behaved ilIon the passage out, and during 
the time we were at St. Thomas, and as I thought he would plague his 
good mother in Philadelphia, I would not take him. 
There were sev-
eral privateers off the harbor; however we escaped them all ••.. 
SOURCE: 
CHARLES BIDDLE, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES BIDDLE 1745 -
1821 (Philadelphia, 
1883), pp. 152-155. 
*** 
44 
THE COMr-'ERCE OF ST. THOMAS, 1782 
An article in the ~sterdam Gazette, of the 11th ult. mentions, 
that several of the Dutch merchants from St. Eustatia had retired 
to the Danish island of St. Thomas, where they had met with every 
encouragement they could desire, insomuch that it was thought this 
island would in a short time carryon as much trade as St. Eustatia. 
Private letters from St Kitts, by the last vessels, confirm this 
account, and say, that the cultivation of St. Thomas is so much in-
creased, as to produce upwards of 4000 hogsheads of sugar annually; 
and that the trade with the North Americans, though not pubicly li-
sensed, js winked at; in consequence of which, great quantities of 
flour, shingles, and lumber, were daily landing there, and reship-
ping ~or the French islands in Danish bottoms, or rather in Dutch 
ones under Danish colours. 
SOURCE: 
THE SCOT'S MAGAZINE, VOL. 44, 1782, p. 93. 
*** 
PLUNKETT & STERRETT TO JOHN H. NORTONl 
ST. THOMAS, 17 January, 1782 
We have just received duplicate of your favour of 13th Novr. 
& we acknowledge ourselves much indebted to our worthy friend Mr. 
Young for his recommendation of our house to your notice; we hope 
in the course of our correspondence to convince you that we are not 
unworthy of it. 
Your letter to, & order on Messrs. Thos. Webb & Co. of Curracoa 
shall be imm.y transmitted,& we expect they will very speedily furn-
ish us with the means of carrying your orders into execution. 
Rum 
at present cannot be procured without paying the exorbitant price 
of 7 bitts p Gallon. 
We expect in the course of a few weeks it may 
be purchased @ 3 to 4 bitts, & then we hope circumstances will allow 
us to make you some shipmts. 
We shall advise you regularly of our 
proceedings & we are respectfully •••• 
Tobacco 12~ @ 25P H.s as in Quality 
Flour 15 @ 16 dollars p bble 
Salt 9 @ 10 bar. Rum 62 @ 7 P Gn. 
SOURCE: 
FRANCES NORTON MASON, ED. JOHN NORTON AND SONS, MERCHANTS OF LONDON AND 
VIRGINIA (N.Y. 1968), p. 446-7. 
lA Virginia merchant with commercial and family connections in the West Indies 
during the revolutionary era. 
*** 
45 
Picture of Boats 
." 
~: 
·2i~'·.····.·· 
.• ·.~ 
>.H ............•• ·.··.··.·.~.· .. \.~"'f·· 
.;,.~ .... 
ST. THOMAS 1767 
THOMAS REEVF TO JOHN H. NORTON & CO. 
ST. THOMAS, 7 March 1782 
Since the fatal 3d feby 81, (soon after wch unlucky epoche, I 
was compelled to abandon S. Eustatia) our correspondence seems to 
have expired -
'tis my wish to revive it if agreeable to you -
I 
flattered myself after the Navigation of your state became free-
I 
should have been favoured with a line from you, but to my very great 
mortificati~n have hitherto been deprived that pleasure -
I am at 
length informed by a friend from Richmond in Virginia that have re-
moved to Philadelphia & that the conjunctive Tobacco Adventure has 
not become a total loss, as I had feared - divested as I was at the 
sacking of Statia, of every shilling of earthly property; the Rap-
acious invadors could lay their hands on - it woud have been pleas-
ing intelligence to have learnt from you, the little I had under 
your direction was still safe -
you will very much oblige me by giv-
ing me the earliest information - of the present State of that tran-
saction -&if there be the whole or any part of it preservedi where 
or to whom I am to apply for it-should you direct any of your Bus-
iness to Curacoa the House of Areson & Reeve will be happy to exe-
cute your commands-if to this Island or St~ Croix you may rely on 
the strictest attention being paid your Interest by •••• 
Prices Current 
J.R. Tobacco •.....•• 25 
pC 
Maryland .•....••.•.• 12 at 15 
do 
Pork •..•...•..•....• 30 at 35 p bbl 
Beef .............•.. 25 at 30 
do 
flour Phila •.•.••..• 23 at 25 
do 
W.O. Staves & headg.lO at 12 p M 
Musco. Sugar •...•.•.• 9 at lO~ p.c. 
Rum .........•.••.•.• 5 at 5~ p Gall falling 
Excha. on London 87~ p. ct. - equal to 65 windward 
SOURCE: 
FRANCES NORTON MASON, ED. JOHN NORTON AND SONS, MERCHANTS OF LONDON AND 
VIRGINIA (N.Y. 1968), p. 446-7. 
*** 
1 
,JAMES BLAIR TO TULLIAM ECCLES 
ST. THOMAS, 23 May 1782 
I flatter myself that this will find you safe returned to the 
Aux-Cayes from Jamaica; although, from the account I have had by a 
letter from Kennedy, and the inquiries I have been making, you must 
have hac a disagreeable time of it corning UPi and I still shall feel 
unhappy until I am informed of your safe arrival: 
I sincerely wish 
that I may soon get that very agreeable information, as I could not 
get the brig insured, as you desired, from Jamaica, owing to the un-
derwriters asking such a monstrous permium; however,' I hope it is so 
46 
much saved. 
This will be hande~ you by Ca Rea, in the schooner Daphne 
(formerly our Rover); which vessel has on board two hundred and fifty 
barrels of English flour, and twenty barrels of best heavy cargo 
beef, which please dispose of; and the proceeds invest in brown sug-
ar and cotton, and dispatch her as soon as possible for this place; 
She is still owned in the former concern of Joseph Searight and com-
pany and us; 
~nd the captain, in case of your absence, has direct-
tions to call upon Mr. Wethered. 
By the last vessel from Aux Cays I am informed Kennedy was 
again C'oing to Jamaica, and that Mr. Wethered was going to load 
the sloop you purchased in Jamaica for this place; if so, hope shall 
see her soon. 
The only news I have to inform you, of any consequence now is, 
that there is a total change in the ministry of Great-Britain; and 
the new ones, who consist of the principal speakers of the minority 
in both houses, seem determined to make peace with America upon any 
terms. 
No commissions would be granted to some vessels, which have 
arrived lately, against the Americans. 
We, honest Danes, now enjoy 
every liberty of commerce, as far as consistent with treaties; and, 
if you had property sufficient to load the brig up with the most 
valuable cargo, we need to be under no apprehension of capture .... 
SOURCE: 
JAJ. VOL. VII, p. 546. 
1 
An Irish merchant at Aux Cayes, Sainte-Dominique. 
Eccles was in fact based 
in St. John, Danish West Indies. 
As a neutral trader, he would send ships to 
purchase sugar and rum in the French Islands, which he would then ship, as Dan-
ish produce, to his agents in Great Britain where the price was highest. 
*** 
1 
BALL, JENNINGS & WOODRUP TO MESSRS. TRIEL, RARY & CO. 
ST. THOMAS, 
15 June 1782 
Referring to what we had the pleasure of writing you the 1st 
current, by our brig, Neptune, captain Hill, we have now the plea-
sure to inclose you invoice and bill lading for two hundred barrels 
best new heavy cargo beef, and one thousand one hundred and ninety 
barrels superfine flour, to your address, by our brig Phoenix, cap-
tain March. 
As we have favourable accounts of the prices of provisions at 
your port, and, as both the beef and flour are very good, and have 
not been more than ten days in this port, we flatter ourselves they 
will not only command a ready sale, but one that will be pleasin9 
also: 
47 
We wish you to give captain March all possible dispatch; and, 
as we presume, produce will be much cheaper at Port-au-Prince than 
at the Cape, that you will as soon as possible send him there, with 
sufficient funds to load his vessel: 
Mr. Plunket will give orders 
to messieurs Barrere and company to furnish captain March with about 
ninety thousand lbs. coffee; which he had ordered them to purchase 
for the former owners of the Nancy. 
So that we apprehend it will 
not take near the proceeds of the cargo we now send you by the 
Phoenix, to purchase the remainder of her return cargo: 
We wish 
her to be loaded with white sugar of the second quality, and with 
coffee and cotton: 
As to the quantity of either of these three 
articles to be put in the brig, we can only observe, that we wish 
it to be regulated by the rise or fall of them at the port she loads 
at; for, at late prices in Port-au-Prince, the profits here would be 
nearly equal on either, considering all circumstances. 
As so considerable a proportion of the cargo is to be furnished 
by messieurs Barrere and company, we would wish you to employ them 
in this instance to furnish the whole cargo, and to press them to 
give dispatch; consulting captain March as to the quantity of either 
sugar, coffee, or cotton, he wishes to take for cargo; because he 
knows what either article will sell for here, and can best judge how 
to load his vessel properly. 
The approach of the hurricane season makes us particularly anx-
ious for dispatch in this voyage, that we may be enabled to send the 
brig to you again before it comes: 
And we therefore hope, that, on 
receipt hereof, you will give orders to have fifty or sixty hogsheads 
sugar bought against she arrives at Port-au-Prince; and, if you are 
sure she will have dispatch at that port, it might be best for cap-
tain March to clean her at the Cape before he takes in ballast; but 
this we leave to you and him. 
We rely fully in your attention to our interest in all respects, 
and we shall always be happy in occasions to shew with how much truth 
and respect we are, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servants, 
SOtffiCE: 
JAJ. VOL. VII, P. 547. 
1 A merchant firm at Cap Francois, Sainte-Dominique. 
*** 
CODMAN & SMITHI TO JAMES RUSSELL 
BOSTON, 21 October 1782 
Refering you to what our J.C. /John Codman7 writ~you by this 
conveyance, I have now to advise you that the Bearer hereof is Capt. 
Ephraim Lombard in our Schooner Adventure, who now goes out to the 
French Islands with a Load of Fish, from whence we have ordered him 
48 
with a Cargo of Coffee & Cotton to St. Thomas to you/r! address. 
Should he be so fortunate as to arrive safe you wi11:be pleased to 
dispose of his cargo to the best advantage & improve the Vessel as 
you may judge most for our Interest, during the Winter, as the ris-
que is too great on this coast at that season for so small a Vessel. 
If Capt. Lo~bard should come to good sales of his Cargo at 
Marie Galante, a Small Island near Martinico, where he is now bound, 
it may probably answer to return there with another suitable Carqo 
from St. Thomas; but you must be so much better acquainted with -
these Circumstances than we possibly can that we leave the future 
conducting of the Voyage to you. 
We Should wish to have the Vessel 
return here next spring with a Load of Coffee from some of the 
French Islands where it may come cheapest. 
There is a prospect of good fish being high a/t7 Havanna about 
Jany, which is the time of Lent, but that Island being so far to 
Leeward the Vessel could no return to St. Thomas but might go to 
Virginia & from thence either to you or Havana again & from Havana 
home. 
We wish to have the Vessel appear as Danish Property, notwith-
standing we have the greatest opinion of her being a very fast 
Sailor. 
If this can be done & you find employ may be had to advan-
tage, you may keep her unti11 you can advise us & receive an Answer. 
We have given Capt. Lombard the name of our Correspondants at the 
different Islands. 
If he goes any where & is not sufficient to 
transact the business, let him go consigned; this is the case more 
at the 1eward Islands than at Windward .••. 
SOURCE: 
CODMAN AND SMITH LETTERBOOK, BL. 
1 A Boston mercantile firm trading with the West Indies and Europe during the 
Revolution. 
*** 
Americans weren't the only people to take advantage of Danish neutrality. 
Taking 
advantage of a 1765 Danish decree allowing the establishment of the Roman Catholic 
Church, Spanish Catholics used the islands as a base of operations to facilitate 
trade between Europe and the Spanish Caribbean. 
In 1778 the Danes established 
their own comrnerica1 company, The Royal Danish West India Trading Company, in an 
effort to capitalize on the war between France and Britain. 
A branch office of 
this Company was opened in St. Thomas, and company ships, escorted by Danish 
Naval vessels traded heavily with the French islands, supplying them with essen-
tial foodstuffs and European goods in exchange for coffee and other tropical pro-
ductsl. 
Even the British occasionally found it expedient to trade with the Dan-
ish islands during these years of food shortages. 
JOHN DRUMMOND TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN2 
30 June 1779 
49 
... The channel of coming to all this my Lord, originates in the 
Danish islands of St. Croiy and St. Thomas, where there are settled 
large colonies of Roman Catholic Irish to whom a number of priests 
and gens religeuse constantly resort who are members of different 
convents and communities settled in the Spanish places and colonies. 
By their means then is a prominent contraband trade carried between 
the Danish neutrals and all the Spanish islands at the head of which 
are generally the chiefs of the different holy orders -
and under 
whose management a constant intercourse by flags of truce are car-
ried on upon various pretences set forth to the Spanish governors. 
By these trading fathers who are in truth and monopolizers of all 
lucrative commerce in the Spanish settlement acting at libtum these 
gentry ry Lord, will soon furnish a pretext for a flag of truce that 
shall be freely admitted into any of the Spanish ports, and anywhere 
wit~out any restriction provided they are bulk paid - all that is 
necessary is that every person on board may be deemed neutral sub-
jects which is a brief easily procured to of Danish brokership, in 
this manner my friend can personally safely undertake this kind· of 
voyages and depend only upon his own observations and judgements 
which I know to be accurate. 
SOURCE: 
GERMAIN PAPERS, WLC. 
IFor the short career of the Royal Danish west India Trading Company see P.R. 
Sveistrup, "Det Konge1ige Danske Octroyered vestindiske Handelsse1skab 1778-1785," 
Historisk Tidsskrift, VI (4 Hefte, 1943) pp. 385-427. 
2Gerrnain was British Secretary of State for the American Colonies 1775-1782. 
*** 
JAMES RAMSEyl TO MAJOR GENERAL VAUGHAN 
ST. KITTS, 23 January 1781 
I mentioned to you a lately erected Royal Company at St. Thom-
as for takinq advantaqe of the war to trade with the French Islands. 
His Majesty of Denmark, and his Prime Minister are principal members. 
Hendriques,/sic7 a Prussian, is director, and has the control of two 
frigates, and some small armed vessels for the protection of the 
trade. 
The Borneholme frigate with ten vessels under her cover were 
lately met with, by three of our privateers returning from Guadel-
oupe loaded with sugar, and other West Indian produce. 
The frigate 
fired on the privateers for attempting to search her convoy. 
Her 
fire was returned with interest; and after she had fired four guns 
she struck her colors. 
The privateers then took possession of-her 
whole convoy, and conducted them in here, leaving the frigate to go 
on her course. 
They had carri2d up to Guadeloupe goods saved from 
the French wrecks at St. Croix, and some private ventures, and some 
articles on account of the Royal Company. 
Their ladenings, when taken, 
were some French property, some private Danish, some on account of 
the Royal Company. 
One vessel sworn to be Danish property is order-
50 
ed by letter found on board to be sold as soon as her voyage is com-
pleted on account of one Casamajor, a Frenchman of Guadeloupe. 
SOURCE: 
VAUGHAN PAPERS, WLC. 
lA naval chaplain, Ramsey operated a plantation on St. Kitts during the revol-
ution. 
He provided British civil and military authorities with military intell-
igence and advice. 
After the revolution Ramsey achieved notoriety as an anti-
slavery crusader. 
2Ships wrecked on St. Croix during the ,hurricane of October, 1780. 
*** 
SAMUEL JOHNSTON 1 TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
ST. KITTS, 13 May 1781 
... Sir Peter Clausen, Commander in Chief of His Danish Majesty's 
Islands in America, laid a Complaint before the late Governor a few 
days before his Death, first, relative to the Capture of Vessels and 
property of Danish Subjects coming from Guadeloupe; secondly, with 
regard to an Insult of the Captors to the Danish Frigate which con-
voyed those Vessels. 
To the first I answered that the Vessels had 
been libelled in the Court of Admiralty in this Island and declared 
legal prizes to the Captors, from which sentence the Claimants have 
appealed to England where the matter must be decided, it not being in 
my power to determine thereon. 
To the second I answered I should be 
ready to pay every attention consistent with the power in me vested, 
but this being an Affair of a delicate nature and committed on the 
High Seas, it must be referred to the King's pleasure which I would 
as I now do refer to your Lordship, no doubting but such decision 
would be consistent with the Honor and Rights of both Crowns •.•. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/61. 
lsamuel Johnston, President of St. Kitts Council, who temporarily assumed the 
Governorship of the Leeward Islands following the death of William Mathew Burt. 
*** 
GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEylTO GEORGE GERMAIN 
ANTIGUA, 30 August 1781 
I am sorry to inform your Lordship that the great Scarcity of 
Provisions here has obliged me, in order to prevent the little that 
remains from being sent to the Island of St. Thomas, which is becom-
ing another St. Eustatius, and consequently the distress that must 
follow a state of real want, to take the step of prohibiting the 
51 
Exportation of every Article that can corne under that discription •. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/61. 
lAppointed Governor of the Leeward Islands following the death of William M. 
Burt. 
*** 
Besides serving as an important entrepot of world trade, during the War of Amer-
ican Independence the Danish islands were also a focal point of international 
espionage. 
There is a distinct possibility (although understandably undocumented) 
that Philip Freneau served as an American spy during his residence on St. Croix. 
Certainly many pro-American residents, as well as visiting American mariners, 
gathered and relayed vital military information from the islands to contacts in 
the rebellious colonies. 
The British likewise endeavoured to establish a spy network in the Dan~sh colonies. 
In 1779, John Drummond proposed to Secretary of Stat.e George Germain that loyal 
British merchant spies should obtain Danish burgher briefs in order to gain entry 
as neutral traders into the Spanish and French islands. 
Later in the war the 
British unsuccessfully attempted to recruit spies from among British residents in 
St. Croix and St. Thomas. 
Equally, the French took advantage of Danishcneutral-
ity to obtain military information about the British islands. 
LMANNING AND BAILE!71 TO LORD SHELBURNE2 
LONDON II7827 
To make it easy for you to combine the-defense of the islands 
to Windward with that of Jamaica, I must desire that you will immed-
iately take into your consideration some mode of obtaining intelli-
gence concerning the enemy's operations to Windwa~d, shall be earl-
ier and more certain in it's conveyance than any which Jamaica it-
self can supply to you. 
For this purpose it has occured, that by 
means of neutral persons sent down from St. Croix and St. Thomas 
to Hispaniola, and the Havannah (under the pretence perhaps of trad-
ing and that with very small and swift vessels) you may establish a 
natural and authentic basis for intelligence. 
From this center, 
accurate and constant informations under of shape of mercantile news 
I should hope may circulate down to Jamaica and round to yourselves, 
and in the mode that will be pointed out to you may even reach Sir. 
Guy Carlton through the revolting provinces. 
For the purpose of fac-
ilitating any connections of this sort, which you may endeavor to es-
tablish, I enclose you two letters from considerable merchants here 
to persons in the Danish Islands, who may assist in forwarding your 
plans. 
By these channels, I would recommend that notice should be 
given of arrivals, junctions and departures, of disasters, vietories 
and movements, and other incidents, which occur and the same maybe 
repeated in a like mercantile form to Mr. Manning or Mr. Bailey of 
London. 
As the part of this business which is the most dangerous, 
will consist in the direct intimations sent to Jamaica which I hope 
52 
ed by letter found on board to be sold as soon as her voyage is com-
pleted on account of one Casamajor, a Frenchman of Guadeloupe. 
SOURCE: 
VAUGHAN PAPERS, WLC. 
lA naval chaplain, Ramsey operated a plantation on St. Kitts during the revol-
ution. 
He provided British civil and military authorities with military ,intell-
igence and advice. 
After the revolution Ramsey achieved notoriety as an anti-
slavery crusader. 
2Ships wrecked on St. Croix during the hurricane of October, 1780. 
