It was during the time that Captain Russell was on the above station, that he was sent, by Admiral Affleck, to convoy a cargo of provisions, as an act of perfect charity, from the Government and principal inhabitants of Jamaica, to the white people of St. Domingo, who were then severely suffering from the depredations of the people of colour. They received him, of course, with joy and gratitude; as a token of which, he was invited to a public dinner, which was given on shore by the Colonial Assembly at Aux Cayes. At this repast, our officer represented to the Assembly, that there was a Lieutenant Perkins, of the British Navy, cruelly confined in a dungeon, at Jeremie, on the other side of the island, under the pretext of having supplied the blacks with arms; but, in fact, through malice, for his activity against the trade of that part of St. Domingo, in the American war. Captain Russell stated, that, before he had ventured to plead his cause, he had satisfied himself of his absolute innocence; that he had undergone nothing like a legal process,— a thing impossible, from the suspension of their ordinary courts of justice, owing to the divided and distracted state of the colony; and yet, horrible to relate, he lay under sentence of death! “Grant him,” exclaimed Captain Russell, “grant me his life ! Do not suffer these people to be guilty of the murder of an innocent man, by which they would drag British vengeance upon the whole island!”
So forcible was this appeal, that the assembly, in the most hearty and uriequivocal manner, promised that an order should be instantly transmitted, for him to be delivered up immediately.
On the following day, Captain Russell sent an officer to receive the order for Lieutenant Perkins’s pardon and delivery. In a short time he returned, reporting that much prevarication had been used, and that he had not obtained the order. The day after, the same gentleman was sent again, and returned with a downright refusal from the Assembly; “for, as it was a promise made after dinner, they did not think it binding.”
Almost at the moment of the officer’s return, the Ferret sloop, Captain Novvell[1], hove in sight. She had been at
- ↑ The present Rear-Admiral Nowell.
