out a mast or without provisions a sail-ship could not
continue her cruise against the enemy; and yet the neutral permitted her
to supply herself with these articles. Nor can such supplies as these be
placed on the ground of humanity. It would be inhuman, it is true, to
permit the crew of a belligerent cruiser to perish in your ports by
debarring from access to your markets, from day to day; but it does not
follow that it would be inhuman to prevent her from laying in a stock of
provisions to enable her to proceed to sea, and continue her cruise
against the enemy. It is not humanity to supply a vessel with a lost
mast or a spar, and yet no one doubts that this may be done. Humanity,
then, being out of the question, what possible distinction can your
Excellency draw between supplying a vessel with the articles above
mentioned, and supplying her with coal?

Without any one of them she would be unable to prosecute her cruise
against the enemy--why, then, will you supply her with a part, and not
with the whole?

Without troubling your Excellency further, however, with an argument of
the question, I will content myself with stating what I believe to be
the true rule of law, and it is this:--A belligerent ship of war _cannot
increase her armament or her crew in a neutral port, nor supply herself
with ammunition; but with these exceptions she may procure whatever
supply she needs_.

Although it would be an easy matter for me to run to one of the British,
or Danish, or Dutch Islands, I should regret to be obliged to do so, and
to have to inform my Government of the reason. I would not willingly
have France adopt a rule which would effectually shut us out of her
ports, whilst Holland, Great Britain, Spain, and Brazil admit us freely
into theirs. The rule, prohibiting us from bringing our prizes into
neutral ports, operates very harshly upon us, as the weaker naval power
of the belligerents, without adding to it one still more harsh, and
which has the sanction of neither law nor precedent. If, however, it be
the determination of your Excellency to insist upon my departure without
coal, I beg that you will have the goodness to say as much to me in
writing. Your Excellency is the best judge of your instructions, and of
what they require of you.

I have the honour to be,

With much consideration,

Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) R. SEMMES.

To his Excellency M. Maussion de Conde,
l'Amiral et Gouverneur de la Ma