*** 
SAMUEL JOHNSTON1 TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
ST. KITTS, 13 May 1781 
•.. Sir Peter Clausen, Commander in Chief of His Danish Majesty's 
Islands in America, laid a Complaint before the late Governor a few 
days before his Death, first, relative to the Capture of Vessels and 
property of Danish Subjects corning from Guade10upei secondly, with 
regard to an Insult of the Captors to the Danish Frigate which con-
voyed those Vessels. 
To the first I answered that the Vessels had 
been libelled in the Court 
of Admiralty in this Island and declared 
legal prizes to the Captors, from which sentence the Claimants have 
appealed to England where the matter must be decided, it not being in 
my power to determine thereon. 
To the second I answered I should be 
ready to pay every attention consistent with the power in me vested, 
but this being an Affair of a delicate nature and committed on the 
High Seas, it must be referred to the King's pleasure which I would 
as I now do refer to your Lordship, no doubting but such decision 
would be consistent with the Honor and Rights of both Crowns •••. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/61. 
lSamuel Johnston, President of St. Kitts Council, who temporarily assumed the 
Governorship of the Leeward Islands following the death of William Mathew Burt. 
*** 
GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEy1TO GEORGE GERMAIN 
ANTIGUA, 30 August 1781 
I am sorry to inform your Lordship that the great Scarcity of 
Provisions here has obliged me, in order to prevent the little that 
remains from being sent to the Island of St. Thomas, which is becom-
ing another St. Eustatius, and consequently the distress that must 
follow a state of real want, to take the step of prohibiting the 
51 
Exportation of every Article that can corne under that discription •. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/61. 
lAppointed Governor of the Leeward Islands following the death of William M. 
Burt. 
*** 
Besides serving as an important entrepot of world trade, during the War of Amer-
ican Independence the Danish islands were also a focal point of international 
espionage. 
There is a distinct possibility (although understandably undocumented) 
that Philip Freneau served as an American spy during his residence on St. Croix. 
Certainly many pro-American residents, as well as visiting American mariners, 
gathered and relayed vital military information from the islands to contacts in 
the rebellious colonies. 
The British likewise endeavoured to establish a spy network in the Danish colonies. 
In 1779, John Drummond proposed to Secretary of Sta~e George Germain that loyal 
British merchant spies should obtain Danish burgher briefs in order to gain entry 
as neutral traders into the Spanish and French islands. 
Later in the war the 
British unsuccessfully attempted to recruit spies from among British residents in 
st. Croix and St. Thomas. 
Equally, the French took advantage of Danish neutral-
ity to obtain military information about the British islands. 
LMANNING AND BAILE~71 TO LORD SHELBURNE2 
LONDON ;r7827 
To make it easy for you to combine the-defense of the islands 
to Windward with that of Jamaica, I must desire that you will immed-
iately take into your consideration some mode of obtaining intelli-
gence concerning the enemy's operations to Windward, shall be earl-
ier and more certain in it's conveyance than any which Jamaica it-
self can supply to you. 
For this purpose it has occured, that by 
means of neutral persons sent down from St. Croix and St. Thomas 
to Hispaniola, and the Havannah (under the pretence perhaps of trad-
ing and that with very small and swift vessels) you may establish a 
natural and authentic basis for intelligence. 
From this center, 
accurate and constant informations under of shape of mercantile news 
I should hope may circulate down to Jamaica and round to yourselves, 
and in the mode that will be pointed out to you may even reach Sir. 
Guy Carlton through the revolting provinces. 
For the purpose of fac-
ilitating any connections of this sort, which you may endeavor to es-
tablish, I enclose you two letters from considerable merchants here 
to persons in the Danish Islands, who may assist in forwarding your 
plans. 
By these channels, I .would recommend that notice should be 
given of arrivals, junctions and departures, of disasters, victories 
and movements, and other incidents, which occur and the same maybe 
repeated in a like mercantile form to Mr. Manning or Mr. Bailey of 
London. 
As the part of this business which is the most dangerous, 
will consist in the direct intimations sent to Jamaica which I hope 
52 
need not in future happen frequently, I have high confidence in your 
address to fix upon proper persons for negotiatinq and executing a 
plan, of which the success is so important to the Kinq's service. 
SOURCE: 
SHELBURNE PAPERS, WLC. 
1 tqest India merchants and absentee planters.. 
l'>I...anning was t'lilliam rlannin,} I a 
prosperous merchant-planter of St. Kitts who had several personal acquaintances 
in St. Croix. 
See Philip C. Yorke ed. The Diary of John Baker (London, 1931). 
2Secretary of State for the American Colonies 1782. 
*** 
GENERAL EDWARD MATHEWI TO LORD SHELBURNE 
ANTIGUA, 30 July 1782 
Mr. Brown, the Gentleman whom I dispatched to St. Croix, re-
turned yesterday. 
I have the Honor to inclose his report by which 
your Lordship will perceive our expectations are not answered in the 
degree we had at first reason to expect. 
I will use every endeavour 
to settle a Correspondence at St. Thomas as recommended by Mr. Ryan. 2 
REPORT BY JOHN BROWN: 
July 7th 1782 Left Antigua. 
Arrived at St. Thomas on the 10th fol-
lowing, where I was informed of Mr. MacEvoy's3 having sailed for 
Europe from St. Croix about a week before. 
July 12th. 
Sailed from St. Thomas and arrived at St. Croix the next 
day. 
Waited upon Mr. Ryan immediately and delivered Mr. Manning's 
Letter, a Letter from General Mathew, and a paper from Lord Shel-
burne. 
After Mr. Ryan had perused those papers, he said he was ex-
ceedingly sorry that Mr. MacEvoy had left the Island, that for his 
own part (although he had every inclination to serve his Country) 
he was a private Gentleman Planter and could not undertake to carry 
on the Business which I had communicated to Him. 
That he could not 
even recommend any person in that Island. 
The Principal Trade there 
being carried on either by French, Americans, Dutch, or people con-
nected with them, and of course could not be trusted. 
He told me 
that from the little Trade carried on in St. Croix and the Situation 
of that Island in other respects, he did not conceive it to be a 
proper place to obtain Information, and he seemed to think such bus-
iness might be carried on to greater advantage at St. Thomas as a 
place of more extensive Trade. 
During the course of my Conversation with Mr. Ryan he often ex-
pressed a desire of being at Liberty to consult with Mr. William 
Newton, an intelligent Gentleman of large possessions in St. Croix 
and whom he said he could trust. 
I begged Mr. Ryan would take this 
Gentleman's advice, that perhaps he might put us in the way of 
53 
carrying on the Business on a smaller Scale provided it could not be 
executed so fully as we wished. 
In-consequence of this we had a 
meeting on the 15th of July at Mr. Ryan's House, where Mr. Newton, 
after having read the Letters & papers7 and the matter being fully 
explained to Him, Joined in opinion with ~1r. Ryan that St. Croix was 
not a place of Trade sufficient for such an undertaking and if it was 
there were no merchants in the Island to whom they /could7 commun-
icate business of such importance; both agreeing that St~ Thomas 
(being a free Port) was much better Calculated to carryon such a 
Correspondence; And that Mr. Thomas Campbell, Merchant there, was 
the only person whom they could recommend, both as to Abilities & 
attachment to His Country, provided he could be prevailed upon to 
undertake it. 
This Gentleman sailed for Jamaica before I arrived 
at St. Thomas, and in all probability will not return before the 
Hurricane months are over, which is about the end of October. 
Mr. Ryan intends to write by the first opportunity and give you 
his reasons at full length why the Bussiness could not be executed. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 318/9. 
1 Replaced General Vaughan as Commander in Chief of the British Army in the 
Eastern Caribbean. 
2Henry Ryan, a member of a leading Irish family of Montserrat, who had moved to 
St. Croix in the 1750's. 
He was a close personal friend of William Manning. 
See 
Philip C. Yorke ed. The Diary of John Baker (London, 1931). 
3probably Christopher MacEvoy, a Scotsman who came to St. Croix in 1751 and ac-
quired several sugar plantations, including Estate Whim, which has been beautifully 
restored as a museum by the St. Croix Landmark's Society. 
For the history of the 
~~CEvoy family on St. Croix see Florence Lewisohn, St. Croix Under Seven Flags (1970) 
pp. 121-5. 
*** 
GOVERNOR JM1ES CUNNINGHAMEI TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
BARBADOS, 14 February 1782 
... The pernicious Consequences that resulted from the Trade of 
Saint Eustatius are in a Degree arising at the Danish Islands. 
Many 
small Vessels have arrived here under the Danish Flag without any ap-
parent Reason whatever, coming directly from the French Islands and 
landing Foreigners and other Suspected Persons. 
Every Step has been 
taken to prevent this illicit Practice, and I am now about making an 
Example agreeable to a Law of this Island in order to intimidate others 
from action in like Manner. 
As I have been informed that General Clausen, Governor General of 
the Danish Islands, does by no means either approve of or encourage 
this kind of Traffick and that an Ordinance had been published by him 
forbidding any British Subjects becoming Burghers of any Danish Island 
subsequent to the Commencement of the War between Great Britain & 
54 
France, I thought it necessary to write to His Excellency ... 
I must remark to Your Lordship that all the Danish Vessels that 
have thought proper to visit us in this questionable Manner have been 
detained here by the Embargo, and as I have been informed several 
of them have been Sent here on no other Errand than to observe and 
give the French Information of our Situation and what was passing 
here, for they never undertake an Expedition that is not preceded 
by visits of this kind. 
It is with great Pleasure I can assure your 
Lordship that the keeping these Gentlemen here under the strict Em-
bargo has had the most Salutary Effects .... 
SOURCE: 
PRO. c.o. 28/59. 
1 Governor of Barbados. 
55 
SECTION III: 
MARITIME INCIDENTS IN VIRGIN ISLAND 
WATERS DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 
56 
Throughout the American Revolution Virgin Island waters were the scene of many 
naval episodes which would have far reaching ciplomatic repercussions in the 
Courts of Europe. 
The constant patrolling of the British Navy and especially 
the Tortolian privateers frequently led to illegal seizures of Danish ships and 
property. 
Overzealous British seaman often violated Danish waters in their 
quest for prizes. 
The Vice-Admiralty Court at Tortola, presided over by men 
who were principals in privateering ventures, was quick to condemn Danish ves-
sels seized by the Tortolian privateers, irrespective of the diplomatic impli-
cations of such decisions. 
On the other hand, overt and covert Danish assistance 
to Americans in the form of flag salutes, assistance to American privateers, and 
the granting of Danish papers to American merchants and ships provoked numerable 
protests from local British officials. 
Thus, while ostensibly Denmark and Great 
Britain were at peace, their relations were strained to the utmost by the acrim-
onious cold-war sitaution that prevailed in the West Indies. 
Several of the most 
significant maritime incidents of the revolution, including the famous 1776 flag 
salute at Fredericksted, St. Croix, are detailed in the documents reproduced below. 
GOVERNOR PETER VON CLAUSENI TO VICE-ADMIRAL JAMES YOUNG 
ST. CROIX, April 11, 1776 
In the many years that I have had the honour to command in chief 
over my Royal master's dominions in the West Indies it has always 
been my point not only to observe due neutrality to the powerful al-
lies of my King, but also on every occasion to pay the respective 
officers either by land or sea the compliments due them. 
This I have thought should be unequivocally observed on both 
sides to continue the narrow alliance entered into by their most 
gracious Sovereigns, but I find myself mistaken herein by the behav-
iour of Captain O'Bryan IByrne7, Commander of the ship of war called 
the Heyne /Hind7, who the 7th-of February last with his said ship 
came to an-anchor in the road of Fredericksted .•• passing the Fort 
without shewing any colour, nor informing neither the Fort or Cus-
tom House of his arrival ... which tho' is a necessary compliment due 
from any ship to what Fort soever, and to which every Fort is entit-
led to compel them. 
But this was not the only insult of the said Captain O'Bryan; 
he during his stay there searched every vessel in the harbour, both 
those residing at anchor, as those coming and going under Danish 
colours, ... properties of this Island; his long boats were watch-
ing the least motion, even of our drogues, by cruizing forwards & 
backwards in the harbour and around the shore. 
He also entered a 
Brig coming around the Point and steering in the harbour and car-
ried her ofL!7 under the guns of the Fort. 
This behaviour of the 
said Captain O'Bryan made our inhabitants attentive, and it struck 
me with astonishment when I heard of it at St. Thomas .•. 
I would 
not then believe it, but after my return to this Island I ordered 
an enquiry to be made and found more than the truth of what is re-
lated .... Lieutenant Nicholson 10f the Hind7 in conversation with 
some gentlemen here surprised,-of the CaptainB behaviour, declared 
that they had not only positive orders for so doing, but that the 
57 
old ship, the Heyne, was atle to demolish the Fort in case the Fort 
should venture to hinder ttem in their proceedings. 
These declara-
tions, compared with the actions of the said Captain, can certainly 
not be deemed but Insults & Hostilities, of which I find myself, 
for the honor of my King to make a due report to His Royal Majesty 
my Master, also to inform your Honour thereof, as I can't imagine 
these aforegoing facts to be by the Laws, Treaties and Alliances, 
less by you, authorized. 
I have been forced to order a Court Martial on the Commanding 
Officer in the Fort who silently bore those great insults & hostil-
ities, and the decision of the Court will determine this matter .•.• 
SOURCE: 
VON CLAUSSEN LETTERBOOKS, BAN. LIB. 
lGovernor General of the Danish West Indies. 
*** 
CAPTAIN BRYNE TO VICE-ADMIRAL JAMES YOUNG 
ANTIGUA, 9 March 1777 
In Answer to the Copy of a Memorial which you have received 
from my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, transmitted to them 
from the Earl of Suffolk, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries 
of State, from Monsr. de Hennoken, the Danish Charge d'Affairs, com-
plaining of my Conduct in His Majesty's Ship Hiru1 under my Command 
in the Road Fredericstadt off one of the Danish West India Islands; 
and Secretary Stephens having signified their Lordships' Directions 
to you to make immediate enquiry into the matter therein Complained 
of; I am to acquaint you the 7th February 1776, at seven O'Clock 
dark Night, I came to an Anchor in the Road, and without meaning 
the least disrespect to the Fort did not hoist any Colours 'till the 
next Morning, it not being Customary to wear them after Sun Set. 
As to my boarding Vessels under their Guns, I remember to have 
spoke but two Sloops and I had suspicion of their belonging to His 
Majesty's Rebellious Subjects in America; both of them were at least 
three Miles from any Fort. 
On my Boats boarding one of them, the 
Fort fired a Shot and the Officer immediately desisted examining 
her. 
Afterwards, on the 18th April, 1776, I met with His Majesty's 
Armed Brig St. John (Commanded by Lieutenant Grant) off St. August-
ine who had just before seized the above mentioned Sloop, having the 
same Master, Mate and'Men on board (which were known by the Officer 
who boarded her off Frederickstadt) Laden with Arms and Powder bound 
to America ••.. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. ADM. 1/309. 
*** 
58 
An Eighteenth Century Danish West Indianan,the" ST. CROIX PACKET" Of Copenhagen. 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO ABRAHAM CHALWILLl 
ST. CROIX, 12 October 1776 
The Bearer hereof Sir Cornelius Durant Merchant of this Island 
and for more than ten years a Burgher and constant Inhabitant there-
of has informed me that his Sloop called Ste. Croix, in her Passage 
from here was taken up between this and St. Thomas by an armed Brigg 
under his Britannick Majesty's Colours and carried into Your Gou-
vernment. 
The near Alliances and amiable Treaties between my Royal 
Ma.ster the King of Danmark and his M.ajesty Your Souverain, have 
caused my Souverain Strictly and severely both in his Kingdoms and 
these his Colonies to forbid his Subjects to ship or carry any mil-
itary Stores of what denomination to the Americains under the Pen-
alty of Confiscation of Ships and Goods, besides severe Punishment. 
I have looked over the Clearance for the Sloop of Durant called 
St. Croix and find Sloop to be loaded with Salt which is very legal 
and common from here to send Salt to Norvay, when it cand be got: 
as Norvay is the best market for this Produce where Fish is abun-
dant ••.• 
I must therefore beg of Your Honor not only to release the 
Sloop but also to procure the OWner as Subject of my King the due 
Satisfaction •••• 
SOURCE: 
"LETTERS SENT BY GOVERNOR CLAUSEN TO FOREIGN OFFICIALS, 1774-1784," 
RG #55, USNA. 
1president of Torto1a Council. 
*** 
COMMANDANT THOMAS MALLEVILLEl TO JOHN FAHIE2 
ST. THOMAS, 27 February, 1777 
Most highly injured by the hostilities committed here on our 
Danish Coast by one William Stephens, Commander of a small Sloop 
from your Government belonging to Mr. Hetherington, Inhabitant on 
Tortola, I am obliged to acquaint your Honour thereof, and to demand 
Satisfaction therefore. 
Said William Stephens did on the 24th instant ••.. pursue and 
chase a French Sloop here under our Shore in a hostille manner, but 
even after this pursued Sloop was stranded on the South side of 
this Island, Stephens had the insolence to drive the people away 
from her, work her loose from the Shore, and audaciously to carry 
her away, which plainly can be seen of the inclosed Instrument taken 
before the Notary Public of this Place. 
Said Instrument will con-
vince your Honour that this William Stephens has acted •.. inconsis-
tent in the highest Degree aqainst the Laws of Nations and espec-
59 
ially against the high Union and Alliance between the Danish and 
British Court, but even it may be looked upon as a Robbery on the 
Danish Coast and a Piracy committed on the Sea. 
After the French 
sloop was stranded, she was, and became, the property of my Sover-
eign; yet this Willi?ID Stephens had the audacity to commit an open 
and violent Robbery in getting her of II! and carrying her away. 
In 
regard hereof I 
a~ obliged to demand In the most sacred name of my 
most gracious Sovereign Lord and Haster: First, That the French 
sloop Le Solide, commanded by Capt. Dominigue Diusive, loaded with 
Indigo and Rice, belonging to Mr. Joseph Artiguenare, thus as be-
fore mentioned taken and carryed away the 24th instant from our 
Strand by William Stephens of Tortola, must at once with her full 
load and all and everything that was taken and carryed away be de-
livered up to Johannes Magens Esq., His Majesty's Controulor of the 
Customs here, who is expressly sent up to demand and see this unjust 
Affair settled. 
Secondly, my Demand is that this William Stephens must be pun-
ished for his committed Insolence, hostilites and Robbery, Yea! 
even Piracy, while the Antigua Public Newspapers .••• 
Sheweth by 
the Publication of Vice Admiral James Young Esq. dated 7th February, 
1777, that no English Privateers are at present authorized, land7 
that all who pretends to go under that name shall be looked upon as 
Pirates, land7 None has a right to make prizes, much less commit In-
solences and-Violences even on their declared Enemies under the Dom-
inion of another Monarch ...• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. 152/56. 
1 Commandant of St. Thomas. 
2president of Tortola Council. 
*** 
JOHN FAHIE TO CAISTER GREATHEADI 
TORTOLA, 4 March 1777 
I received yesterday the inclosed Letter from Commandant Malle-
ville of St. Thomas, to which I sent in Answer that it was out of 
my Province to determine upon his Complaints, and directed his Ap-
plication to your Honour, whose Superior Judgment wou'd give them 
the Consideration they merited. 
At the same Time I took the Liberty of representing to the 
Commandant how insulting to the British Flag and injurious to his 
Majesty's Subjects the Proceedings at St. Croix & St. Thomas have 
been by their Return of Salutes from the Rebels armed Vessels under 
Continental Colours, & by forcing twelve Prisoners out of one of his 
Majesty's Transports which had been already taken by the Rebels & 
retaken by five brave Fellows, who were suffered to remain on board 
60 
& who rose upon, mastered and confined in irons the twelve Rebels 
& carried the Vessel into St. Croix. 
This act of Violence and un-
parallelled partiality, they were soon upon Reflection convinced 
was wrong and notified ••. the Person who had the Direction of the 
Transport Ship that he might take the Prisoners again on board, but 
he, with a becomina Spirit, answered that they had by Force taken 
them from him and released them, and he would make his Complaint 
to the Admiral on the Station. 
