all captured by the American Privateer the Reprisal, which were taken to L'Orient in the month of February last, and which, it was stated, had been sold in the jurisdiction of the said Admiralty to several Merchants, it being added that the cargoes of these Vessels, transhipped immediately to French vessels, had been sent to different ports; While reproaching these officers for these sales, made notwithstanding the orders which had been given them, I commanded them to let me know the means which had been made use of to get the sales authorized. These officers reported to me the investigations which they had made, and the result was that, upon an examination of the. Register of Declarations of ownership of Vessels made in their court, paying attention principally to those entries in which the seller or the buyer was a foreigner and to those where they observed that the tonnage of the captured Vessels agreed most with that of the Vessels declared, they found that on the 1st March last Pieter Van der Kaulen of Rotterdam declared having sold his Vessel la Fortune of about 180 tons burden then at L'Orient to M. Brusand there present, who declared he accepted the said sale and that the said Vessel was going to be named la Diligente; that on the 4th of the same month M. Jean Aime Viaud, a Merchant of Noirmoutier, declared himself the sole owner of the Snow la Charlotte of about 90 tons and of the Brigantine l'Harmonie of about 150 then both at L'Orient, ready to set sail for the said Island of Noirmoutier; And finally that on the 5th Messrs Bérard Frères & Co., merchants at L'Orient, declared through an attorney, having bought from M. Vanlip of Flemish nationality the brigantine le Victorieux of about 110 tons burden and the Snow la Margueritte of about 120; These Admiralty officers added, that, when the declarations were made in their Court at the beginning of March, they had not the slightest suspicion of their unfaithfulness, and that neither could their Registrar at Port Louis suspect when he cleared some of them, that they were from among the captured vessels. I should like to be able to give you more ample explanation, but this is all I have been able to obtain, and, if there has been fraud in these sales, it appears very difficult to discover it, unless more precise information be given, upon which further investigations could be made.

I have the honor to be with very sincere and perfect attachment, Sir, [&c.]