1. The enclosure (3 pp.) is a copy of the 2 May 1806 letter from Henry Whitby, captain of the Leander, to Clinton. Whitby acknowledged Clinton’s letter of 1 May (see Clinton to JM, 3 May 1806, n. 1); stated that he knew his officers had not been detained by the government but by a “lawless mob”; that it appeared that Thomas Barclay had appealed to Clinton for protection on 27 Apr., but the officers were not returned until 2 May, so he believed that had Clinton been inclined to interfere “much of this unpleasantness might have been prevented.” He added that he was not aware of “any outrages” being committed by British ships; that although the “melancholy accident” of John Pierce’s death was “much to be lamented,” the shot was not fired at any particular ship but to bring to those that were going along the shore; that American neutrality had never been infringed; that the retention of his officers, the sending of armed vessels to recapture a British naval ship and prize, and the seizure of provisions meant for his ship could all have been prevented by Clinton, which would have avoided much of this trouble; and that he had instructed Barclay to apply for compensation for the losses the British had sustained.

2. The enclosure (1 p.) is a copy of Richard Wiley’s 9 May letter to Clinton, transmitting a copy of John Cowan’s 2 May 1806 letter, which notified Wiley of Cowan’s arrival on board the Leander on the evening of 1 May, thanked him for his “politeness and attention,” and offered Wiley his services.

3. The enclosures (5 pp.) are a 3 May 1806 deposition by James Powers that he was impressed into the Leander; that he believed there were about thirty or forty other Americans impressed on board; that the abusive Captain Whitby tore up some of their protections; that Powers had been released and sent to New York in a pilot boat; and that he had been on board the Leander at the time of Pierce’s killing and had heard Whitby on the quarterdeck crying “kill the Scoundrels &c”; and a 5 May 1806 deposition given before Clinton by Jared Arnold, master, and Ezekiel Howell, mate, that they had left New York in January 1804 in the schooner Daphne bound for Antigua; that they had encountered “tremendous gales of wind” lasting for days during which they lost or were forced to cast overboard almost everything from the deck and part of the cargo, including cables, anchors, main and square sails, and all but a little more than one cask of water; that, despairing of getting to a windward island, they had headed for Santiago de Cuba; that about 30 Jan., east of Cuba, they were approached by what seemed to be a warship that carried no colors, and when the ship was about a quarter of a mile north of them, it fired three volleys, some of which struck the Daphne. A person on the ship ordered the Americans to haul down their sails, and the warship pulled broadside to the Daphne; orders were given to fire, which the ship did several times, then a boat was sent and Arnold was requested to go aboard the warship, which he did. When Arnold was aboard, he was treated with “a great deal of insolent and ungentlemanly language from the Commander” and that after his papers were examined, the commander of the warship ordered him to go about his business and said that Arnold might go home and tell his countrymen of his treatment. As Arnold was going aboard his ship, he asked the boatmen who commanded the warship and was told it was Henry Whitby of Le Desiree. The next morning the Americans found “a number of musket balls holes through [their] Sails,” many of which were low enough to have killed someone on deck.