I complained also of their Refusal 
to deliver up the Guinea Snow, which was taken between St. Kitts & 
Nevis by an armed Sloop navigated entirely by Frenchmen, who could 
be considered only as Pyrates, the two Nations being at Peace & 
which not withstanding the Testimony of the Capt. and his Mariners 
provina these Facts was ordered out of their ports in the Possess-
ion of the French Pyrates. 
The non-commissioned armed Sloop, of whose Hostility Mr. Malle-
ville complains, is now on a Cruise, or I could have taken the Dep-
osition of the Officers & transmitted them to your Honour by this 
Opportunity. 
With humble Submission to your Honour, I think very little Re-
spect is to be shewn to these Powers, whose propensity to aid and 
support these Rebellious Pursuits each Day's Actions make evidently 
appear, and that the Law of Retaliation should be dispensed to them 
to evince the Resentment that such flagrant Insults must excite. 
The non-commissioned, armed Vessels have made amazing Havock 
among the Rebels, having brought in within these three or four Days 
eight prizes of considerable Cargoes, consisting of Indigo, Flour, 
Bread, Beef, Pork, pease, Corn, Mollassis, Gun Powder and dry Goods. 
The Inhabitants seem to be revived from the Oppression the Captures 
of their Sugar Ships has cast upon them, and there is nothing to be 
heard or seen but the roaring of Cannon, the beating of Drums, Col-
ours flying and the frequent Appearence of fresh Prizes coming in .. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. 152/56. 
1 
President of St. Kitts Council, Acting Governor-of the Leeward Islands. 
*** 
DEPOSITION OF ROBERT NICHOLSON 
TORTOLA, 28 April 1777 
Personally appeared Robert Nicholson, who being duly sworn on 
the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God deposeth and saith, that he, 
the said Nicholson, sailed in the Transport Ship the Lasoye Planter 
on the first of November in his Majesty's Service from New York in 
the Capacity of Carpenter, one William Smith being Master; that the 
said Transport Ship was bound to Corke, and in the Latitude 38.20, 
61 
her Long. 60 West from the Meridian of London, fell in with a Priv-
ateer belonging to the Rebels and was taken by her; that the said 
Transport Ship was ordered into Boston as she was very leaky, the 
Rebels having put twelve of their Men on board, leaving at the same 
Time part of the said Transport's Crew, consisting of him, the said 
Robert Nicholson, four Men and one Boy. 
That on the Weather proving 
bad the Prize-master altered his Course for the West Indies to save 
their lives, most of their sails having been torn to pieces. 
That 
on the 20th November the said Nicholson with his four Men and one 
Boy attacked the twelve Rebels, overcame them, and retook the Ship 
and carried her into Saint Croix under the Dominion of his Danish 
Majesty; that the Commandant of the said Island of St. Croix sent 
a body of Soldiers on board the said Transport and insisted upon 
the /Ireein~7of the twelve Rebels, who were the said Nicholson's 
Prisoners and then in Confinement, and that they should be sent 
ashore; that he, the said Nicholson, considering himself in his Maj-
esty's Service and not compellable by any other Power to deliver up 
the Prisoners who were Rebels refused giving them up and waited on 
the said Commandant; that the said Commandant treated him very ill, 
shaking his Fist at him several Times, and forced him to release 
the Prisoners, or put to Sea immediately, which it was impossible 
for him to do, the Ship not being in Condition to put to Sea; that 
the said Prisoners were sent on board an American armed Vessel that 
lay in the Harbour; that the said Deponent was abused in several 
Respects for having taken the said Transport, and further this de-
ponent saith that it was the Constant Practice during the Time he 
was at St. Croix, when any of the Rebel Vessels carne there with 
their colours flying and saluted the Forts under such Colours, for 
the Forts to return the said salutes, which he thought were the 
greatest affront that could be offered to the British .••• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/56. 
*** 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURTI 
ST. CROIX, 9 July, 1777 
I have been Honoured with our Excellency's Letter of the 4th 
Instant by the Honourable Colonel Browne, in which it has pleased 
your Excellency to declare finding yourself under a necessity of 
stating to me the High Indignity which, by the Inclosed Affidavit, 
you have been informed the Forts under my Command have offered to 
the King your Master, in having returned Salute to one of His Re-
bellious Subjects, a North American Privateer. 
Indeed, I was shocked by reading the assertion and perused im-
mediately the Affidavit, but, finding the Deponent to have been a 
Sailor Carpenter, who likely has thought little or nothing of an 
oath prescribed for and signed by Him, I was in Hopes to find out 
the Truth of the whole, and for that Purpose demanded the Honour-
62 
able Commandant Schimmelmann, who at that time commanded in my ab-
sence, His Declaration on the Accusation which He transmitted to me 
under his Hand the 7th Instant. 
After reading this I find that Nicholson's Deposition is in 
every Respect false, and when I reflect that said Commandant's en-
trevue with the said Nicholson was in the Presence of the Honour-
able Counsellor of Justice Lindeman, Capitain Von Haxthausen, Messrs. 
Benjamin Yard and Abraham Lynsen, who all Declare Nicholson's Asser-
tions to be a True Sailor Story and absolute false I am then aston-
ished that a Fellow of His Education could prevail on a Gentleman 
which I took Mr. John Fahie for and intrude his Declaration on said 
Fahie's Believance as a Real Fact. 
The Commandant has on this occ-
asion declared the said Nicholson to be a nefarious lyar, calum-
inator and Perjuror, and insists that said Nicholson may be in-
flicted Corporal Punishment to prevent him and others like him to 
backbite People in Post. 
Relative to what your Excellency has been 
pleased to mention of the Return of a Salute from our Forts to a 
North American Privateer, I assure your Excellency that you posit-
ively have been misinformed because no American Vessel is permitted 
Entrance in these Harbours under American Colours, and which I al-
ready did forbid in the Month of March last year, with this addi-
tion, that if such Vessel should come in under American Colours, the 
Forts then should Hail them ordering them to strike such Colours, 
and if not immediately obeyed, to fire at them. 
As to other Ves-
sels from America trading here under English Colours and Carrying 
some small guns, these have, agreeable to my Royal Master's Ordin-
ance, been returned Salutes from the Forts after they have been first 
saluted by the Vessels, like all other Nation's Trading Vessels. 
In 
Regard to what your Excellency has been pleased to observe to me -
"that in the Government committed to your care, no Indignity shall 
be offered to my Royal Master or Injustice done His Subjects, where-
fore you trust, S1r, the same conduct will be pursued bme, and that 
no 
ro ec or suer t e Nort 
Amer1can P1rat1ca , Re e 
10US Armed vessels either to arm, refit~orbring their Plundered 
Pr1zes 1nto any of the Ports within my Government" -
I beg leave to 
1nform your Excellency that the King my Sovereign has the 4th of 
March 1775 ordered me to forbid all foreign vessels enter these 
Ports with any kind of Ammunitions and under a serious Penalty in-
terdicted His from Europe trading Subjects to carry the least spec-
ies of warlike Stores for trade. 
These Laws I have duly obeyed and 
have publickly advertised them for Every Trader's Regulations, so 
that your Excellency will see that your Trust is founded in my obed-
ience due to my Royal Master's Orders, originated from the strict 
alliance between the Two Crowns of Denmark and England, which I on 
my side always have made it a Point to dwell upon. 
But your Ex-
cellency will give me leave to demonstrate to you my Doubt of your 
Assertion -
"that in our Government no Indignit shall be offered 
to my Royal Master or InJust1ce done 
1S S 
Jects 
-
w 1C 
0 
t 1S 
founded not upon Sailor's Affidavit, less on Probables; but a Pro-
bates and Facts, viz., one Hetherington with other Inhabitants of 
the Island Tortola under your Government has armed some Privateers, 
which neither have Commissions nor Letter of Marque, contrary to all 
Laws of Nations and particularly contrary to a Treaty between the 
63 
Crowns of Denmark and England of the 11th of July 1670 with many 
others subsequent; so that it is evident that they are theoretical 
and practical Pirates, for which His Honour Admiral Young has pub-
lickly advertised them in the Antigua Gazeteer. 
These Pirates, or, 
as They call themselves, Non Commissioned Armed Vessels, took in 
February last a French Vessel on shore a Bay called Flamingo on the 
South Side of St. Thomas and after having pilfered her carried her 
in to Tortola. 
A Schooner belonging to Two Ancient Burghers of this Island, 
coming from North America with a load of Tobacco, Flour, and Slaves, 
and anchoring in a bay on the qreat north side of St. Thomas where 
lone7 of my Royal Master's Custom House officers at St. Thomas aqree-
able to his Duty and ~ost went on board and with His Majesty's Cus-
tom House Seal, sealed up the Hatches to bring her into the Harbour 
of said Island, was also taken by Tortolian Privateers or Pirates in 
a small Cobble and carried into Tortola, after ... they first had 
sent the Custom House officer a Shore. 
His Honor the Commadant of St. Thomas had immediately claimed 
these vessels from the government of Tortola, also insisted upon sat-
isfaction for this unlawful and unnatural Behaviour of His Majesty's 
Allies, but instead of getting a satisfactory answer from the Pres-
ident in the absence of the Honorable Governor Nugent Esq. He got a 
vain letter from one Fahie, which as he was not known in a Publick 
Post was not reflected upon. 
Another Sloop belonging to some Merchants of St. Thomas, pass-
ing with a Load from North America by Tortola, was there taken up 
and carried into Tortola, by which the owners agreeable to their 
calculations have suffered P. 15520 (7 joes 2 Stivers). 
A privateer, namely Phillips, who had a Lawful Commission, 
came in the Harbour of Saint Thomas in the month of May last to car-
een and "during his stay there sent out its armed Tender from the Har-
bour, and took an American Vessel that lay to an anchor at the Black 
Point of St. Thomas. 
I leave it to your Excellency's censure whether these actions 
can be called amicable or Hostile, and if they are to be counten-
anced or punished. 
Even in these Days, I have been informed that Different Danish 
European Vessels with His Majesty's own Manual Pass and loaded from 
His Majesty's Dominions here are brought up and carried into Tortola 
on suspicion that they were loaded with North American Produces, 
which if so, I cannot find that North American Produces, regularly 
and lawfully entered, and Duty paid by an American Trader, and by 
Him sold to the Inhabitants of a Colony under the Dominion of a 
Prince in Alliance with his Britannick Majesty, and afterwards by 
them shipped and again cleared out for Europe, can be seized, less 
condemned, as American Produces, when they,after having paid the 
Duty, amongst all nations are reasonably looked upon as Naturalized 
of that Place from whence last shipped. 
I do not doubt but your 
64 
Excellency by Experience will know that these have been the Rules in 
the last War between Enqland and France, when all French Produces in 
Foreign Bottoms and regularly cleared out from Foreign Places never 
were seized, less condemned; and I am amazed to find that these 
Rules are unknown to the Tortolians, who seem to be countenanced in 
their unruled Behavior, of which I find it my Duty to inform your 
Excellency, and to demand satisfaction for their ill Behavior and 
Indignity shewn the King my Royal Master and His Subjects ..•• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/56. 
1Governor of the British Leeward Islands 1777-1781. 
*** 
GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT TO GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN 
ST. KITTS, 15 July 1777 
Yesterday Col. Browne, my Aid De Camp, delivered me your £x-
cellency's letter in reply to that he had the honor of handing you. 
I am truly sorry to find your Excellency mistaken in respect to the 
validity of Nicholson's Deposition. 
It is with us an invariable 
Rule to give Credit to Depositions of persons unless convicted ~f 
perjury; but more especially of Men of fair character such is Nich-
olson, and who cannot be interested in the Event of His Deposition • 
... Nor can I deem him a Notorious Liar, Calumniator and Per'urer, 
very harsh Epithets; much 
ess w~l 
I attempt, or t 
~n 
0 
even 
had I power) inflicting Corporal punishment on him at the Dictat-
orial requisition of a Foreign Officer, your Commandant. 
I am still 
more concerned to acquaint Your Excellency that Mr. Nicholson's is 
not the only Evidence I am furnished with on this occasion, as many 
respectable characters in this Island, and also from St. Croix, have 
aver'd, and would give their oaths as to the same fact, but they 
fear, should their names appear, receiving Injury to their private 
Fortunes as they have connections with St. Croix. 
To the time Nicholson alluded your Excellency was at St. Thomas, 
the fact of his prisoners being forced from him has also been con-
formed by Danes and Col. Browne, who informs me Mr. Shimmelmann 
told him he did it from a principle of Humanity as some of them were 
wounded. 
Your Excellency will excuse me if I say Humanity could 
have been equally extended to them, for their recovery, had they 
been left in their captor's Custody; this wou'd have prevented their 
going immediately, as I am informed, on Board of an armed North Amer-
ican Vessel then lying in your Road. 
In short, I cannot admit that 
Mr. Shimmelmann had a right under any pretext whatever to force Mr. 
Nicholson's prisoners, and these not provisions of a common kind, 
but Men made prisoners in arms against their King, from him; and 
that this Conduct of Mr. Shimmelmann's was a violation of national 
Confidence. 
65 
An Eighteenth Century Danish West Indianan,the " ST. CROIX PACKET" Of Copenhagen. 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO ABRAHAM CHALWILLI 
ST. CROIX, 12 October 1776 
The Bearer hereof Sir Cornelius Durant Merchant of this Island 
and for more than ten years a Burgher and constant Inhabitant there-
of has informed me that his Sloop called Ste. Croix, in her Passage 
from here was taken up between this and St. Thomas by an armed Brigg 
under his Britannick Majesty's Colours and carried into Your Gou-
vernment. 
The near Alliances and amiable Treaties between my Royal 
Ma.ster the King of Danmark and his M.ajesty Your Souverain, have 
caused my Souverain Strictly and severely both in his Kingdoms and 
these his Colonies to forbid his Subjects to ship or carry any mil-
itary Stores of what denomination to the Americains under the Pen-
alty of Confiscation of Ships and Goods, besides severe Punishment. 
I have looked over the Clearance for the Sloop of Durant called 
St. Croix and find Sloop to be loaded with Salt which is very legal 
and common from here to send Salt to Norvay, when it cand be got: 
as Norvay is the best market for this Produce where Fish is abun-
dant .•.• 
I must therefore beg of Your Honor not only to release the 
Sloop but also to procure the Owner as Subject of my King the due 
Satisfaction ••.• 
SOURCE: 
"LETTERS SENT BY GOVERNOR CLAUSEN TO FOREIGN OFFICIALS, 1774-1784," 
RG #55, USNA. 
Ipresident of Tortola Council. 
*** 
COMMANDANT THOMAS MALLEVILLEI TO JOHN FAHIE2 
ST. THOMAS, 27 February, 1777 
M.ost highly injured by the hostilities committed here on our 
Danish Coast by one William Stephens, Commander of a small Sloop 
from your Government belonging to Mr. Hetherington, Inhabitant on 
Tortola, I am obliged to acquaint your Honour thereof, and to demand 
Satisfaction therefore. 
Said William Stephens did on the 24th instant •... pursue and 
chase a French Sloop here under our Shore in a hostille manner, but 
even after this pursued Sloop was stranded on the South side of 
this Island, Stephens had the insolence to drive the people away 
from her, work her loose from the Shore, and audaciously to carry 
her away, which plainly can be seen of the inclosed Instrument taken 
before the Notary Public of this Place. 
Said Instrument will con-
vince your Honour that this William Stephens has acted •.• inconsis-
tent in the highest Degree against the Laws of Nations and espec-
59 
have seen, neither the Tortolean Zealous Subjects, nor any other per-
sons within my Government, who have fitted out armed Vessels are in 
any Sense with us Deemed pirates; as a proof •.. not one of them has 
lately at Antigua recovered in the Courts of Law of Admiral Young 
twelve hundred pounds for having taken possession of her; had they 
been pirates this Vessel wou'd have been punished and no Verdict giv-
en against the A~iral; But your Excellency surely will never esteem 
Newspaper Intelligence a Solid Authority. 
Whatever may have been the Rules between the acknowledged (by 
Europe) powers of En~land and France during the last War, no Exper-
ience will tell me Ltheil are to be observed during an unnatural Re-
bellion, or to be laid down as precedents to direct conduct with Re-
bels. 
The laws of Great Britain, united with the established Law 
of Nations to which Rebels are not entitled, will always direct 
not only my conduct but that of the Tortolians, whose behaviour, 
shou'd it be improper, will never be countenanced. 
Be assured Sir 
I have not any Objection in laying our letters before our Masters 
for their orders. 
I intend forwarding them by the next Convoy; as 
your Excellency proposes also sending them, one set will in all pro-
bability be soon received. 
I am informed Mr. vanbibber l , a natural Born Subject of the King 
my Master, and an Agent of the Rebellious congress of America who 
lately resided at St. Eustatius, on being demanded by me from His 
Excellency Governor De Graff2 , has lately fled from St. Eustatius 
and taken Refuge last Wednesday Morning the 9th Instant in St. Croix. 
I get your Excellency will cause him to be Siezed and Delivered to 
me, that he may be treated as his crimes may deserve. 
I observe with 
pleasure that your Excellency will not suffer Warlike Stores to be 
carried from your Government. 
I also trust, tho' hitherto escaped 
your observation in your favor of the 9th, that you will not suffer 
the Rebellious piratical armed Vessels to arm or refit in your Gov-
ernment, or to bring their plundered Vessels into any of your ports. 
We, Sir, are governed thank God by our own Laws; by these and 
my King's Instruction I act. 
These direct, and my own Inclinations 
will ever induce me, to render Justice to all Mankind and to pay 
every proper Respect to Sovereigns •••. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/56. 
1 
. 
Abraham van B1bber, a Maryland merchant served as an American commercial agent 
in St. Eustatius in 1776 and 1777. 
Early in July 1777, he was arrested and im-
prisoned by the Dutch for an unspecified offense, but he managed to get off the 
island and make his way to St. Croix. 
2 Johannes de Graaff,Governor of St. Eustatius. 
*** 
67 
GOVERNOR ~'1ILLIAM :tv".. BURT TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
ST. KITTS, 30 July 1777 
Immediately on my arrival at Tortola I dispatched an Aid-de-
Camp to the Governor of St. Croix with a letter of which I enclose 
your Lordship a Signed Copy. 
I also send Mr. Clausen, the Danish 
Governor's Ans'Yrer, in which he denies having saluted the American 
F~ag, but acknowledges having Saluted American Vessels under En-
11Sh colours, Evidently an Evasion. I have also another DeposItion 
on this fact, Substance of which I have with my Second letter sent 
him and enclose your Lordship: permit me to observe to your Lord-
ship that in my 87th Instruction I am directed to assert His Maj-
esty's Right over all the Virgin Islands, Except St. Thomas. 
Now 
St. John at present, and has some time been in the possession of the 
Danes, is one of the Virgin Islands; it has a prodigious fine Har-
bour, is Contiguous to Tortola ... My Commission nor Instructions 
have anything similar, or I would on the above Misconduct of the 
Danes have asserted my Master's Right, and have acquainted the Gov-
ernor of St. Croix that the King of Denmark has no good title to 
St. Thomas. 
By the inclosed Deposition your Lordship will see the 
Piraticial Americans have been saluted at St. Thomas; Nay more, my 
Lord, until within these few years, I am assured whenever an En-
glish Man of War anchored at St. Thomas or St. John the English 
Flag always flew in their forts. 
I beg to know His Majesty's plea-
sure, if he would have me here assert his Right to St. John, and in 
what manner. 
Your Lordship may be assured it shall be done. 
Within these Six Weeks many Spanish Men of War and other Ves-
sels with the Troops on Board have passed the Virgin Islands bound 
to the Havanna. 
About three weeks ago a Spanish Man of War of Sev-
enty four Guns got within the Reef called the Anagada Shoals. 
She 
made signals of Distress, and Armed Vessel belonging to Tortola 
took her under her care and piloted her out from her Distressful 
Situation. 
Where she must soon have perished had she not been for-
tunately discovered. 
