I have the Honor of your Lordship's Letter¹ . . . & at the Same time Received . . . The Memorial of His Excellency Baron Dreyer² Complaining of the Capture, Detention, & Condemnation of the Two Brigantines the Dorothea & the Elizabeth Christine. I am truly Concerned to find such Misrepresentations have been made to the Court of Denmark which have, amongst the great & Numberless Matters of Importance, given you trouble. The transactions being truly & fairly Stated I hope will induce the Baron Dreyer to Entertain a more favorable Opinion of this Matter & Consequently a Similar Report to his Court. 

Much, My Lord, has been said by Governor Clausen on the Conduct of the Inhabitants of Tortola.³ 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. Tennent⁴ from St. Croix, who Pretended to be Owner of the Brigantine Dorothea, refused to Enter a Claim to Part of her Cargo but 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 Relinguishing it, is a Proof that it did not belong to His Danish Majesty's Subjects. Whatever was Danish Property was delivered & not even Libelled [On] July 30^th 1777 I troubled your Lordship with Copies of Letters which has passed between Governor Clausen & Myself 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 Declared 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 Wife & 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 [were] 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 21^st is a Paper of Reference: there are two Schooners in . . . this Reference which the Baron Dreyer States as Danish Property Coming immediately from America Loaded with Tobacco, Rice, Flour and Slaves; how far the Capture of these Vessels & Cargo acknowledged to be American were Condemnable by the Prohibitory Act your Lordship will determine, but this Singularity attends 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 assured they have RELINGUISHED MANY CHASES AT THAT DISTANCE. . . .