Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 3.djvu/53

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THE NAVAL OFFICER.
49

he said, "the infamy of your first crime could scarcely have been increased; but your treachery to the new government, under which you had placed yourselves, renders you unworthy of the name of men; nor have you even the miserable merit you claim of having contributed to the capture, since we never lost sight of the chase from the first moment we saw her, and from the instant she hauled her wind, we knew she was ours."

The men bung down their heads, and when dismissed to go below, none of the crew of the frigate would receive them into their messes; but the real Americans were kindly treated.

We shaped our course for Simon's Bay, where we arrived in one week after the capture.

The admiral on the station refused to try the prisoners by a court-martial; he said it was rather a state question, and should send them all to England, where the lords of the admiralty might dispose of them as they thought proper.

The "True-blooded Yankee" was libelled in