She had on board I am told many Soldiers, be-
sides her Compliment of Sea Men, and was completely armed. 
I have 
made the strickest Inquiry relative Porto Rico, and find they have 
on that station only one Man of War of 36 Guns; and on Shore about 
three thousand five hundred Regular Troops, but none have lately 
arrived thither. 
In the Course of Answers to Interrogatories filed in the Court 
of Admiralty at Antigua it lately appeared that one Mr. Vanbibber 
Agent for the Conqress, resident at St. Eustatius had there been 
concerned in fitting out a Vessel to cruize against the Subjects of 
Great Britain: About the same time I received .•• an affidavit that 
Vanbibber was a native of Maryland. 
Immediately I demanded him of 
Mr. DeGraff the Dutch Governor, from whom I received a polite Answer 
acquainting me that Vanbibber was fled; that he is fled from St. 
Eustatius is certain, as I traced him to St. Croix, and your Lord-
ship will see in my second letter to Gov. Clausen have there demand-
ed him. 
This measure will, I hope, be attended at least with these 
Advantages. 
LIt wil!7 destroy the resident Agent at· St. Eustatius 
68 
and St. Croix. 
I have obt~ined an assurance from Gov. Clausen that 
he will not suffer any Rphellious, piratical Vessel to enter the 
ports under his Command~ or to bring their prizes into them. 
Should 
I be able to obtain proofs of the place of Birth of the Congress 
Agents resident at ~artinique and Guadeloupe, I will also demand 
them as the Subjects of the King my Master, in Rebellion. 
I re-
ceive innumerable applications from all foreign Governors on Cap-
tures made by the Non-Commissioned Vessels, and with Difficulty can 
make them unc.erstand the Ground Work of our Courts of Admiralty on 
this Occasion and the Nature of the Prohibitory Act. 
I am on the 
best terms with the Neighbouring Governors, and will if possible so 
continue; but will never give up a Title of the King my Master's 
preroaative, or suffer his Dignity to receive the most minute In-
dignity. 
The Courts of Admiralty within this Government condemn all 
American product found in any Vessel of any Nation. 
This has been 
done under that part of the Prohibitory Act directing to prevent 
the North American Trade; but my Lord, had it not been on this ground, 
as 'tis a fact well known that houses are established and exist in 
foreign Governments, particularly the Danish, to which the property 
is consigned to be sold or shiped on North American Account as the 
Markets will best Answer. 
Your Lordship will I hope be of Opinion 
the Condemnation of North American product wherever found or under 
every cloak was not only justifiable, but also very proper. 
That 
this product did not truly and specifically belong to either French, 
Dutch or Danes is Evident from this single Circumstance, Viz., there 
has not been but one appeal, and that lodged at Tortola last week, 
against any Sentence passed in the Court of Admiralty within this 
Government .•.• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/56. 
*** 
DEPOSITION OF JOHN ADAMS 
TORTOLA, 15 July 1777 
Personally appeared Captain John Adams, who being sworn on 
the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, deposeth and saith that some-
time in the month of January he, this Deponent, was at the Island 
of St. Thomas, under the Dominion of the King of Denmark, and that 
he saw an American Schooner in the Harbour with the Rebel Colours 
flying and that when the said Schooner departed the Harbour she sal-
uted with three Guns and her Colours flying, which Salute was re-
turned by the Fort; and further, this Deponent saith that while he 
was at the said Island of St. Thomas a Vessel belonging to Mr. John 
Panyea, Merchant of this Island, came to Anchor there, which said 
Vessel happening to weigh her anchor and to go out at the same time 
that two American Vessels sailed, the Captain of the said Panyea's 
Vessel was, on his return to the Port next Day, by the Complaints 
69 
of some Americans, particularly one Abraham chylerl , taken into Cus-
tody and fined in a Considerable Sum under the pretence of his hav-
ing gone out after the said two American Vessels •.•. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/56. 
lAbraharn Chuyler, a New York merchant who traded extensively with the Danish 
islands . 
*** 
GOVERNOR WILLIAM BURT TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
ANTIGUA, 14 December 1777 
In a Letter which I had the Honor of writing your Lordship re-
specting the Conduct of the Danish Governor dated July 30th, I men-
tioned that Agents for the Americans resided in that Government~ a 
Proof of that Assertion I have now the Honor of inclosing your Lord-
ship under the notarial Seals of the Island. 
I have only sent your 
Lordship a Copy. 
I keep the Original intending the first Time Messrs. 
Tennent and Ross came within this Government to seize them as Aiders 
and Abettors to Rebels and try them. 
They were both born in Scot-
land and subiects to the King my Master, tho' now admitted Burghers 
of St. Croix. 
Inclosed I send your Lordship a Copy of my Letter to 
Governor Clausen on the Complaint of Flemming whose Wife and Child-
ren were seized and taken from him by Messers. Tennent and Ross un-
der a Power of Attorney from a Mr. Walls of Georgia. 
By the Court 
of Judicature of St. Croix's Proceedings your Lordship will see the 
Protection they give the Rebels. 
I do not expect Gov. Clausen will 
permit me to appoint the Agent ••.. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/57. 
lWhile on this occasion, Tennant and Ross were acting on behalf of a Georgia 
slaveowner, there is no evidence that they were ever official agents of the Con-
tinental Congress or any of the thirteen American states during the revolution. 
*** 
GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT TO GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN 
ANTIGUA, 6 October 1777 
. 
Peter Flemming a Subject of the King my M.aster will have the 
Honor of delivering your Excellency this Letter. 
He complains to 
me and applies for Redress to an Injury he has received from Messrs. 
Tennent and Ross, natural born Subjects of my Master, but now Bur-
ghers resident in St. Croix, whom he tells me have violently taken 
70 
from him and detained his wife (a mulatto Woman) and his three Chil-
dren under Pretence that they are the Property of my Master's Sub-
jects now in actual open Rebellion, and to whom they pretend to say 
they intend sending this Mulatto Woman and Flemming's Children. 
Your Excellency I Presume will not suffer Agents for the rebellious 
Subjects of my Master to reside and act in your Government; and I 
am ~stonished that Messrs. Tennent and Ross would appear and act in 
a Character so very dishonorable and which must ever put them in a 
despicable Liaht among loyal Subjects. 
I must therefore apply to 
your Excellency for the Delivery of this Mulatto Woman named Cressey 
and the three Children to Peter Fleroming. 
Not only Justice, but 
Humanity would restore a Wife and Children to a Husband and Father. 
Your Excellency will also be very sensible that as the Property of 
his Britannic Majesty's loyal Subjects, when brought into your Gov-
ern~ent by Americans, has not been stopped and taken away to be re-
stored to them, much less will you give your Countenance to any 
Person who shall audaciously presume to plunder the loyal Subject 
for the Benefit and Support of the Rebellious. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. c.o. 152/57. 
*** 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT 
ST. CROIX, 14 December 1777 
When your Excellency's honoured of the 6th of last Month came 
to Hand I immediately issued a written Order to Messrs. Tennent and 
Ross for the Deliverance of the mulatto Woman Lucretia and her Chil-
dren to the Bearer of your Letter a free Mulatto Peter Flemming. 
But said Messrs. Tennent and Ross insinuated to me their Ans-
wer under the 23rd last, which was supported by original lawful Doc-
uments, whereby the said Mulatto Woman and her Children were ad-
judged to their legal Owners and Master Mr. Walls; which Documents 
I perused and saw them to be founded not only upon Justice and Equity 
but also conformable to the Laws of my Royal Sovereign, which I dare 
not alter. 
I inclose to your Excellency a notarial Copy of Messrs. Tennent 
and Ross, their Answer, to which I only will add that they as Dan-
ish Subjects have acted agreeable to the Danish Laws which are only 
Rules of all Danish Subjects. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/57. 
*** 
71 
DEPOSITION OF TENNENT AND ROSS 
ST. CROIX, 23 October 1777 
In Obedience to your Excellency's Letter of the 21 Inst. we beg 
leave to demonstrate that we are Merchants and Danish Burghers of 
this Island. 
As Merchants & Members of a public Society we think 
it our Duty to correspond with other Merchants or Individuals for 
the Benefit of that narrow Society in which we dwell. 
And as Dan-
ish Burghers we strictly adhere to the Laws of our Sovereign, which 
in all Occurrences is our Guide. 
Your Excellency will be graciously pleased from the following 
Documents (which after being perused we humbly pray may be return 
to us being Originals) to observe that Benjamin Walls of Georgia, 
Gentleman, after having been robbed by a free Mulatto, namely Peter 
Flemming, of a Mulattoe Wench called Lucretia who then was big with 
Child, and had two Children, Joe and Jenny; besides also, after get-
ting Information that the said Peter Flemming was seen here in this 
Island with said Mr. Walls' Property, the Mulatto Wench and her 
Children, He, the said Mr. Walls, immediately executed a lawful Pow-
er of Attorney for us dated 12th May 1777, by which we were author-
ized to sue and prosecute such Person or Persons that withheld the 
Possession of said Slaves, and by Law to demand Satisfaction and In-
demnisation for them. 
By this Power of Attorney was joined said Mr. 
Walls' Deposition on Oath before the Honorable Chief Judge John 
Gleen Esq., and whereby the said Mr. Walls declares that the said 
Mulatto Peter Flemming had clandestinely Stolen and carried off from 
him his Mulatto Wench with her two Children Joe and Jenny. 
In Consequence of this Power of Attorney which said Mr. Walls 
trusted us with, we found it incumbent on us, or any other honest 
Persons, that declined dealing with a Theif and Robber like said 
Mulatto Peter Flemming to lay hold of the Theif, and secure said Mr. 
Walls' Property; and we addressed ••. for this Intent to his Honor 
Judge Prihn, who lawfully arrested said Peter Flemming, having none 
but vague and frivolous Excuse for withholding the said Mulatto 
Wench Lucretia with her three Children, which third child was born 
here, and secured said Mulatto Wench and her Children in the Fort. 
The commenced Attachment was immediately prosecuted agreeable 
to Law (and said Mulatto Peter Flemming procured a Councill to de-
fend his Action) but his Honor the Judge finding said Mulatto Peter 
Flemming to have robbed and stolen said Mr. Walls' Property, gave a 
Judgement against him the 25th of Aug. last, by which said Mulatto 
Peter. Flemming was judged to pay four Ryalls per Day from the 1st of 
May last Year for detaining the said Mulatto Wench Lucretia untill 
she was restored to her Master Benjamin Walls Esq., also to pay Costs 
and Charges of the Law-suit .••• 
This Peter Flemming being convinced of his atrocious Crime beg-
ged and prayed us to sett him on a free Footing in order to work for 
the Cost and Damages, also for the Rent he was condemned to pay for 
72 
the said Mulatto Wench to her Master, to which we agreed. 
But in-
stead of performing his Fngagements he eloped and found Shelter by 
His Excellency General Burt in Antigua, a Gentleman distinguished 
in that high Station he fills (and private Character he always bore) 
shou'd so precipitately pass his Opinion and Sentence so harshly 
upon us before he heard our Defence, and give Credit to a Mulatto 
(and an ungrateful Fellow to his former owner) to clandestinely to 
convey away his Property and be allowed peaceably to sit down un-
mollested or brought to Justice for his Villany. 
We leave it to your Excellency's Determination whether it is 
consistent with Honesty, Probity or the Law of God and Nature that 
we now deliver up a third Man's Property, which the Court had ad-
judg-ed him, and is entrusted to us; and we are satisfied that said 
Mr. Walls gets his Slaves back again without the Loss of the said 
Peter Flemming's Life, which hewou'd Risk in any Part of the World 
if insisted on. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/57. 
*** 
GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT TO GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN 
ANTIGUA, 27 December 1777 
I have received Information that a Sloop mounting 14 Guns, 
actually fitted out from St. Thomas within your Excellency's Gov-
ernment, has not only annoyed the King my Master's Subjects resid-
ing within the Virgin Islands and endangers the Intercourse between 
them, but has also lately taken three Vessels out of the last Fleet 
bound from Cork to Jamaica, one of which has been carried to Buck 
Island oelonging to his Danish Majesty opposite to the Harbor of 
St. Croix, there landed and sold her Cargo. 
From your Excellency's 
Assurances to me by my Aid de Camp Col. Brown in July last I shou'd 
have thought this would have been impossible. 
In the Name of the King my Master, 'I calIon your Excellency 
to exert that Authority with which you stand fully vested, not only 
to stop and disarm the said Sloop fitted out from St. Thomas, but 
also to prevent any Vessel piratically taken from the King my Mas-
ter's Subjects being brought into and sold within your Government, 
and also expect that on any Vessel being brought in, your Excellency 
will detain and seize her and Cargo for the British Subjects to whom 
she may in Law, Justice and Equity belong. 
Your Excellency has already supplied me with a Proof under the 
notarial Seal of your Island that Messrs. Tennent and Ross acting 
and claiming under a Letter of Attorney from Georgia, a Province 
belonging to the King my Master now in Rebellion, were admitted to 
claim and obtained Judgment against a Subject of the King my Master 
73 
in your Courts. 
I calIon your Excellency to know whether you will 
for the future admit the Attorneys for Rebels to appear as Suitors 
in your Courts, and also whether you will admit an Attorney auth-
orized by me a Loyal Subject to appear, claim, and recover the Pro-
perty of my Master's loyal Subjects Equally with that of his rebell-
ious. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/57. 
*** 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT 
ST. CROIX, 30 January 1778 
By your Excellency's letter of the 27th of December last I find 
that a mere naked information which you say to have received of a 
sloop mounting fourteen guns actually fitted out at St. Tho~as has 
not only alarmed you, but also inticed your Excellency on the strength 
of this information, to call upon me in the name ·of the King, Your 
Master, not only to stop and disarm this said sloopfitted·out from 
St. Thomas, but also to prevent any vessel particularly taken from 
the King, your Master's SUbjects being brought into and sold within 
my Government. 
I must beg leave here upon to /assert7 that I am at a loss to 
find any probability for your Excellency's believing any such infor-
mations, as I am confident that your informer had no other proof 
than hearsaying. 
And I am amazed that your Excellency will upon the 
slight strength of your informer's tale accuse me of disobedience of 
my King's Laws and Ordinances, which I unavQwedly must have committ-
ed if your assertion had only the shread of Truth. 
I declare upon Honour that there never was fit out any armed 
sloop or kind of vessel at St. Thomas, and I will have forfeited my 
life if ever any vessel has beertcarried to Buck Island belonging to 
His Danish Majesty opposite to the Harbour of St. croix ••• and sold 
her cargo. 
I call, therefore, upon your Excellency in the name of truth 
and honesty to oblige your informer to prove his information, and 
in failure thereof, to punish him according to his committed crime 
of falsehood .... 
Let me further beg of your Excellency to establish an honest 
agent here and another at St. Thomas in whom you have confidence and 
you will then not be importuned with false reports, nor I troubled 
with their vexations, which greive me .... 
SOURCE: 
PETER CLAUSSEN LETTERBOOK, BAN. LIB. 
74 
LORD GEORGE GERMAIN TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT 
LONDON 10 March 1778 
The Danish Minister having presented to the Earl of Suffolk 
the inclosed Memorial Claiming the restitution of two Danish Brig-
antines called La Dorothea and L'Elizabeth Christine, stated to 
have been the property of Danish Subjects, and to have sailed in 
June last from the Island of St. Croix, the one bound to Dunkirk 
and the other to Amsterdam with Cargoes of Tobacco, Rice, Rum but 
taken and Carried into Torto1a by some Non-Commissioned armed Ves-
sels and there Condemned; and his Lordship having transmitted the 
said Memorial to me, I have received The King's Command to send it 
to you and to signify to you His Majesty's Pleasure that you do 
make enquiry into the truth of the Facts therein stated, and whether 
any appeal has been entered from the sentence of Condemnation, and 
report the result of your Enquires to me for His Majesty's Infor-
mation. 
And in the meantime you are to direct such steps to be 
taken for detaining and securing the Monies arising from the sale 
of the said Brigantines and Cargoes so as that in case the adjud-
ication shall be found unjust and compensation decreed to the Clai-
mants to value may be forth corning. 
SOlffiCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/57. 
*** 
GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
ST. KITTS, 14 June 1778 
I have the Honor of your Lordship's Letter .•. & at the Same 
time Received ... the Memorial of His Excellency Baron Dreyer Com-
plaining of the Capture, Detention, & Condemnation of the Two Brig-
antipes the Dorothea & the Elizabeth Christine. 
I am truly Concern-
ed to find such Misrepresentations have been made to the Court of 
Denmark which have, amongst the great & Numberless Matters of Im-
portance, given you trouble. 
The transactions being truly & fai~ly 
Stated I hope will induce the Baron Dreyer to Entertain a more fav-
orable Opinion of this Matter & Consequently a Similar Report to 
his Court. 
Much, My Lord, has been said by Governor Clausen on the Con-
duct of the Inhabitants of Torto1a. 
I am sorry to say Regularity 
& a Proper System of Government is not Established there as in the 
rest of this Government Committed to my Care. 
I hope soon to have 
it. 
However, in these Cases from the Account which I herewith have 
the Honor to inclose your Lordship it will appear that far from the 
Danish Captains being Compelled 
or forced to Renounce their Claim 
Mr. Tennent from St. Croix, who Pretended to be Owner of the Brig-
antine Dorothea, refused to Enter a Claim to Part of her Cargo but 
75 
admitted it American •... 
We had long in this Government Suspected, & had almost Proof 
Positive, that Agents for the Rebellious Americans Resided in St. 
Croix & Publicly received Consignments which they either Sold at 
St. Croix or Covered as their Property & Remitted to Europe. 
Mr. 
Tennent Refusing to Claim the American Produce but immediately Re-
linguishing it, is a Proof that it did not belong to His Danish Maj-
esty's Subjects. 
Whatever was Danish Property was delivered & not 
even Libelled lon7 July 30th 1777 I troubled your Lordship with 
Copies of Letters which has Passed between Governor Clausen & My-
self on the Subject of the Captures now Complained of; Since that 
Period, Applications have been Necessary to Governor Clausen on a 
Complaint I received from one Flemming a Free Mulattoe that his 
Wife and Children, Negroes whom he had brought from Georgia, were 
Seized, Detained, absolutely taken from him & Sold at St. Croix by 
Governor Clausen to whom I wrote on the Subject. 
The Governor De-
clared they were Claimed & taken by Course of Law under a Letter of 
Attorney from a Mr. Walls of Georgia directed to Mr. Tennent, the 
Identical Person who Claimed the Brigantine Dorothea, and as a 
Proof of the Legality & Justice of detaining the w1fe & children 
from the Husband & Parent inclosed me under the Notarial Seal ••• a 
transcript from the Record that American Agents were Permitted to 
appear in their Courts on the Part of the Rebells. 
Thus, My Lord, 
you see is Justified the Idea that American Agents Reside in St. 
Croix & Cover, where they Can, American Property. 
The Non Commissioned Vessels your Lordship knows Lwer~ Armed 
in Consequence of His Majesty's Proclamation Calling on his Loyal & 
Zealous Subjects to Annoy & Distress his Rebellious. 
I am happy to 
find we had so many in this Government who immediately Armed at our 
Sovereign's Call. 
With the Memorial March 21st is a Paper of Reference: 
there 
are two Schooners in .•• this Reference which the Baron Dreyer States 
as Danish Property Corning immediately from America Loaded with Tob-
acco, Rice, Flour and Slaves; how far the Capture of these Vessels 
& Cargo acknowledged to be American were Condemnable by the Pro-
hibitory Act your Lordship will determine, but this Singularity at-
tends all these Complaints-not an Appeal was ever prayed •.•• 
I do imagine the Tortola Privateers may have Chased, Perhaps 
made Prizes opposite & in Light of the Ports of St. Croix & St. 
Thomas, but not within DoUble the Reach of Cannon. 
I have been as-
sured they have Relinguished many Chases at that Distance •.•. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. c.o. 152/58. 
