1781.
Manifest, it is said, contradicts the Bills of Lading. The Manifest purports the property of the cargo to be in the persons named therein as the shippers, and the Bills of Lading shew, in many instances, that the property is in others.”
The Manifest exhibits a column under the description of shippers; and it also exhibits a column under the description of marks, and other columns for the cargo.
The Bills of Lading correspond with the column of marks; and the persons described as shippers in the Manifest, are ascertained by the Bills of Landing to be persons, who acted principally as attorneys, managers, or agents, for those who are mentioned in the Bills to own the property for which the Bills are taken; the property in the Bills being in the general produce of such owners’ estates in Dominica. There is therefore no contradiction between the Manifest and Bills of Lading; for, the term shippers does not imply the property to be in such shippers; the term as properly applies to a factor, or attorney, or agent, as to the owner.
“But, it is said, Governor Duchilot was imposed upon; that he refers in his Passport and Certificate, which is endorsed on the Manifest, to the 17th article of the capitulation; that the 17th article speaks of such merchants as have goods or merchandize; and that therefore the Governor must have been informed that the shippers were the owners of the cargo.”
It is true the 17th article says, the merchants may sell their merchandize, and carry on their trade, and the term their implies the property to be in them: But the term their may also apply to the property which a factor, agent or attorney has the possession, management and shipment of, for others; for, although they have not the general, yet they have the special, property.
“But, it is said, the shippers dared not to avow the names of the persons mentioned in the Bills of Lading, from a consciousness that they were not capitulants, and that the Governor would have refused them a License, Passport and Certificate.”
If the shippers felt such a consciousness, why avow the names of such in the Bills of Lading? It was not only necessary to take measures to prevent discovery on the Island, but also to guard against detention on a capture at sea. Why was the Governor’s Passport and Certificate obtained? Was it not to protect the ship and cargo from capture? But if the Manifest, Passport and Certificate had no reference to the Bills of Lading, but were contradictory and inconsistent, and the persons avowed by the Bills of Lading to be the owners of the property were not capitulants, is it not a novelty in the game of fraud, to furnish a ship with such papers as proclaimed a contradiction to the Ma-nifest
