with great reluctance, sunk their vessel: their persons have been held sacred; not a man has received the slightest injury; their property has all been given them, except four small bags of dollars, sealed up, said to contain about 800, which have been reserved as a small remuneration for the wounded man, should he recover. * * * * * *.
“To Captain Clavell, &c. &c. &c.”
Respecting this affair, the British ambassador at Constantinople wrote to the senior officer in the Archipelago as follows:
“Sir,– I received in due time your letter of the 29th January, enclosing a copy of Captain Canning’s report of the circumstances which attended the destruction of the Turkish vessel off the island of Amorgo, concerning which a complaint had been made to me by the Turkish Government, and I have made the best use in my power of the materials furnished by Captain Canning, with a view to inculpate the master of the vessel, and to prove that his conduct had been such as deservedly to draw upon him the punishment he suffered; but, I am sorry to say, I have not succeeded.
“The man appears to have convinced the Turkish Ministers of his entire innocence. They think it not unnatural, that in the night he might mistake the English boats’ crews, imperfectly seen, for pirates or robbers, of whom they know there are a number in those seas. They say that all that could be expected of him was that he should cease firing the moment he discovered his error, which he accordingly did; that, however excusable the English might have been, had they sunk the boat in the first moment of irritation, the captain could not be justified in destroying her the next day, in cold blood, when he found that her crew were not pirates or robbers, but peaceable subjects of a friendly power.
“Both the Reis Effendi and the Capitan Pasha have therefore made, and continue to make, urgent applications to me for compensation to the poor man for the loss of his vessel; and I do not think it will be possible ultimately to reject the demand. All that seems practicable is to compound with the sufferer for a part instead of the whole of the sum he asks, and I own it appears to me that it would be advisable to arrange the matter in that way, rather than to make it a subject of public discussion between the two national Governments. I have the honor to be, &c.
In a private letter to the same officer, dated May 31st, 1813, Mr. Liston says:
