10th. A quantity of mats or matting greater than is necessary for the use of the crew of the vessel as a merchant-vessel.

Any one or more of these several things, if proved to have been found on board, shall be considered as prima facie evidence of the actual employment of the vessel in the Slave Trade; and the vessel shall thereupon be condemned and declared lawful prize, unless satisfactory evidence, upon the part of the master or owners, shall establish that such vessel was, at the time of her detention or capture, employed in some legal pursuit.

X. If any of the things specified in the preceding Article shall be found in any merchant-vessel, neither the master nor owner, nor any person whatever interested in her equipment or cargo, shall be entitled to compensation for losses or damages, even though the Mixed Courts of Justice should not pronounce any sentence of comdemnation in consequence of her detention; but the same tribunal shall be authorized to pay out of the prize-fund, if they think it in equity required, some sum of money proportionate to the demurrage suffered, and according to the circumstances of the case.

XI. It is agreed between the 2 High Contracting Parties, that in all cases in which a vessel shall be detained under this Treaty by their respective cruizers, as having been engaged in the Slave Trade, or as having been fitted out for the purpose thereof, and shall consequently be adjudged and condemned by the Mixed Courts of Justice to be established as aforesaid, the said vessel shall, immediately after its condemnation, be broken up entirely, and shall be sold in separate parts, after having been so broken up.

XII. The negroes who are found on board of a vessel detained by a cruizer, and condemned by the Mixed Courts of Justice in conformity with the stipulations of this Treaty, shall be placed at the disposition of the Government whose cruizer has made the capture; but on the understanding that not only they shall be immediately put at liberty, and kept free, the Government to whom they have been delivered guaranteeing the same, but likewise engaging to afford, from time to time, and whenever demanded by the other High Contracting Party, the fullest information as to the state and condition of such negroes, with a view of insuring the due execution of the Treaty in this respect.

For this purpose the Regulations annexed to the Treaty, marked C, as to the treatment of negroes liberated by sentence of the Mixed Courts of Justice, have been drawn up, and are declared to form an integral part of this Treaty.

The 2 High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the right to alter or suspend, by common consent and mutual agreement, but not otherwise, the terms and tenor of such Regulations.

XIII. The Acts and Instruments annexed to this Treaty, and which it is mutually agreed shall form an integral part thereof, are as follows:

A. Instructions for the ships of the royal and national navies of both nations, destined to prevent the Traffic in Slaves.

B. Regulations for the Mixed Courts of Justice, which are to hold their sittings on the coast of Africa and in the territory of the Republic of the Equator.

C. Regulations as to the treatment of liberated negroes.

XIV. The present Treaty, consisting of 14 Articles, shall be ratified, and the ratifications thereof exchanged in Quito, within the space of 2 years from this date, or sooner if possible.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed in duplicate, 2 originals, in English and Spanish, of the present Treaty, and have thereunto affixed their respective seals.

Done in Quito, this 24th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1841.

(L.S.) WALTER COPE.

(L.S.) F. MARCOS.

(ANNEX A.)-Instructions for the ships of the British and Equatorial Navies, employed to prevent the Traffic in Slaves.

I. The commander of any ship belonging to the navy of Her Britannic Majesty, or of the Republic of the Equator, which shall be furnished with these Instructions, shall have a right to visit, search, and detain any British or Equatorial merchant-vessel which shall be actually engaged, or which shall be suspected to be engaged, in the Slave Trade, or to be fitted out for the purposes thereof, or to have been engaged in the

Traffic in Slaves during the voyage in which she may be met with by such ship of the British or Equatorial Navy; and such commander shall thereupon bring or send such merchant-vessel, or soon as possible, for judgment before that Mixed Court of Justice, established in virtue of the VIIth Article of the said Treaty, which shall be the nearest to the place of detention, or which such commander shall, upon his own responsibility, think can be soonest reached from such place.

II. Whenever a ship of either of the said navies, duly authorized as aforesaid, shall meet a merchant-vessel liable to be visited under the provisions of the said Treaty, the search shall be conducted in the mildest manner, and with every attention which ought to be observed between allied and friendly nations; and the search shall, in all cases, be made by an officer holding a rank not lower than that of a lieutenant in the navy of Great Britain or in that of the Republic of the Equator, respectively (unless the command shall, by reason of death, or otherwise, be held by an officer of inferior rank), or by the officer who at the time shall be second in command of the ship by which the search is made.