*** 
76 
WILLIAM LESLIE HAMILTONl TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT 
ST. KITTS, 17 June 1778 
... I have examined the papers in my possession relative to the 
capture and conoemnation at Tortola of the Danish vessels the Doro-
thea and Elizabeth Christina •.•. As the parties interested did not 
think proper to put in a Claim, a Condemnation of the vessels and 
cargoes in question followed of course. 
Their silence when person-
ally on the spot and apprised of the proceedings admitted the rele-
vancy of the Libel, and the definitive sentences of the Court of 
Vice Admiralty consequent thereon was similar to a judgement by 
default at Common Law. 
Had a Claim been put in, and the Question 
argues at large, there was sufficient evidence from the information 
I received to prove an intercourse with some of the Rebellious Pro-
vinces and to unfold a prevailing practice among many of the British 
subjects, Resident Burghers of St. Croix, of visiting the American 
vessels immediately on their coming into Port and purchasing their 
respective cargoes. 
Factories have been established for that pur-
pose at St. Croix and St. Eustatius, and the American Rebellion has 
been supported by the Rebels finding that they had markets provided 
for the disposal of their produce. 
Your Excellency will observe 
that I did not interfere with the Danish property on board, which 
was safely delivered to the owners, and the Parties concerned had 
a fair opportunity before them of trying the validity of the Seizure 
as to the American produce ••.. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/58. 
lneputy Soliciter General of the Leeward Islands. 
*** 
GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT TO LORD GEORGE GERMAIN 
ST. KITTS, 29 July 1778 
In my former Dispatches •.• I have mentioned that Messrs. Ten-
nent & Ross, residing at St. Croix, were Agents for the American 
Produce which was Shipped by them. 
I have now the Honor of inclos-
ing your Lordship a farther Proof of that fact in the Case of the 
Brigantine Dorothea, one of the Vessels complained of & Claimed by 
the Baron Dreyer .•• it is a Relinguishment of Tobacco Shipped by 
Messrs. Tennent & Ross at St. Croix and carried into Tortola. 
Also, 
I send your Lordship a similar Discharge ••• from Mr. Morrice for the 
Tobacco & Rice taken in the Elizabeth Christiana. 
Nothing, My Lord, 
but what Messrs. Tennent and Morrice Relinguished was Condemned; 
the Remainder of the Cargoes being Danish Property was Discharged. 
These Certificates will I hope, My Lord, convince His Danish Majesty 
of three facts: 
first, that his Governor Clausen has been Deceived 
by misrepresentations; next, that no Injustice was done his Subjects 
77 
by our Court of Admiralty at Tortola, & thirdly, that American Pro-
duce is Shipped on American Accounts by Persons Residing at St. 
Croix which, when taken and Carried into a British Port, they can-
not Claim as their own, but relinquish as American Property. 
I 
flatter myself that after these Extracts are laid before your Lord-
ship & the Earl of Suffolk you will not hear anymore of this Com-
plaint respecting the Dorothea & Elizabeth Christiana from His Dan-
ish Majesty •••• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/58. 
*** 
GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEY TO LORD SHELBURNE 
ANTIGUA, 30 July 1782 
Having very lately received a Copy of the Proceedings in the 
Court of Vice-Admiralty of Tortola from Mr. President Chalwell re-
lative to the recovery of the nett proceeds of the Sales of the Dan-
ish Brigantines Dorothea and Elizabeth Christiana with their Car-
goes, which I had his Majesty's particular Orders to enquire into, 
I have the Honor of enclosing them to your Lordship together with 
the Copies of several Letters tending to explain the Transaction. 
It appears that these Vessels were captured by a sloop belong-
ing to Tortola which had no Commission, & carried into that Island. 
They were tried and Condemned as Droits of Admiralty on the 15th 
of July 1777, and as an Encouragement to the fitting out such non-
commisioned Vessels, the Proceeds were directed to be paid into the 
hands of the Owners of the Sloop, upon their giving Bond with suf-
ficient Security to restore the same whenever His Majesty should 
demand it -
A Practice which first Originated in this Island. 
The Vessels and Cargoes being put up to Sale were purchased by 
the Owners at a very moderate price: 
The Elizabeth Christiana and 
her Cargo for f646.17.l0 Stl., and the Dorothea for f1440.9.8. like 
Money, making the whole f2086.l7.6 •••• Your Lordship has been mis-
informed as to the value of these Vessels, as they were stated to 
you to amount to £4199.10, which is nearly double the value. 
Per-
haps the late Governor Burt thro' a mistake gave your Lordship the 
penalty of the Bonds. 
Messrs. Tennent & Ross and John Morris Merchants, Danish Sub-
jects and Residents of St. Croix, the Shippers of the Cargoes, made 
application to the Owners of the non-commissioned Vessel to let them 
have these Vessels with their Cargoes at the moderate price they 
gave for them (well knowing the value of their Cargoes at that time), 
engaging themselves to quit all claims and Demands whatever to them 
in future. 
The Owners wishing to be on a safe footing consented to 
it, and these People by a strong Instrument of Writing relinguished 
78 
all future Claims to either Vessels or Caroges •••• 
It appears in proof by the Confession of one of these Danish 
Subjects that they cleared upwards of Three Thousand pounds Ster-
ling by this Bargain ..•. 
I cannot help observing to your Lordship that these Danish Sub-
jects seem to have made their Market of the Owners. 
The Vessels 
and their Cargoes after Condemnation were sold only for f2086.l7.6, 
and they have cleared upwards of f3000 by being permitted to send 
the Cargoes as Prize Goods to an English Market; so that it is im-
possible they can be any sufferers. 
I am confident your Lordship 
upon examining into the Papers herewith sent will see abundant rea-
son to censure the conduct of these People . 
..• The Judge of the Court of Admiralty of Tortola is in great 
expectation of being able to remit the proceeds of these Vessels 
shortly, and I hope will not be disappointed. 
I am however very 
sorry to inform your Lordship that I am in a most unlucky predica-
ment respecting this Business, not being able to make use of com-
pUlsive Measures. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/62. 
*** 
DEPOSITION OF 
DANIEL CONANT, PHILIP ALLEN, BENJAMIN HAMMOND AND RILEY SANDFORD 
ST. CROIX, 20 November 1778 
Be it known that in the Year of Our Lord 1778 this 20th Day of 
November, Before me Otto Christian Mfiller, Secretary and Notary pub-
lick of the Island aforesaid, Personally appeared Daniel Connant, 
Part-owner, Philip Allen, Mate, Benjamin Hammond and Peter Sandford, 
Seamen of the Schooner Nancy, belonging to the Island aforesaid and 
owned by said Connant, Nicolas Cruger & Benjamin Yard, all Burghers 
and Residenters of the abovesaid Island of St. Croix, and loaded as 
follows viz., "300 bbls. of fine Flour, 4500 lbs. Hams, 12,000 lbs. 
Tobacco, Eight Hogs and a Quantity of other Stock. 
When the above-
mentioned Deponents made Oaths upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty 
God and deposed, declared and said: 
that the 19th instant they were 
in sight of this Island and the 20th Instant in the morning about 
6 o'Clock they made this Island, and about 8 o'Clock same morning 
they were pursued by two Vessels and fired on by one of them who 
shewed no Colours, upon which the Deponents attempted to come to 
anchor within the Reef at a Bay called Coackley's Bay about four 
English Miles to windward of the Fort of Christianstad and run a 
shore about twenty or thirty yards from the main Land, where they 
dropt their Anchor. 
Finding that one of the Vessels in Pursuit fol-
lowed them inside of the Reef & on hoisting an English Pennant dropt 
Anchor within a Pistol shot of the Deponent's Schooner, They, the 
79 
Deponents, then hoisted out their Boat, took in their Chests and 
made for the main Land, 
l~aving the Master, Capt. Lasay, and two 
sick hands on board. 
And as they were rowing to the shore, the 
armed Vessel fired then her Service Guns after them, and followed 
them in their Boat. 
They most inhumanly fired at them, as the De-
ponents were landing, and thereby drove the People that had corne 
down to their assistance from the Shore. ITlhen they carried off 
the Boat with the Chests and returned to the Schooner where they, 
being apprehensive of being detected, did not wait to weigh the 
anchor but cut the cable, which anchor and the greater part of the 
Cable now remains there, and finding the Schooner on Shore as she 
laid on her Beam Ends, they carried out an anchor and hove her off 
and proceeded immediately to Sea with her. 
The Deponents declared 
further that after they came ashore they were informed that these 
Armed Vessels belonged the one to Tortola & the other to St. Chris-
topher, after which the Deponents protested against the said two 
armed Vessels for in the most hostile and piratical Manner to take 
their Schooner and Cargo within the Reef and upon the Beach, ... not 
a Pistol shot from the main Land in Sight of different Inhabitants, 
and to carry her off •••• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. c.o. 318/5. 
*** 
GOVERNOR PETER VON CLAUSEN TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM M. BURT 
ST. THOMAS, 30 November 1778 
Your Excellency will be pleased to excuse my troubling you by 
these presents, when the Duty I owe my Sovereign and Lord point with 
The Respect I bear for his Allies, prom't me to insinuate you the 
inclosed Abstract r~lative to the Behaviour of two Tortolian Pri-
vateers with a Danish Schooner called Nancy on Shore the Island of 
St. Croix the 20th instant. 
I have the Proceedings of the sworn Witnesses in the Court be-
fore me of which I send Your Excellency the' mentioned authentique 
Abstract for your Perusal, leaving at the same time to Your Excell-
ency's Decision whether the Behaviour of these Privateers can be re-
conciled with your King and Masters Instructions of the 2d of May 
1776 and the 27th of March 1777 their first Article or not? 
I am convinced that my King has by them suffered the greatest 
Insult ever offered from a pretended Ally not by these pitty Priv-
ateers but by your Excellency who by granting them Commissions suf-
fers them daily to insult our Coasts. 
I shall not now claim the 
then robbed Schooner Nancy belonging to danish Subjects, but leave 
it to your own Direction if you will countenance such Hostility or 
not. 
In the mean time, I will acquaint your Excellency that I 
80 
expressely shall lay my Complaints against you before my King, as 
your Sovereign has with ? most gracious Trust inv~sted you with the 
Power of impeding Hostilities and of which You seemingly dare not 
make use of in your Colonies. 
SOURCE: 
"LETTERS SENT BY GOVERNOR CLAUSEN TO FOREIGN OFFICIALS," RG#55, USNA. 
*** 
CAPTAIN OLIVER GARDNER TO CHRISTOPHER CHAMPLINI 
RHODE ISLAND, 11 July 1779 
..• According to your request I send you the memorandum of my 
Cargo as near as I recollect when I was run on shore on the Island 
of St. Thomases five thousand gallons of Rum and seven thousand 
weight of sugar. 
I entered a regular Protest at St. Croix and tuck 
a copy of the same but on my Passage had my chest brook open and 
lost it. if you wold be at the Expence of entering another it shall 
be dun. 
I left my business with Mr. Nicholas Croger at St. Croix 
and likewise the Governor he told me he should lay a clame for my 
vessel and cargo and had sent up to St. Christophers in order to 
triall the Custom as I was informed then by Croger if the vessel is 
recovered I am to have two thirds and the government the other third. 
I was run on shour about twelve o'clock at night by two privateers 
belonging to Totolar the one name was John Strickling and the other 
John Graham that is the captains names of the proverteers also I 
made my escape from them, when I came away when theay bade me under 
examination, they offered me if I wold sign a Instrement of the are 
drawing in order to have my vessel condemned theay would gave me 
all my ventur that I had on board when run on shour. 
SOlffiCE: 
COMMERCE OF RHODE ISLAND, 1726-1800, II, 1775-1800, Collections of the 
Hassachusetts Historical Society, X (Boston, 1915), p. 62 
1 A Rhode Island merchant. 
*** 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO ABRAHAM CHALW'ILL 
ST. THOMAS, 6 March 1781 
William Johnston just has delivered me your favor of the 27th 
last month, whereby you claim a Brigantine called Betsey and Cargo 
commanded by Silvanas Jenkes taken the 4th of the same month as 
you are pleased to assert by a private commissioned Sloop of War 
Liberty(whereof said Bearers Father is a principal Owner) command-
ed by one William Parrott, who after taking the Brigantine and put-
ting a few Hands on board was obliged to bear away for Tortola to 
81 
ROYAL MAIL 
{Passenger Ship)by Frederik Melby KB 
repair the Damages sustained in the Action with the said Brigantine 
Betsey, who's.Crew after the departure of the Privateer Sloop arose 
and forceably retook said Brigantine from the few hands left on 
board by the privateer and brought her into this Port. 
Said Mr. 
Wm. Johnston just has also delivered me a Copy of the Deposition to 
Interrogatories in the Court of Admiralty and of the papers found 
on board, whereby you think if is out of all doubt; that said Brig-
antine is entirely and Solely Dutch Property: whereon I must take 
the Liberty to animadverte; that both Narratives as well in Regard 
to the Capture as to the Property are very wrongly represented. 
I 
have just before me now a Copy of a Deposition of said Capt. Jenkes, 
his Clerk John Dunbar, the Gunner John Darlinq and two Passenqers 
Gavins and Trisbey made before the Notary pubiick of this place the 
6th of February last and sworn to in the publick Court of this Is-
land (a Copy of which I am told Capt. Jenkes has sent to Tortola 
in order to claim his Trunk they carried away) which represents the 
Capture in a quite different Light. 
Said Brigantine Betsey was cap-
tured by a Privateer Ship called the Stag and the mentioned Sloop 
Liberty being at an Anchor in one of the Bays of this Island, the 
Commander Capt. Jenkes was brought on board the Stag, wherefrom he 
was sent to his Brigantine the next Morning and allowed to proceed 
to this Harbour. 
so there was no Necessity for the Crew left on 
board to retake her by force. 
The Prize-Master William Sharburry 
sent on board the Brigantine Betsey from the Sloop Liberty has also, 
before he was sent to Tortola, been examined here before a Polity 
Court together with five other hands left on board the Brigantine 
and belonging to the Privateer -
Sloop, under solumn Oath to In-
terrogatories of said Court unanimously deposed that two hours after 
the Brigantine was taken, when the Privateer Ship the Stag, the Sloop 
Liberty and the oft mentioned Brigantine were beating up for Tor-
tola. 
The Royal Danish Frigate & Troup carne out of this Harbour, 
when Orders were given to bear down before the Wind to the West F.nd 
of this Island in Order to close these Kings Vessels from whom they 
escaped in the Night, and being at Daybreak in the Morning to the 
Northward of St. Thomas; Capt. Jenkes was sent on board his Brigan-
tine Betsey by the Commander of the ~ 
Capt. Carey and allowed 
thereby to proceed to this Harbour, but why this whole Circumstance 
of the Stag being present and assisting at the Capture is entirely 
omitted in your Claim. 
I do not know, may be this Circumstance 
would not prove the least Subservient to the Claim. 
I have also in 
my Hands a Copy of the Commissions for the said armed Sloop Liberty 
under the Notarial Seal of your Island, brought on board by said 
Prize Master Wm. Sharbury, which Commission mentions no Wm. Johnston 
Senior but William George Crabb and George 'Leonard Sen principal 
Owners, the Reason why these Names should not appear in your Letter. 
I do not preceive if the mentioned George Leonard Senior is a Father 
of the Judge in your Admiralty Court, then it needs no other Reason 
why this Gentleman joins You so zealously in the above Claim. 
Said 
Commission seems even to be entirely out of force, as well from the 
Date signed by General Burt deceased as that when transported by 
the Honorable Judge Leonard, there being more then Six Months eloped 
since either of the dates so that Captures by Virture of the Comm-
ission are entirely unlawfull. 
82 
As to the Brigantine Betsey and Cargo being dutch Property, I 
do hereby inclosed send you a Certificate from the Secretary of this 
Place, whereby it appears that said Silvanus Jenkes the 7th of Dec-
emb'r last Year became a Burgher of this place, and the 9th there-
after was granted a Danish Pass for said Brigantine Betsey, where-
by he and everyone is obliged to make Oath that no Foreigner dir-
ectly or indirectly has any part or Share in the Vessel also to 
produce a Bill of Sale for the same: but the Reason why this danish 
Pass and his Burghers Brief could not be found on board as well as 
the pretended dutch Papers, I can not conceive, as Capt. Jenkes as-
sures, they were there with the others when he was taken, I must 
suppose the Captors finding them quite contrary to that dutch Pro-
perty they wished to establish of both Vessel and Cargo, have threwn 
them away. 
I believe from the premisses Your Honor will be Sensible that 
it is impossible for me to grant the desired Restitution, much less 
to look upon the Capture as good, it being of the same Nature with 
the many former Tortolian Captures or Depredations on Danish Vessels. 
Should the Owners of the mentioned Privateer Sloop Liberty think 
them the least injured by this my Refusal, they are welcome to go 
to Law in our Court with said Silvanus Jenkes; but I must certainly 
conclude that the Commander of the Stag privateer by sending Silvan-
us Jenkes on board his Vessel, and aIIOwing to make the best of his 
Way to this Port is a convincing Proof of the Illegality of the Cap-
ture, in the Share of which he naturally was part concerned and to 
whom I think the pretended Captors may address them if they think 
proper. 
It was not even in my power, if the eloped Vessel was a 
foreign, Dutch, French or any Vessel, to deliver it up to the Cap-
tors, as they may blame them Selfs, if the Hands sent on board a 
captured Vessel, were not abte to defend it against the Crew of the 
former Possessors. 
Relative to what the Prize Master and five men belonging to 
the Sloop Liberty have reported about their being sent as Prisoners 
of Vvar on Parole for the Exchange of an equal Number of Americans, 
I do assure Your Honor, this is entirely false, as I do not Know, 
who should dare here to declare them as such •. You may depend upon 
that no Man shall be declared less detained prisoner of War in this 
Government as long as I am the Chief Commander, this are things that 
hardly would pass without the Consent of the Chief Commander in any 
other Government but yours, wittness the Tortolian Emprisonement 
of Kammereer Graah from this place. 
The Prize Master and an other 
of the Crew were taken at Night in the Street here by the Patrol 
and confined in the Fort where from Capt. Silvanus Jenkes had them 
released for his Acct., thinking by this Act of Charity to meet with 
Retaliation in having his people sent from the Sloop Liberty in Tor-
tala. 
SOURCE: 
"LETTERS SENT BY GOVERNOR CLAUSSEN TO FOREIGN OFFICIALS," R. G. #55, USNA. 
*** 
83 
GOVERNOR PETER CLAUSEN TO ADMIRAL GEORGE RODNEY 
ST. CROIX, 5 June 1781 
... Of the Tortolian privateers - who either according to their 
hostile or tirannical behaviour toward the Danes and their property 
might be called pirates, are still every day two or three to an an-
chor at Buck Island - and likewise at Black Point of St. Thomas; 
who are very troublesome to the going and coming vessels in treat-
ing them ill; by which your Excellency will observe that mere threats 
do not make these insolents fear, but punishment should be employ-
ed to some of them for an example to others. 
I am in hopes your 
Excellency will .•• promise this, ••• which is the only method if 
your Excellency's orders shall be supported and regard shown for 
my Sovereign's flag, also the property of Danish subjects in the 
West Indies secured ...• 
SOURCE: 
PETER CLAUSSEN LETTERBOOK, BAN. LIB. 
*** 
LORD GEORGE GERMAIN TO GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEY 
LONDON, I September 1781 
So many Complaints have been Made of the Irregularities com-
mitted by Privateers belonging to the Virgin Islands, and of the 
Encouragement given by the Courts of Vice Admiralty there to the 
capture & Detention of Neutral Vessels loaded with British Pro-
perty, as well as with that of the Subjects of Neutral States, 
that it has been judged proper to take the Matter into the most 
serious Consideration; and it appearing that because of there being 
no Courts of Civil Judicature in those Islands wherein Damages might 
be sued for and recovered, no Reparation can be obtained by the in-
jur~d Parties against the owners of the privateers, and that the 
Bonds given by the Owners for the due Observance of Instructions 
when Commissions of Marque are granted become nugatory from the de-
fect of a legal Mode of suing for the Penalties, the King's Servants 
are of Opinion that the Irregularities & Abuses complained of are 
more likely to increase than to discontinue, seeing they may be 
committed with Impunity, and that, therefore, the most dangerous 
consequences may be apprehended from the Disputes they may occasion 
between this Country and Neutral States, and great Injury may arise 
to the Commerce of His Majesty's Subjects. 
