To James Madison from Joseph Pulis, 1 January 1806 (Abstract)
From Joseph Pulis, 1 January 1806 (Abstract)
§ From Joseph Pulis. 1 January 1806, Malta. In fulfillment of his duty, shares with JM that last December he received JM’s letter containing the laws established by Congress last July.1 Will conform to them as occasion requires. Also gives JM information that approximately seven thousand British troops left this port on 2 Nov. and that news was recently received that they were disembarked in the vicinity of Naples.
The troubles in Cairo continue and the battles between the Mamelukes and the Arnauts are frequent.2
Encloses a detailed report of the arrivals of American ships in this port. Assures JM he is always awaiting JM’s orders, which he will assiduously execute.3
RC, two copies, and enclosure (DNA: RG 59, CD, Malta, vol. 1). Both RCs 2 pp.; in French; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Pulis; docketed by Wagner. Second RC marked “Copie.” For enclosure, see n. 3.
2. Mameluke: member of an order of former slaves, usually Circassian, that continued as a military caste under Ottoman rule (). Arnaut: an Albanian, specifically one serving in the Turkish army (ibid.). After the French left Egypt in 1801, the Mamelukes, the Ottoman Turks, and Albanian mercenaries imported by the Ottomans to defeat the French, competed for control. The Albanian leader, Muhammad Ali, was named governor in 1805 and eventually defeated or murdered his enemies (Robert L. Tignor, Egypt: A Short History [Princeton, N.J., 2010], 204, 208–10; P. J. Vatikiotis, The History of Modern Egypt: From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak, 4th ed. [Baltimore, 1991], 50–51).
3. Pulis enclosed a list (1 p.; docketed by Wagner) of nineteen U.S. Navy ships and one merchant vessel that had stopped at Malta, more than once in the case of several of the navy vessels, between July and December 1805. The merchant ship was the Sally Ann, Stephen Glover, of Boston.