III. The commander of any ship of the 2 navies, duly authorized as aforesaid, who may detain any merchant-vessel in pursuance of the present instructions, shall leave on board the vessel so detained, the master, the mate or boatswain, and 2 or 3 at least of the crew thereof, the whole of the slaves, if any, and all the cargo.

The captor shall, at the time of detention, draw up in writing an authentic declaration, which shall exhibit the state in which he found the detained vessel; and such declaration shall be signed by himself, and shall be given in or sent, together with the captured vessel, to the Mixed Court of Justice before which such vessel shall be carried or sent for adjudication.

The captor shall deliver to the master of the detained vessel a certified list of the papers seized on board the same, as well as a statement of the number of slaves found on board at the moment of detention.

In the authenticated declaration which the captor is hereby required to make, as well as in the certified list of the papers seized, he shall insert his own name, the name of the capturing

ship, the latitude and longitude of the place where the detention shall have taken place, and the number of slaves found on board the vessel at the time of the detention.

The officer in charge of the vessel detained, shall, at the time when he brings the vessel's papers into the Mixed Court of Justice, deliver into the Court a paper, signed by himself, and verified on oath, stating any changes which may have taken place in respect to the vessel, her crew, the slaves, if any, and her cargo, between the period of her detention and the time of delivering in such paper.

IV. The slaves shall not be disembarked till after the vessel which contains them shall have arrived at the place of adjudication; and even after the vessel has arrived at such place, they shall not be landed without the permission of the Mixed Court of Justice.

But if urgent reasons, deduced from the length of the voyage, from the state of health of the slaves, or from other causes, should require that either the whole or a portion of the negroes should be disembarked or be transshipped before the vessel can arrive at the place at which one of the said Courts is established, or after her arrival there and before adjudication, the commander of the capturing ship may take upon himself the responsibility of so disembarking or transshipping the negroes, provided that such necessity, and the causes thereof, be stated in a certificate in proper form, and that this certificate be entered at the time on the log-book of the detained vessel.

The undersigned Plenipotentiaries have agreed, in conformity with the XIIIth Article of the Treaty signed by them on this day, the 24th of May, 1841, that the preceding Instructions, consisting of 4 Articles, shall be annexed to the said Treaty, and shall be considered as an integral part thereof.

The 24th day of May, 1841.
(L.S.) WALTER COPE.

(L.S.)

F. MARCOS.

(ANNEX B.) Regulations for the Mixed Courts of Justice which are to reside on the Coast of Africa and in the Republic of the Equator.

ART. I. The Mixed Courts of Justice to be established under the provisions of the Treaty, of which these Regulations

are declared to be an integral part, shall be composed in the following manner:

Each of the 2 High Contracting Parties shall name a judge and an arbitrator, who shall be authorized to hear and to decide, without appeal, all cases of the capture or detention of vessels which, in pursuance of the stipulations of the aforesaid Treaty, shall be brought before them.

The judges and the arbitrators shall, before entering upon the duties of their office, respectively make oath before the principal magistrate of the places in which such Courts respectively shall reside, that they will judge fairly and faithfully; that they will have no preference, either for the claimants or the captors; and that in all their decisions they will act in pursuance of the stipulations of the aforesaid Treaty.

There shall be attached to each of such Courts a secretary or registrar, who shall be appointed by the Government of the country within whose territories such Court shall reside. Such secretary or registrar shall register all the acts of such Court; and shall, before he enters upon his office, make oath before the Court to which he is appointed, that he will conduct himself with due respect for its authority, and will act with fidelity and impartiality in all matters relating to his said office.

The salary of the secretary or registrar of the Court to be established on the coast of Africa, shall be paid by Her Britannic Majesty; and that of the secretary or registrar of the Court to be established in the Republic of the Equator, shall be paid by the Government of that Republic.

Each of the Governments shall defray half of the aggregate amount of the incidental expenses of such Courts.

II. The expenses incurred by the officer charged with the reception, maintenance, and care of the detained vessel, slaves, and cargo, and with the execution of the sentence, and all disbursements occasioned by bringing the vessel to adjudication, shall, in case of condemnation, be defrayed out of the funds arising from the sale of the materials of the broken-up vessel, of the ship's stores, and of such parts of the cargo as shall consist of merchandize; and in case the proceeds arising from this sale should not prove sufficient to defray such expenses, then the deficiency shall be made good by the Government of