To prevent Consequences 
so dangerous & alarming to the public calls for the most effectual 
& immediate Interposition of the Authority of Government, and no 
Measure being judged so proper & adequated to the End proposed as 
the Suspension of the Admiralty Courts in those Islands, I have re-
ceived the King's Command to signify to you His Majesty's pleasure 
that you do immediately recall all subsisting Commissions gra~ted 
by you or your Predecessors to any Persons to act as Judges, 
84 
Registers, Advocates, Protectors, Marshalls, or other officers of 
any Court of Vice Admiralty within the Virgin Islands and issue no 
other until His Majesty's further pleasure shall be signified to 
you for that purpose. 
And that all Vessels fitted out, or armed by 
persons residing in the said Islands may be made amenable to Justice 
it is His Majest:!-'s Command that you do not grant Letters of Marque 
to any Vessel ar~ed or fitted out in the said Islands, unless the 
usual Bond for the due Observance of Instructions be signed by at 
least one good & sufficient Security resident in some other of His 
Majesty's Islands within your Government. 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/61. 
*** 
GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEY TO LORD SHELBURNE 
ANTIGUA, 30 July 1782 
His Majesty having been pleased to issue his Commands to that 
purpose, I was under the necessity of suspending the Court of Vice-
Admiralty of Tortola and the Virgin Islands in the Month of Decem-
ber last. 
I have been since applied to by Petition from the Pre-
sident and Speaker of that Island to take off the suspension, but 
his Majesty's Commands to me are so positive that I dare not do it. 
I cannot therefore sue the Bonds in that Court; And there is no 
Court of Justice in the Island to apply to, or any Law for the es-
tablishing Courts of Justice. 
There is one now before the Lords 
of Trade, and has been before them sometime, of a very voluminous 
nature which I apprehend will require a great deal of consideration, 
and I could wish if their Lordships approved of it, that it might 
b~ passed, as the Island is greatly distressed for want of a Law 
of that Kind. 
I take the Liberty of enclosing to your Lordship the Petition 
sent to me from the Resident and Speaker of Tortola, praying the 
Suspension may be taken off from the Court of Vice-Admiralty. 
In 
answer thereto, I wrote them I could not grant the prayer of it, 
but if they would draw up a dutiful and humble Petition to the Throne 
I would do everything in my power to recommend it. 
Thro' same inat-
tention or other they have neglected to do it. 
I assure your Lord-
ship their case is exceeding hard, and I could wish His Majesty 
would be graciously pleased to take it into consideration. 
I shall 
do everything to give your Lordship the utmost satisfaction in this 
Business, and am with the greatest Respect .••• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/62. 
*** 
85 
Sheweth. 
THE PETITION OF THE COUNCIL AND ASSEMBLY OF 
THE VIRGIN ISLANDS TO GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEY 
TORTOLA, 1782 
That the ~merican War having by woeful Experience been produc-
tive of Hardships and Incon~eniences to his Majesty's faithful and 
loyal Subjects the Inhabitants of his Sugar Colonies which they 
have never known or experienced in former Wars, they have been ob-
liged (under the Sanction and Authority of the Statutes in that 
Case made and provided) to have recourse to the Expedient of arm-
ing and equiping Privateers to cruise against and to capture the 
Property of Americans bound to the French and neutral Ports in these 
Seas. 
That by means of exerc1s1ng this Expedient the Virgin Islands 
have experienced the Relief and enjoyed the Benefits arising from 
the Capture of american Vessels and their Cargoes, in common with 
the other British Islands, and equally with them have contributed 
to distress and annoy the Trade of the continental Colonies. 
That by the Adoption and vigorous exertion of these Measures 
the Virgin Islands have not only supplied their own Wants in the 
particular articles of Flour and Lumber, for which the Planters 
and Inhabitants were beholden to, and in which they were wont, of 
Necessity, to deal largely with the continental Colonies in Times 
of Peace; but by their Captures of Tobacco and other dead Commod-
ities (the Growth and Produce of these Colonies) which are calcul-
ated for the British Markets, they have also contributed in no in-
considerable Degree to the Commerce and Revenue of Great Britain. 
That these Blessings and these Advantages are now no more! 
Bereft of them by Means of your Excellency's Proclamation which sus-
pended their Courts of Admiralty from the ninth Day of December 
last, the Virgin Islands have now only to lament their Distress and 
to bemoan their harsh and unpropitious Fate that could mark them 
out as the Objects of so severe and so disgraceful a Censure. 
That if, after the mortifying and truly humiliating Consider-
ation of their being excluded from Rights which are and ever have 
been enjoyed in common in every other Part of the British Empire, 
there is any Consolation left, it is that the Inhabitants of the 
Virgin Islands are conscious they endure a Punishment which they 
have never invited, and which they are persuaded his Majesty, of 
his Royal Goodness, of his Affection for his faithful Subjects of 
this Colony, and of his regard for their Honour and Welfare, could 
never have ordered to be inflicted if they had been indulged with 
the Privilege of being heard. 
That your Petitioners are conscious that some Excesses and Ir-
regularities have been committed by Privateers to the Annoyance of 
the Trade of neighbouring neutral Danish Islanders which ought to 
86 
be particularly and decisively redressed. 
That as such Excesses and Irregularities have been committed 
by Privateers while hovering round the coasts of those Islands, the 
burthen of Censure and Complaint hath fallen upon the Privateers 
equipped at, and belonging to, Tortola merely because it happens to 
be situate/W in their Vicinity, when at the same Time it has been 
well known Fact that the most noted Transgressions have been commit-
ted by Privateers from the Windward Islands while hovering round 
their coast~. 
And your Petitioners are firmly persuaded that this 
Suggestion would be well authenticated upon proper Investigation. 
That the Court of Vice Admiralty of the Virgin Islands since 
the commencement of the present War hath adopted the same Principles 
and the same spirit in its Decisions which have formed the Rule of 
Conduct for other Courts of Admiralty in the neighbouring Windward 
British Islands. 
And if its judicial Proceedings (which are the 
highest and best Evidence to elucidate the Truth of the Position) 
were but to be investigated, the Strict Correspondence would be 
readily evinced. 
That if the Exigencies of the Times required or justified the 
Adoption of Rules of Conduct in the judicial Department more len-
ient and less decisive than in former Times; the Admiralties of 
other Islands have been fortunate enough only to receive the nec-
essary reproving Hints, and have profited by them. 
And your Pet-
itioners are well assured that if the Admiralty of this Island had 
in like manner been only admonished of any error that might have 
occasioned any Influence in its Proceedings or Decisions, it would 
have been as open to conviction as other Courts have been, would 
have reformed its Plan, and would have carefully and consistently 
adhered to the future Standard. 
But to punish the Colony with Sus-
pension from the Exercise of the judicial Powers of that Court is 
a Measure pregnant with Cruelty, and has not failed to reflect the 
severest Imputation of Disgrace on the Community at large. 
That the late unpropitious Submission of three valuable nei-
ghbouring Coloniesl to the Arms of France has rendered the Com-
munication between Antigua and this Colony infinitely more diffi-
cult and precarious than it was wont to be; and that in consequence 
thereof the Prizes captured by British Privateers to Leeward of 
Saint Martin, or any other intervening French Island, cannot pro-
ceed to the said Island of Antigua, but must, of Necessity, be 
brought into the Port of Tortola. 
That the abuses and Irregularities committed in respect to 
such Prizes, under the Pretence that they are intended to be con-
ducted to Antigua for Trial, are dayly manifested. 
And while there 
is no Court to restrain or controul, will not fail to be introduc-
tive of Evils infinitely worse in their Consequences than any that 
could possibly have been intended to be remedied by the aforesaid 
Suspension. 
That your Petitioners paying all due attention to the princi-
pal Ground for such Suspension, as set forth in your Excellency's 
87 
Proclamation, can with great Justice suggest that their Endeavours 
for the Establishment of Courts of common Law for the redress of 
civil Injuries have been abundantly displayed in their having pass-
ed an act for that Purpose about two Years since, and submitted it 
to his late Excellency General Burt to be by him transmitted for 
the royal assent. 
That the Distresses resulting from the aforesaid Suspension 
have.be~already too sensibly felt, and have created a lasting Im-
pression which can never fail in future to furnish a full reserve 
of Tenderness and Caution in the judicial Exercise of the Admiralty 
Jurisdiction. 
That your Petitioners are well persuaded that your Excellency 
is furnished with competent discretionary Powers to re-establish 
the aforesaid Court of Vice Admiralty without farther Delay; and 
that your Conduct in adopting so just, so wise, and so salutary a 
Measure cannot fail to gain the approbation and Applause of our good 
and gracious Sovereign. 
Your Petitioners therefore, impressed with the deepest Sense 
of your Excellency's Goodness, and of your equal regard for the Cre-
dit, Prosperity, and Honour of every Part of your Government, are 
emboldened to intreat, and humbly to hope, that your Excellency 
will be graciously pleased, without farther Delay, to re-establish 
the same Court of Vice Admiralty ...• 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/62. 
Is' 
. 
t. K1ttS, NeV1S and Montserrat. 
*** 
THOMAS TOWNSHENDI TO GOVERNOR THOMAS SHIRLEY 
LONDON, 27 October 1782 
On the 1st Instant I had the honor of laying before the King 
Your Letter .•. relating to the Danish Brigantines Dorothea and 
Elizabeth Christiana taken by a Sloop not having a Commission and 
carried into Tortola where they were condemned as Droits of Admir-
alty, setting forth the occasion of the delay in remitting the pro-
duce of them and their Cargoes to the Receiver General, and recom-
mending that the Suspension laid on the Courts of Vice Admiralty 
in Tortola and the other Virgin Islands conformable to the Instruc-
tions given to you by the late Secretary of State in his Letter of 
the 1st Sept. last, may be taken off; and in answer thereto I have 
the King's commands to acquaint You that in expectation the late 
restraint they have been under will have a tendency to Check in 
future such unwarrantable and unprecendented proceedings as have 
been practiced by the Privateers belonging to those Islands, His 
Majesty has been graciously pleased to condescend to accede to 
Your proposal, and You will give the necessary Orders in consequence 
thereof, taking care to enforce the immediate recovery of the 
88 
produce of the Danish Vessels before mentioned previous to Your tak-
ing off the Suspension, and to cause it to be remitted agreeable 
to the directions already given on that head •... 
SOURCE: 
PRO. C.O. 152/62. 
1 .• h 
f W 
Br~t~s Secretary 0 
are 
*** 
By way of retaliation against the inhabitants of Tortola for their privateering 
activities throughout the war, the Americans organized a punative expedition 
against that island early in 1782. 
After rendevousing in Martinique, five Amer-
ican warships set sail on March 2, 1782, to raid Tortola. 
Although the American 
raid failed, it seriously alarmed the Tortolians, who requested naval protection 
from Admiral Rodney. 
Rodney immediately dispatched the HMS Santa Monica to the 
scene. 
While cruising the British Virgin Islands in search of the American raid-
ers, the Santa Monica struck an uncharted rock and sunk off the Danish Island of 
St. John 1. 
The story of this fascinating, but little known episode in the mari-
time history of the Virgin Islands unfolds in the following first hand accounts 
by American and British participants2• 
LOG OF THE PILGRIM 
February-March, 1782 
... Monday 25th 
On meridian we came to an Anchor in the harbour 
of Saint Pierre3, where we found several American Vessells. 
We were 
likewise announced of the arival of our prizes, Prince WID. Henry, 
Penobscott, and Friendship (the one orded to ye Havanh). 
The Her-
cules sunk at sea the day after our parting with her & Mr. Rana-& 
his Cre\<T were taken from her by the Mohawk. 
many sever reflections 
were cast upon Mr. Rand respecting the prize, and probably not with-
out great Cause. 
Immediately upon our arival all hands were employ-
ed in fitting ye Ship for Sea. 
Saturday 2d 
On meridian, having been .48 hours under way, we 
made S~il in Company with the Porus of 22 Nine pounders, Captain 
Carnes , & 118 Men. 
The Brutus 20 Six pounders & 95 Men. 
Captain 
Brookhouse5 The Franklin 18 six pounders Capn. Duval16, & 85 Men, & 
the Halker LHolkeVCaptain Cane LRoger Keane7 16 pounders & 105 Men, 
with a determinat10n to invest the Island or Tortola. 
This plan hav-
ing been several days in agitation, regulations were adopted for the 
government of the Fleet & Captain Carnes was appointed Comodore. 
At 
Evening passed the Island of Dominica 3 or 4 leagues distant. 
Sunday 3d 
In the afternoon chaced a Danish Schooner. 
The Com-
odore spake her, & made a Signal for all the Captains, to go on board 
him', passed St. Eustatia & Saba, the latter plainly in sight. 
Monday 4th About 3 pm we saw the Virgin Islands, & Two Sails 
under the Land, By a signal from Cap: Carnes The fleet gave chace, 
89 
but spake neither of them. 
At Sun set the Captain's were called 
on board the Comodore, where they spent an hour. 
At Evening spake 
a small Schooner which was detained with the Fleet. 
we ran in 
among the Islands. 
200 chosen men were to land for the purpose of 
taking the Town, on ~orto1a, & to be commanded by Major Courtis, 
each officer of Marines commanding the party from their own Ship's. 
by accident, the night being dark, we passed the place of our des-
tination & ran 3 or 4 leagues to 1eward, by which we were kept 
beating to windward thro' the night. 
we found by several circum-
stances that the Island were ala~ld, particularly by false fires 
which were very frequent in different places. 
Tuesday 5th At day-light we were just abreast the Town, not 
more than 3 Miles distant, The Fleet hove too & the Captains held 
a consultation on board the Comodore, at Eight OC1k saw several 
Vesse11s under way and endeavouring to make their escape. 
The 
Brutus & Halkerwere sent in chace of them. 
Finding the Inhabit-
ants to be alarmed, abolished the Idea of surprize, And it was 
thought eligible to demand a surrender of the Town, which was to 
be effected by a flag of Truce to the Governor in the name of the 
Comodore & Major Courtis. 
in Case of refusal an attack by the 
Ship's was proposed, and they were accordingly prepared for a Can-
nonade. 
About ten OC1k the Brutus (being at a great distance, and 
the Ha1ker not in sight) displayed a Signal for superior Force, in 
Consequence of which the former proposals were delayed, And The 
Franklin with our Ship were sent to her relief, soon after which, 
she doubled a head of Land & we saw no more of her. 
About noon we 
passed a nutera1 harbour on the Island of St. Johns, were were sev-
eral vessells under English Colours, particularly 2 Ships of 24 or 
26 Guns each a pilot boat came off, but did not board us. 
After 
getting clear of Torto1a we hove too in a large Bay (among the Is-
lands) for the Commodore who was to follow us, after discharging 
the Pilot, Schooner &c. in this Bay we spake One of the Brigg's 
from Torto1a, which the Halker had manned and Ordered for St. Pierre. 
She mounted 14 Guns & was formerly a Salem privateer called the 
Macaroni. 
By the Men taken in her we learnt that on the preceed-
ing evening 8 or 10 Liverpool Men had run from the Harbour in con-
sequence of our appearance, & that the Brutus, and Ha1ker were gone 
to lewd in quest of them. 
we supposed the vesse11s which we pas-
sed to be apart of them & that sundry others which we saw to 1e-
ward at anchor on nutera1 ground were the remainder, as they dis-
played English Colours. 
About 2 OC10ck the Comodore made his ap-
pearance and we found him to be engaged with 2 Ships, who upon see-
ing him came to Sail & posted themselves in such a manner that Cap-
tain Carnes could not avoid running between them. 
The fire was warm 
for a few minutes but the Porus had the good fortune not to loose a 
Man. 
her standing rigging was much injured & One Shot struck her 
Hull. 
so soon as he had passed, the Ships came to an Anchor again 
under the Danish fort. wh put it out of our power to revenge the 
Cause. 
Upon speaking the Porus Captains Duval & Robinson went on 
board her & spent an hour. 
At Evening we made sail to get clear of 
the Islands, & thus concluded the expidition. 
In the night we part-
ed Company with the Franklin. 
In an affair of Intrest a plan will 
generally be condemned or applauded in porportion to the success 
90 
attending its execution~ and among a variety of opinions, of al-
most every character it must naturally be supposed, that many re-
marks were made, and reflections cast upon the conduct on this ex-
pedition. 
uninfluenced by the sentiments of anyone, I endeavoured 
to be acquainted with the principle of our undertaking it, and the 
particular object in view: 
upon weighing the matter maturely it 
appears to me, that the failure of the plan proceeded from misin-
formation rather then from ill-behaviour. 
Captn Robinson says that 
before our sailing from Martinico they took every possible ~ethod to 
get authentic inteligence. 
That the Island of Tortola was repre-
sented to be in almost a defencless state (having but 2 Batteries, of 
no great consequence) and subject to the command of small Ships & a 
few men. 
Under these circumstances the attempt appeared very elegi-
ble, and enquiry was made for a proper pilot; A Gentleman presente~who 
professed a thorough knowledge, but it proved that he scarcely knew 
our object from the neighbouring Islands. 
An old man from St. Eu-
statia belonging to the Schooner we detained, was so well acquainted 
that while we were running to leward in the night he frequently re-
presented the mistake, and offered to carry the Ships to a proper 
station~ and also to accompany the men who landed, & conduct them 
to the principle & commanding Fort; But the pilot brought from Mar-
tinico, was depended upon: And to his ignorance in a very great 
measure I impute our not succeeding; as the Enemy (judging us to be 
French Frigates at the distance they saw us at dark) were so much 
deceived in our force, that had we landed in the night & attacked 
the proper posts, in all probability we should have taken the Town; 
by which I conceive we should have been richly rewarded for the ris-
que. 
when day light appeared, instead of 2 inconsiderable forts we 
found that the harbour was regularly fortified, and that Batteries 
were erected within shot of each other, upon the shore, the whole 
length of the Island. 
The inhabitants were collected in the Forts, 
and they hoisted Colours, which to me wore the appearance of defiance, 
but to many were only considered as Scare-Crow's, From this presen-
tation I dispaired of doing any thing: 
And was there any error 
in judgment, I think it was shewn in the want of system necessary 
for enterprize; and in the purposal of demanding the surrender of a 
Town, which to appearance would have resisted, had our force been 
greatly superior. 
Upon the whole, weighing the particulars delib-
erately, I think the Brutus's Signal was a fortunate circumstance, 
as our demand would probably have been rejected, & ridiculed, if not 
attended with more serious consequences. 
That part of Tortola which presented to our view appeared great-
ly cultivated & in a very flourishing state. 
The plantations e.xten-
sive & slaves numerous. 
The Town is compact, but small~ its situ-
ation low, & the Air consequently confined by Mountains adjacent, 
which were exceeding high. 
The harbour is not large, but from its 
situation may reasonable be judged a place of security, from the 
severity of bad weather. 
At each fortified part of the Island 
were a cluster of Houses, pleasantly situated, which I supposed to 
be the residence of principle planters: 
But this description cannot 
be perfect, as the observations were made in the heighth of Business, 
91 
when the Enemy's Shott were flying over us. 
On our retreat the 
Ships received the fire of the different Batteries wh we returned. 
some of their shott went between our Ship's Mast's, but fortunately 
did us no damage ••.. 
SOURCE: 
"THE LOG OF THE PILGRIM, 1781-82," THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS 
(DEC., 1922), pp. 112-115. 
lThe wreck of the Santa Monica has been located and excavated (See Alan B. 
Albright, The Excavation of the HMS Santa Monica, 1974). 
Many of the re-
covered artifacts are on display at the St. John Museum, the St. Thomas Museum 
and the Marine Archaeological Laboratory of the Caribbean Research Institute, 
College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas. 
2A short secondary account of the Tortola raid can be found in William Bell 
Clark, "That Mischievous Holker: The Story of A Privateer," The Pennsylvania 
Magazine of History and Biography, LXXIX (January, 1955), pp. 54-58. 
3Martinique. 
4capt • John carnes. 
5capt • Nathaniel Brookhouse. 
6capt • Silas Devol. 
*** 
LETTER TO THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER FROM 
"AN INHABITANT OF TORTOLA" 
TORTOLA, 6 APRIL 1782 
... A squadron of American privateers, armed, equipped and 
manned at Boston, and other neighbouring northern ports on the 
continent, having planned a predatory expedition against the Vir-
gin Islands, took with them a party of disbanded Continental volun-
teers, who were, by agreement, to corne in for a share of the plun-
der. 
On their progress to Martinique, where they first intended 
to rendezvous, their squadron suffered a diminution by capture: 
they therefore on their arrival in that island, had recourse to the 
expedient of beating up for volunteers, who, on the principles of 
freebooting, were to be allowed every privilege incident to that 
humane and honourable profession. 
Not content with the force that 
flocked to the piratical standard, (which were about one hundred 
and fifty in number) they had the modest assurance to solicit their 
Excellencies the Marquis de Boui11~ and the Count de Graffe to give 
them three hundred men and two frigates to co-operate with them in 
securing the 
glorious and important object; but were unfortunately 
given to understand, that the forces of his most Christian Majesty 
were employed in the achievement of honour and conquest, and never 
made plunder an object. 
92 
Although thus thwarted by this unequivocal testimony and 
avowal of the sentiments entertained by their ally respecting their 
designs, their noble courage was not to be cast down; they there-
fore persisted. 
Their squadron, consisting of four large ships, 
the well known Holker brigantine, and a fast sailing sloop (tender 
to their Commodore, and a repeater of signals) took their departure 
from Fort-Royal, Martinique, about the first day of March last, hav-
inq on board the freebooters about three hundred and fifty conti-
ne;tals, composing in the whole a force of about five hundred men, 
who were officered by persons who had borne commissions under Con-
gress. 
Early in the evening of the fourth of March, this squadron 
was descried from the Heights of Tortola, bearing directly for one 
of the entrances through that chain of keys to windward of the is-
land, which describe a kind of semicircle, and contribute to form 
the bason of Tortola. 
They effected their entrance into it some 
time before the night closed in; and by their manoeuvres announced 
themselves to be enemies who were well acquainted with the coast. 
The alarm was very speedily communicated in the usual manner, by 
signal guns throughout the island; and the militia evinced a" spirit 
and alacrity on the occasion which reflected the highest honour on 
them. 
The hostile squadron continued manoeuvring to windward of 
Road Town harbour for several hours; and the boats were all hoisted 
out and put in readiness to conduct the military and freebooters to 
the intended place of debarkation, at a small distance from the 
principal fort, which lies North-East of the town. 
The dead of 
the night was the time fixed on for the operations to begin. 
The 
largest ship was to have anchored close under the principal fort 
commanding the harbour, and to. have brought up with a spring on 
her cable; and the second ship in point of force was to observe 
the like rule as to another of the forts: and the intention in so 
doing was to cover the landing of the troops, in case they should 
be cannonaded from the forts. 
The person who commanded this expedition was a Continental 
Lieutenant-Colonel, who, the more effectually to preserve the 
pageantry of this business, went on board the Commodore to hold a 
Council of War, where a full Board of Officers attended, in order 
to come to a full understanding respecting the final plan of opera-
tions; but the last chearing glass of vin du pays (which constituted 
a necessary part of the warlike stores taken on board at Martinique) 
was so well relished and so frequently repeated, that the awful 
hour of descent was postponed until about three or four in the 
morning. 
They accordingly stood out again, and returned about two, 
in order to come to an anchor. 
As they were bearing down into 
the harbour, close in a line a-breast, they were clearly distin-
guished by favour of the moonlight; and Fort George, the principal 
fort, repeated the alarm, YThich was taken up and repeated, in re-
gular succession, by five other forts to the southward, about two 
93 
miles distant one from the other, and all within sight of the foe. 
This seasonable, well-conducted, and awful signal of preparation, 
had so great an effect on the irritable nerves of the foe, that it 
was once more deemed adviseable to defer the attack until day. 
When that approached, the enemy were again presented to the view 
of the inhabitants, manoevring in the offing. 
Their great delay 
admitted of no other interpretation than that of timidity, which 
impressed the inhabitants of Tortola with the most confident assur-
ance of their being Americans, whose designs were to plunder and 
destroy; and every animated arrangement was accordingly fixed on, 
in order to meet them manfully in the first instance, and leave 
everything to the issue of the bayonet. 
The force of the enemy, 
as you may suppose, was not at that time known; but the militia 
alone would been a full match for that which is already described. 
However, proper arms were prepared for about four hundred trusty 
negroes to co-operate with the militia; and the laws of necessity 
and of self-preservation justified the measure. 
About eight o'clock, three brigantines in the Road Harbour 
weighed anchor, crouded sail, and directed their course to the 
south west, along the coast of Tortola, in order to endeavour to 
effect their escape through the channel that divides Tortola from 
the Danish island of St. John, which is about a mile and a half in 
width. 
They had not been well under way, when the Holker and one 
of the ships were discovered to separate from the squadron, and 
to bear down under a press of sail in order to cut them off. 
Tv-!o 
of them got safe through the channel; the third was taken in it 
by the Holker. 
There were, at this time, several letter of marque ships and 
brigantines taking shelter in the different bays of St. John, which 
belonged to London, Bristol and Liverpool, were receiving their 
freight from Tortola, and almost in readiness to sail. 
So soon 
as the Holker and her consort espied them, they threw out the 
necessary signal to windward, which was obeyed, and two other 
ships bore down. 
These stood in so close to the shore, that they 
were fired at from President Chalvill's, and all the other 
batteries to the south-west of his. 
To some they returned the 
fire; but as it happened, no injury was received on either side. 
About an hour after, the last ship, after dispatching the sloop 
to windward of the Keys upon the look-out, bore down, and she 
and the sternmost of the other two ships were most manfully met 
by the two letters of marque ships the Fame, Captain Saunders, 
mounting 18 guns, and the Northumbrian, Captain Chapman, mounting 
12 guns, who both weighed anchor, and went out from Smith's Bay 
in St. John's, to offer them battle. 
A smart engagement ensued, 
which lasted better than half an hour; in which time, so well 
directed a fire was preserved against the foe, that they received 
very considerable damage, and lost some men. 
The two letters of 
marque finding the enemy disposed to draw them to leeward, where 
94 
the other vessels were lying to with their prize, could not venture 
to pursue their advantage, and therefore returned to their port with-
out having received any damage. 
The hostile squadron having re-
fitted, kept hovering about to the westward. 
A day or two after-
wards, the Holker and one of the ships worked up again through the 
channel, and the other three ships stretched to the northward, 
where it was supposed they would form a junction, and attempt a 
descent on the north side of the island. 
The Experiment sloop of war, Capt. Herbert, having just come 
in from a few days cruize, and anchored at the valley of the islandof 
Spanish-Town, to water his ship, espied the Holker and her consort 
standing toward him: 
being at that time ionorant of the coast 
being infested, he hoisted his private signals, which not being 
answered, he slipped his cable, and stood for the passage between 
Anegada and Spanish Town. 
The endeavouring to preserve his 
Majesty's ship from capture was his obvious and indispensible duty; 
for each of the vessels was, in point of real force, superior to 
the Experiment. 
However she was soon overtaken by the Holker, and 
a smart engagement ensued. 
The Junius Brutus soon after came up 
under English colours, and fireo several broad sides at the Experi-
ment, while under her quarters, with an intent to take her; but the 
Holker having, in the mean time, been most severely handled, and 
having had her rudder dangerously wounded, and part of her cabbin 
stove in, and being otherwise much crippled, fortunately enabled 
the Experiment in a very short time to give the noble Roman so warm 
a reception, that she and the Holker willingly took their leave, and 
left the Experiment to pursue their voyage to Antigua, where she had 
just arrived, when the Santa Monica appeared off, took her into the 
squadron destined for the relief of the Virgin Islands. 
The injuries 
sustained by the Experiment were trifling; and the cool and deter-
mined valous shewn in opposing so superior a force, and with so 
much sUCCess, reflects the highest honour on Captain Herbert, his 
officers and people. 
The squadron having formed a junction to the northward, 
cruized there for some days, between the latitudes of 19 and 21, in 
order to lay in wait for the running ships, which they learnt from 
their prize were then about to fail; but two of them having taken 
a rich prize, bound from Liverpool and Cork for Jamaica, while rest 
were not in sight, they quarrelled about the division of the spoil; 
and this incident happily put an end to the expedition. 
The Bolker 
went to Martinique with her Tortola prize, named the Brigantine De-
light; and from the officers and crew of the Delight, as well as--
from the most undoubted evidence of others, who have had the account 
of the intended operations from the commanders of the squadron them-
selves, you may depend on the foregoing narrative being substan-
tially just. 
Tortola is indebted to Providence for averting the intended 
calamity. 
Had a landing been effected, the island must have been 
indebted to its own internal force for protection; and the most cruel 
95 
ravages might have been committed, and the enemy removed far 
from the coast, long before the arrival of any relief. 
This 
circumstance, added to the consideration of the remote leeward 
situation of Tortola, and its great importance to the nation, in 
point of the vast revenues accruing to the Mother Country fro~ its 
annual imports, must evince, in the fullest manner, the necessity 
of allowing it a standing naval protection. 
SOURCE: 
PUBLIC ADVERTISER (LONDON), 16 AUGUST, 1782. 
*** 
As indicated in the previous selection, following 
their failure to invest Tortola three F~erican war-
ships departed, while the Holker and Junius Brutus 
remained in Virgin Island waters seekin~ prizes. 
Four British warships, including the HMS Experiment 
and HMS Santa Monica, soon arrived on the scene to 
protect Tortola and British shipping. 
On the morn-
ing of March 6th the Experiment spotted the Americans, 
and the subsequent naval engagement is related in the 
first reading below. 
The HMS Santa MonicR was less 
fortunate; while cruizing in search of the raiders 
she struck a submerged rock and sunk off the Danish 
island of St. John, as described in the secone selec-
tion. 
COMMANDER EDWARD HEFBERT TO CAPTAIN JOHN LINZEEI 
ANTIGUA, 17 MARCH 1782 
I have received your order of this day's date to put myself 
under your Command and proceed in Company with His Majesty's Ship 
Santa Monica. 
I beg leave to inform you that on Wednesday the 6th Instant 
at 9 A.M. (having corne to an Anchor off Spanish Town of Virgin 
Gorda from a Cruize the Night before with the Foretopmast Sprung) 
saw a Ship and Brig to the Southward pass through the Passage called 
dead Chest Passage, and continued turning up between the Islands 
with a press of Sail, at Ten made the private Signal which they 
not answering was convinced were a part of an American Squadron and 
which (by Information) were in quest of me, the Ship appeared like 
a small Frigate and the Brig a Vessel of War, not being near enough 
the Shore to Co-operate with a two Gun Battery there thought it 
Expedient for the preservation of His Majesty's Ship to Slip and 
put to Sea, at half past 11 Slip'd our Cable and made Sail to the 
Northward through the Islands, which the Enemy unexpectedly Weath-
ered and gave me Chase at 3 P.M. (Virgin Gorda E ~ S 6 or 7 Leagues) 
96 
the Enemy having came within random Shot who hoisted English Colours 
and seeing an Action unavoidable through their superiority in Sail-
ing prepared to shorten Sail and given them Battle the Wind blowing 
fresh at E.N.E: 
the Sea high and the Enemy on the Lee Quarter at 
3/4 past three shorten'd Sail and bore away in order to the better 
fighting my Guns at the same time both Vessels placed themselves 
the Brig on the Starboard Bow and the Ship on the Larboard Quarter, 
I spoke the Ship who after a few of the usual Questions shifted her 
Colours to those of American and directed ours to be struck. 
I gave 
my Broad Side to the Ship and the Action commenced at the distance 
of about Twenty Yards. 
We continued our position for half an Hour 
the Brigg keeping up a constant and heavy fire of Musquetry Grape 
and Langridge. 
At half past four the Ship having Slack'd her fire 
and the Brig endeavouring to get on my Starboard Bow, I haul'd up 
and in so doing ran on board on her Quarter, by which she received 
much damage; by this time our Bowlines and Braces being cut away 
the Topsails took a Back and we drop't astern of both. 
At a 
Quarter before five the Brig put before the ~ind and our Topsails 
taking full we again stood for the Ship who immediately wore gave a 
few Guns in return to ours and made Sail after the Brig, which lost 
her Foretopmast and Boom soon after. 
Not being able to command 
the Ship in consequence of the damage done to the Masts Yards stand-
ing and Running Rigging etc. which were in general Shot away and a. 
Gun dismounted, I got the Courses set as soon as geer could be got 
ready and stood to the Northward. 
At Six lost sight of the Enemy, 
since that time have been employ'd mending Sails, getting up Rigging 
to support the Masts and Yards and turning up to Antigua. 
I must 
likewise observe that we make much Water and have received a n~ber 
of Shot in our Hull Booms and Boats. 
Notwithstanding which am 
happy to inform you I had only one Man kill!d Mr. Walker the Lieut, 
Mr. King the Boatswain and thirteen others T'7ounded most of which 
being with Musquet Shot and Splinters are in a fair way of re-
covery. 
P.S. 
I am since informed the Ship was the Junius Brutus of 
18 Nine on the Main Deck & 6 Sixes on the Quarter Deck and Fore-
castle and the Brig Hulker of 18 Sixes. 
SOURCE: 
LETTERBOOKS AND ORDER-BOOK OF GEORGE, LORD RODNEY ••• 1780-1782, 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 65 (NEW YORK, 
1932), pp. 33-302. 
1Captain of HMS Santa Monica. 
*** 
CAPTAIN JOHN LINZEE TO ADMIRAL GEOR.GE RODNEY 
ANTIGUA, 29 APRIL 1782 
I take the first and only opportunity to acquaint You that 0:11 
the 1st Instant at 6 A M I Weigh'd Anchor at Peters Island near 
Tortola road with a Pilot on board and stood out to Sea with His 
Majesty's Ship Santa Monica under my CommanG in Company with the 
97 
Convert, Germaine and Experiment through the Cornmon and General 
Channel from Tortola, with an intention to intercept the Enemy's 
Vessels that was daily passing Tortola, as well as to Block up the 
Passage of the round Rock which leads to Tortola, through which 
passage I did suppose the two French Frigates would endeavour to 
make their way that was said to be at St. Christopher's and intended 
for Tortola which I had the Honor to give you an Account of by Letter 
of the 27th of last Month by His Majesty's arm'd Schooner Barbic. 
But I am exceedingly concern'd to inform you at 3/4 past 7 of 
the Horning I Weigh'd, when standing as near as possible after the 
Convert, and going about Six Knots with a great Sea that His Majes-
ty's Ship Santa Monica struck four times very heavy and in the space 
of two Minutes she bulged on an unknown sunken Rock S.S.v7. two Miles 
from the S.W. Point of Norman's Island and back'd off, and immediately 
made a great quantity of Water all the Cask in the Hold floating a-
bout, five Pumps and forty Bucketts were employed to free the Ship of 
the Water, but finding the Water to gain very fast and the Officers 
reporting to me that the Ship would go down, I therefore with their 
advice bore away for the nearest Harbour to save the people's lives 
and such Stores as I might be able, at ~ before Nine A.M. I was Com-
pel'd to run His Majesty's Ship ashore in 3~ and four Fathoms Water 
in Crawl Bay in the Island of St. John's where she sunk with the 
greater part of her Main Deck under Water, at the time I grounded 
the Ship there was fifteen feet Water in her, and must have gone do~n 
before we could have got to the shore if we had been a quarter of a 
Mile further off. 
After I had got the Ship in it was the opinion 
of the Captains of the other Ships that was with me, and the Officers 
and pilot of the Santa ~1onica that nother could be done but saving 
the Stores that was above the Main Deck. 
I therefore without loss 
of time saved every thing that could be got at, it was impossible to 
save any part of the provisions or any Stores under the Decks, ex-
cept four Cables, and three or four Sails. 
The Rigging with Sails Yards, Boats, Anchors, Guns, and a great 
many small stores are saved, and all that could be put with the Of-
ficers and Ship's Company were, and are now in this Harbor on Board 
His Majesty's Ships ConvertJGermaine and Experiment; the Guns, Anchors, 
Cables, Tops, Hizen Mast, and some small stores are left at Tortola 
under the Charge of Edmd Burke Esqr .... 
SOURCE: 
LETTERBOOKS AND ORDER-BOOK OF GEORGE, LORD RODNEY 
1780-1782, 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 65 (NEW YORK, 
1932), pp. 374-75. 
98 
SECTION IV: 
A QUEST FOR FREEDOM~ 
AFRO-WESTINDIAN RUNAWAY SLAVES IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA 
99 
Precious little has been written about the Afro-
westindian inhabitants of the Virgin Islands during 
the era of the American Revolution, despite the 
fact that these people made up almost 90 percent 
of the total population of the islands. 
Afro-West-
indian slaves were the sinews of the local economy. 
Without their labor no sugar, rum, molasses or other 
tropical staple could have been produced for trade 
with American or other merchants. 
Afro-Westindians 
worked not only as plantation laborers, but as artisans, 
stevedores and sailors, and were thus as crucial to the 
mercantile economy of St. Thomas as to the plantation 
economy of St. Croix. 
Those interested in learning about eighteenth century 
Afro-Westindians must creatively seek their information 
in the hidden recesses of the historical record. 
One 
little used source in which they obtain some identity 
are the notices of runaway slaves that frequently ap-
peared in the colonial newspapers. 
Not only do such 
notices give lie to the claim that the slaves passively 
accepted their servitude, but they also provide fascinat-
ing and invaluable data about the physical appearance, 
place of origin, culture, skills (it should not be over-
looked that a high percentage of the runaways were highly 
skilled individuals) and, to some extent, the motivation 
of men and women seeking to break free from the brutal 
web of slavery. 
A representative selection of the many runaway notices 
that appeared in the St. Croix newspaper, The Royal 
Danish American Gazette, during the years 1772-1778 is 
reproduced below. 
Taken collectively they clearly 
demonstrate that North Americans were not the only 
New World peoples struggling for freedom, independence 
and human dignity during this age of revolution. 
Absented from the subscriber, since the 29th November 1772, 
A YELLOW NEGROE WOMAN of the Ebo nation, formerly the property of 
Alexander Davis. 
She is well known in town and country by the 
name of Mulatto Nancy;l she is a stocky, thick, well-limbered 
wench, speaks good English and Dutch, and reports in every place 
she is detected as a runaway, that she is working for her owner; 
for she has been seen by several negroes selling or trafficking 
goods in West-End town and plantations. 2 
~fuoever will apprehend, 
or bring or send her to .the subscriber, shall be satisfied, and 
whoever will apprehend her selling, buying, or in the employ of 
any person or persons, so that the same may be proved, and will 
bring her to the subscriber, shall have thirty pieces of Eight 
reward from 
John Peter O'Donnell 
100 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE (ST. CROIX), FEBRUARY 17, 1773. 
lNancy was apparently a chronic runaway, for a notice in the Royal Danish 
American Gazette of June 3, 1775 shows her as being absent again, this time 
for thirteen months. 
2It was a common practice for most slaveowners in to'tTn and country to employ 
slaves as hucksters. 
The slave would receive a small percentage of what. he or 
she sold and, equally as important, enjoyed a considerable degree of personal 
freedom. 
*** 
RUNAWAY from the subscriber, a NEGROE TAYLOR named t'7anico, 1 
well known in this island, and tho' often before advertised is vet 
employed by several to make cloaths for them, passing as a free-' 
fellow, and tho' I well know who are the people that employ hi~, 
they pass unprosecuted for want of sufficient evidence in some ip-
stances, and in others, unwilling to discover the person that in-
advertently told me. 2 
I will give one piece of Eight to every 
driver that will bring me a certificate from a white person that 
he has given him 50 or 60 with a cart whip, and 1 piece of Eight 
for bringing him horne or securing him. 
He trades largely in stock, 
eggs, sugar, etc., and has emissaries in town to sell for him, which 
makes him useful to Negroes on estates. 
Tho. Cullen 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE (ST. CROIX), APRIL 7, 1773. 
IWanico had been absent since September 19, 1772, when the notice of his 
running away first appeared. 
2Despite harsh legal penalties for "harboring" runaways, many free people of 
color, and some poorer whites, sheltered runaway slaves in exchange for their 
labor. 
*** 
RUNAWAY from Lucas Uytendsile Baron von Britton, the following 
NEGROES, viz., Coffe Smith and Pompius, 2 head men of the Runaways; 
Bomba, a mason; Pertinax, Mamima, Paulus, Class, Arra, Lawrence, 
Jupiter, March, Abner, a boy; Theodora, a woman. 
For the 2 head men 
a reward of Ps. 10 per head will be given. 
Ps. 5 per head for the 9 
men and Ps. 2 for the boy and woman per head. 
All persons are hereby 
forbid harbouring or employing said Negroes, as they will be prose-
cuted as the laws direct. 
Gentlemen Planters and J1anaaers will be 
kind enough to make this known to their hunters. l 
-
101 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZE'I"l'E (ST. CROIX), MARCH 22, 1775. 
lMost plantations employed one or two slaves to hunt birds and other animals. 
Like the hucksters, these people enjoyed a f.reedom of. movement unavailable to 
the average bondsman. 
*** 
Runaway four days ago, a NEGROE MAN named MATTADORE: he is a 
well made fellow, upwards of six feet high, and walks very erect. 
It is supposed that he may keep at some of the good fishing bays, 
as he is an excellent fisherman, and carried his cast net with 
him; has few acquaintances in this Island having been here only 
6 or 7 months, but as he lived in Guadeloupe for some years it is 
imagined he may take up his residence on some estate where there 
are French Negroes, as he speaks French very well. 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE (ST. CROIX), JUNE 5, 1776. 
*** 
RUNAWAY from on board the sloop .Polly, (after striking an 
iron ring from off his leg, and twisting a collar with hooks from 
his neck) .•• A SAILOR NEGRO named Charles; he is a very black, 
stout made fellow, about five feet, eight inches high, stoops a 
little when he walks, has several knobs and marks upon his breast, 
talks good English, and gives out (though contrary to truth) that 
he was .born in Rochelle in old France, and assumes the name of 
Charles Lewis Turene. 
He is sensible, active and cunning, and 
it is imagined that he is conniving to convey himself and other 
malcontents off the island •••• 
He has several wives in these 
parts, 'who with others, may be seduced by his insinuations to 
leave the island. 
The Free Negroes at West-End, with whom he 
pretended to be extremely intimate, will be pleased to beware 
of him •... 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE (ST. CROIX), OCTCBER 29, 1777. 
*** 
Absented from the subscriber some weeks ago, a YOUNG NEGRO 
MAN named Primus, about twenty-four or five years of age, of a 
yellowish colour, having a remarkably bushy head of hair, and 
has somewhat the appearance of an Indian; he went in search of 
a negro woman that was runaway, and having a pass, he has, and 
may perhaps make use of it to prevent his being taken; he speaks 
extraordinarily good English. 
/Also7 Louisa, a very likely young 
wench, about 19 or 20 years old; having very large holes in her 
ears, and is of yellowish colour; she has been absent near two 
102 
years, and it is imagined she is harboured among some of her 
coun~ry negroes on the north-side to work in their grounds;l 
she is of the Mandingo nation .... 
John Patterson 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE (ST. CROIX), JUNE 3, 1778. 
lIt was not uncommon for plantation slaves, particularly drivers, to secret 
runaways in exchange for their labor on the provision grounds provided by the 
master. 
*** 
Whereas a Negroe Fellow belonging to the subscriber, named 
Peter, by trade a mason, well known allover this island, has 
been away for thirteen weeks, and ... did not come home until 
last Saturday the 4th ... , when a gentleman brought him; that 
same night he again made his escape with a COLLAR AND CHAIN. 
He has a wife named Alexandria ... belonging to Christopher 
M'Evoy, Esq. with whom he told me he has kept during his last 
absence of thirteen weeks. 
This is to give notice that as I 
before advertised 5 Ps. of Eight reward for taking him, I will 
now only give two silvers; and I hereby proscribe him to be de-
livered up to the law to have his leg cut off, if he absents 
himself the length of time prescribed for that purpose,l as a 
public example to such negroes as can be secreted on plantations 
unknown to the owners or managers. 
Thomas Cullen 
SOURCE: 
THE ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE (ST. CROIX), JULY 8, 1778. 
lA runaway had to be absent for six months before he could be legally 
punished, whether by dismemberment or deportation. 
*** 
103 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Dookhan, Isaac, A History of the British Virgin Islands (1975) 
Fogdell, Soren J., Danish American Dipl'omacy 1776-1920 (Iowa 
City, 1922) 
Holmgaard, Jens, "En dansk handelsekspedition til Nordamerika 
1783J' Erhvershistorisk Aarbog, IX (1957) 
Larson, Harold, "Alexander Hamilton, The Fact and Fiction of 
His Early Years," Win. 
&' Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. IX (April, 1952) 
Lewisohn, Florence, St. Croix 'Under Seven Flags (Hollywood, Fla, 1970) 
Lewisohn, Florence, "What SO Proudly We' Hai'l"':Th'e Danish West 
Indies and the American Revolution (St. CroIx, 1975) 
Lewisohn, Florence, The' American Revol'ution'§_Second_~ront: Per-
sons & Places involved in the Danish West Tn~~Hes & Some 
other West Indian Islands, (st. Croix, 1976) 
Pares, Richard, Yankees and Creoles: The Trade Between North 
America 
and the West Indies before the American Revolu-
tion (CaIDbridge, Mass. 
19~6) 
Rasch, Aage, "Forbudet af 4 oktober 1775 mod eksport of vaaben 
til de amerikanse opr¢rere," Historisk'Tiddskrift, IV 
(4 Heffe, 1961) 467-482 
-
. 
Sveistrup, P.P., "Det Kongelige Danske Octroyered Vestindiske 
Handelsselskab 1778-1785," Historisk Tidsskrift, VI (4 
Heffe, 1943) 385-427 
Syrett, Harold C. & Jacob Cooke, eds. The Papers ~f Alexander 
Hamilton, Vol. I, (N.Y. 1961) 
Tyson,. George and Carolyn, Preliminar';Y' Rep'orton Man'Uscript Mat-
. erials in British Archives Relat~ngto the American Rev-
olution in the West Indian Islands (St. croix, 1974) 
Willis, Jean L., "The Trade Between North America and the Dan-
ish West Indies, 1756-1807, with Special Reference to St. 
Croix," unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1963 
104 
INDEX 
Adams, John 69-70 
Allen, Philip 
79 
Americans: 
agents in Danish West Indies, 67-70, 76-77 
privateers, 57,61-63, 73-74 
raid against Tortola, 89-97 
ties with Danish West Indies, 27 
trade with Danish West Indies, 2-14, 31-49 
Anegada 
95 
Antigua 
34-36, 51, 53, 58, 60, 67-68, 70, 73, 78, 85, 87 
Areson & Reeve 
46 
Arnold, Benedict 
i 
Artiguenare, Joseph 
60 
Bailey, Mr. 
52 
Ball, Jennings & Woodrup 
47-48 
Barbados 
42,54 
Barrere & Co. 
48 
Beekman, David i, ii, 7, 9 
Beekman, Gerard ii 
Biddle, Charles 
38-40, 43-44 
Blair, James 
46-47 
Bouille, Marquis de 
92 
British Virgin Islands 
i-v, 29-30, 34, 66, 73, 84, 89-91 
British West Indies 
13-14, 34-35 
Brown, Mr. 
53 
Brown, Nicholas 
32-33 
Bryne, Captain 
34, 57-58. 
Buck Island (St. Croix) 
73-74 
Buck Island (St. Thomas) 
84 
Bull, Mr. 
39 
Burling, Thomas 
7 
105 
Burt, Governor William Mathew iii, 51, 62, 65, 68, 70-71, 73-76, 
78, 80, 82, 88 
Butler Bay Plantation 
19 
Campbell, Thomas 
54 
Cane, Captain 
89 
Carey, Captain 
82 
Carleton, Guy 
52 
Carnes, Captain 
89 
Carroll, Charles 
31 
Chalwill, Abraham 
59, 78, 81, 94 
Champlin, Christopher 
81 
Chapman, Captain 
94 
Charles (slave runaway) 
102 
Christiansted 18-19, 33-34, 79 
Chuyler, Abraham 
70 
Clausen, GOvernor Peter 
17, 30, 51, 54, 57-59, 62, 65, 68-71, 
73-81, 84 
Codman & Smith 
48 
Cbdwise & Cunningham 
2 
Conant, Daniel 
79 
Connecticut 
14 
Continental Congress 
iv, 27-28, 30, 38, 68-70 
Coxe, Tench 
29, 37, 40 
Coxe, Truman & COX€! 
37 
Crabb, William G. 
82 
Cruger, Henry 
6 
Cruger, Nicholas ii, 2, 3, 6, 8-9, 37, 79, 81 
Cruger, Tileman 
3-6, 8 
Cuba, Havana 
49, 52, 68, 89 
Cullen, Thomas 
101, 103 
106 
Cunninghame, Governor James 
54-55 
Curacao 
4-5, 8, 45-46 
Danish West Indies: 
American agents in 
67-70 
Burgher .Councils 
i, ii, 14-16 
commerce 
i-v, 2-14, 30-51, 60, 64-65, 69-70 
courts 
10 
government of 
10, 14 
hurricanes in 
20, 41 
legal profession of 
15-16 
stamp act in 
10, 14-17 
trade with America 
i-v, 2-14, 
trade with British West Indies 
trade with French West Indies 
Darling, John 
82 
Davis, Alexander 
100 
17, 30-51, 69-70 
13-14, 34-35 
iv, 13, 42-52, 60, 64-65 
Denmark, 
i, 14, 16-17, 57, 59, 63-64, 68 
diplomatic protests 
75-77 
policy toward America 
38 
trade laws 
9-10, 13 
Diusive, Captain Dominique 
60 
Dreyer, Baron 
75-77 
Drummond, John 
49,52 
Dunbar, John 
82 
Durant, Cornelius i, 59 
Duvall, Captain 
89-90 
Eccles, William 
46-47 
Fabritius, C.A. 
38 
Fahie, John 
59-60, 63, 66 
Falvey & Reilly 
44 
Flemming, Peter 
70-71, 73, 76 
Fort George, Tortola 
93 
Fredericksted 
18-19, 33-34, 57-58, 100, 102 
French West Indies 
34-35, 38, 41-43, 45-52, 54, 69, 89, 91-93, 95 
trade with Danish West Indies 
iv, 13, 42-52, 60, 64-65 
Freneau, Phil~p 18-25, 27, 52 
French, Bastian 
2-3 
107 
Gardner, Captain Oliver 
81 
Gayton, Vice Admiral Clark 
36 
Georgia 
70, 72-73, 76 
Germain, George iii, 33, 49, 51-52, 68, 70, 75, 77, 84 
Gibb, Captain Robert 6-7 
Graaff, Governor Johannes de 
67-68, 92 
Graham, John 
81 
Greathead, Caister 
60 
Great Britain i, iv, 11-14, 33, 63-64, 66, 67 
Sugar Act of 1764 
11, 13-14 
Guadeloupe 
35, 43, 50-51, 69 
Haightz, Cornelius 
28 
Hamilton, Alexander ii, 2-9 
Hamilton, William L. 
77 
Hammond, Benjamin 
79 
Hancock, John i, 28 
Hanson, Captain John 
19, 28-29 
Harris, John 
3 
Haxthausen, Captain von 
63 
Hederick, Lieutenant von 
27-28 
Herbert, Captain Edward 
95-96 
Hetherington, Richard 
59-63 
Heylinger, John 
2, 3, 27-28, 40 
Heyns, Mr. 
8 
Hunter, Mr. 
8 
Jamaica 
36, 46-47, 52-54, 73, 95 
Jeger, Hans 
9 
Jenkes, Captain Silvanas 
81-83 
Johnson, Samuel 
51 
Jost van Dyke 
i 
108 
Kortright, Cornelius 
i,4 
Lasay, Captain 
80 
Leonard, George 
82 
Lewis, Francis 
38 
Lindeman, Justice 
63 
Linzer, Captain John 
96-97 
Lisle, Mr. 
44 
Liverpool 
94-95 
Lombard, Captain Ephraim 
48-49 
Louisa (slave runaway) 
102 
Lynsen, Abraham 
63 
Macartney, Lord George 
37 
MacEvoy, Christopher 
53-54, 103 
Magens, Johannes 
60 
Mahan, Mr. 
2-3 
Malleville, Commadant Thomas 
59, 61, 64 
Manning, Mr. 
52-53 
Mardi, Captain 
47-48 
Markoe, Abraham ii, 15-16, 40 
Markoe, Peter 
15-16 
Martinique 
35, 41, 43, 49, 69, 89, 91-93, 95 
Maryland 
31-3, 67-8 
Massachusetts 
48 
Mathew, General Edward 
53 
Mattadore (slave runaway) 
102 
Mitchell, Mr. 
44 
Morrice, John 
77-78 
Mulatto Nancy (slave runaway) 
100 
Muller, Otto C. 
79 
109 
Negroes 
70-73, 76 
artisans 
100, 103 
armed in Tortola 
94 
free people of color 
101-102 
peddlers 
10, 100-102 
runaway slaves 
99-103 
sailors 
40, 102 
ship's pilots 
19 
slave imports 
12-13, 37 
slavery 
20, 24, 100 
Neil, William 
31 
Newton, Captain William 
3-6, 8, 53-54 
New·York 
2, 5, 70 
Nicholson, Robert 
61-63, 65-66 
Norman Island 
98 
North America i, 27-31, 34, 63-64, 66 
trade with the Danish West Indies i, ii, 2-14, 17, 69, 81 
North Carolina 
33 
Norton, John 
45-46 
Nugent, Mr. 
64; 66 
O'Donnell, John Peter 
100 
Panyea, John 
69 
Parrott, William 
81 
Parry, Admiral 
31 
Patterson, John 
103 
Pemberton, John 
9-10 
Pennsylvania 
2, 16, 29-30, 33, 37-38, 40, 43-44, 46 
Peter (slave runaway) 
103 
Peter Island i, 97 
Philadelphia ii, 2, 16,. 29-30, 37-38, 40, 43-44, 46 
Plunkett & Sterrett 
45, 48 
Prihn, Judge 
72 
Primus (slave runaway) 
102 
Privateers 
iv, 34, 36-37, 39-40, 43-44, 50, 57, 59-67, 73-98 
110 
Prock, Governor von 
16 
Puerto Rico i, 2, 37, 68 
Purcell, John 
30 
Ramsey, James 
50-51 
Read, Charles 
10-11 
Reeve, Thomas 
46 
Rengger, John 
8-9 
Rhode Island 
32-33, 81 
Roberdeau, Daniel 
27, 30 
Robinson, Captain 
90-91 
Rodney, Admiral George 
42, 84, 89, 97 
Roepstorff, Governor Ulrich W. 
9, 16 
Royal Danish West India Trading Company 
39, 42, 49-50 
Ryan, Henry 
53-54 
Sainte-Dominque 
46-48, 52 
St. Barts 
36 
St. Croix i, 11, 57-58, 61-62, 65, 67-81, 84 
Burgher Council of iii, 14-16 
commerce of 
2-14, 31-38, 40, 53-54 
description of 
18-25 
flag salutes to American vessels 
60-63, 65-66, 68-70 
petition of British residents in 
11-14 
prices current 
2 
rum 
6-8, 11-13, 32-33 
slavery in 
20, 24, 99-103 
sugar 
12-14, 32-33 
sympathy with American Rebels 
27-29 
St. Eustatius 
31, 36, 38, 41-46, 51, 54, 67-68, 77, 89, 91 
St. John 
mentioned i, 9, 33, 41, 43-44, 47, 68, 89-90, 94, 96, 98 
St. Kitts 
41, 45, 50-51, 61, 65, 75, 77, 80-81, 88, 98 
St. Martin 
36, 87 
St. Thomas 
i, 8, 33-44, 53-54,60,64-65,68-70,73-74,76, 
80-82, 84, 100 
Burgher Council of 
111, 14 
commerce 
38-49, 60, 64 
flag salutes to American vessels 
60, 63, 66, 68 
III 
freeport 
9 
prices current 
45-46 
spies in 
52-54 
Sanford, Riley 
79 
Saunders, Captain 
94 
Sayre, Stephen 
38 
Schimelmann, Commandant 
62-63, 65-66 
Searight, Joseph 
47 
Sevel, Judge Evan 
9 
Sharburry, William 
82 
Shelburne, Lord 
52-53, 78, 85 
Ships 
Admiral 
41 
Adventure 
48 
Acteon, H.M.S. 
42 
Active 
43 
Argo, H.M.S. 
34 
Barbaric, H.M.S. 
98 
Betsy 
81-83 
Borneholme 
50 
Convert, H.M.S. 
98 
Daphne 
47 
Delight 
95 
Eclipse 
39,44 
Elizabeth Christine 
75, 77-78 
Experiment, H.M.S. 95-97 
Fame 
94 
Franklin 
89-90 
Frj.endship 
89 
Germaine, H.M.S. 
98 
Hercules 
89 
Hind, H.M.S. 
57 
Holker 
89-90, 93-97 
Junius Brutus 
89-91, 95-97 
La Dorothea 
75-78 
LaSoye Planter 
61 
Le Solide 
60 
Liberty 
82-83 
Lynx, H.M.S. 
34 
Macaroni 
90 
Mohawk 
89 
Nanny 
8, 31, 48, 79-80 
Neptune 
47 
Northurnbrian 
94 
Penobscott 
89 
Phoenix 
47-48 
Pilgrim 
89 
Polly 
102 
Pomona, H.M.S. 
34 
Porus 
89-90 
112 
Prince William Henry 
89 
Rover 
47 
St. Croix 
59 
St. John 
58 
Santa Monica, H.M.S. 
89, 92, 95-97 
Stag 
82-83 
Thunderbolt 
4-6, 9 
Shipwrecks 
41, 50-51, 68, 89, 96-98 
Shirley, Governor Thomas 
51-52, 78, 84-86, 88 
Simmons, Captain Remembrance 
32-33 
Smith, John 
27-29 
South Carolina 
31 
Spanish West Indies 
49-50, 52 
Stephens, Philip 
34-36, 42, 58 
Stephens, William 
59-60 
Strickling, John 
81 
Suffolk, Earl of 
58, 75, 78 
Tennent & Ross 
70-73, 75-78 
Thomas Webb & Co. 
45 
Thornton, William ii 
Tobago 
37 
Tortola i, ii, 29-30, 34, 37, 39, 41, 44, 57, 59-60, 63-69, 75-98 
privateers in iii, 34, 36737, 39-40, 50, 57, 59-69, 73-87 
pro-American sentiment in iv, 27, 29-30, 39 
Vice-Admiralty Court of 
57, 77-79, 82, 
84~88 
Townshend, Thomas 
88 
Triel, Rary & Co. 
47-48 
Tuite, Nicholas 
12,14 
Uytendsile, Lucas, Baron von Britton 
101 
Vanbibber, Abraham 
67-68 
Vaughan, General John 
42, 50, 54 
Vice Admiralty Court 
57, 77-79, 82, 84-88 
Virgin Gorda (Spanish Town) 
i, 95-96 
Virginia 
31, 45-46, 49 
113 
Walls, Benjamin 
70-73, 76 
Walton, Jacob 
3-5 
Walton & Cruger 3-4, 8 
Wanico (slave runaway) 
101 
Washington, George ii 
Wethered, Mr. 
47 
Yard, Benjamin i, 40-41, 63, 79 
Young, Vice Admiral James 
34-36, 57-58, 60, 64, 67 
114