FROM LAKE ERIE TO MOROCCO. THE DIPLOMATIC CONTROVERSY OCCASIONED THE VISIT OF A VESSEL FROM THE GREAT BY BY GEORGE V. BROWN, Former United States Consul at Tangier. In the year 1859, the schooner Republican, owned by J. W. Sprague & Co. of Huron, Ohio, and commanded by Capt. Coville,* now a resident of Buffalo,† and living at Cold Spring, cleared from the port of Huron with a cargo of staves, and after passing through the Welland Canal into Lake Ontario, the River St. Lawrence, thence into the ocean, sped across the broad Atlantic and anchored in the beautiful and picturesque bay of Cadiz. Shortly after casting anchor the health boat, a lateen manned by 12 sailors and containing three officers, paid a visit to the Republican. The officers were protected from the rays of the sun by a canopy which extended more than one-third the length of the craft, and, as they neared the vessel, the principal demanded, in broken English, the papers and letters of the American skipper. These were accordingly handed over the ship's side to one of the crew of the *Capt. Stephen Coville; died at Huntsburgh, O., October 1, 1866, aged 46 years. In 1863, when this paper was written. lateen who received them with a pair of tongs, and then, with the utmost composure, dipped up a bucket of salt water, into which the ship's papers were thrown. After undergoing for a few moments this pickling process, they were taken out and hamted to the junior officer, who passed them to the principal. By him they were carefully examined, so carefully that they were discovered to be informal, and being handed back to Capt. Coville, that gentleman was informed that the Republican could not be admitted to pratique and must leave the port. In vain did Capt. Coville assure the sanitary officer that he and his crew were in the enjoyment of perfect health; that he had sailed from a healthy port, and by the blessing of God they had experienced no sickness on board; that his voyage had been a long one, and that if ordered away from Cadiz the market for his cargo-he knew not where to go or how to better his condition. The huge mustachios and enormous spectacles, which were all that could be recognized of the power under the canopy, remained inexorable, and with a polite salutation, which a Spanish gentleman never omits, and a regret that he could be of no further service to El Señor Capitan Americano, the lateen, with its precious freight, gracefully moved off toward the quaint old city, a short quarter of a mile in the distance, leaving our poor countryman from Buffalo, some 4,000 miles from home, with a fair prospect of being obliged to return to America with no other benefit than the knowledge derived from an experience of the stringent sanitary regulations of Spain, and the gratification, not enjoyed by all our lake captains, it is true, of having it in his power hereafter to say that he had made a sea-voyage and seen Cadiz, and in the language of Byron, to describe it as "A pretty town, I recollect it well." Within sight of the lofty domes, of the beautiful edifices, with their walls of purest white and balconies and verandas of the brightest green, adorned with flowering shrubs of the deepest and richest verdure, the fragrance of which seemed to impregnate the very air itself; of brilliant uniforms. bristling bayonets and frowning battlements, with now and then a dashing cavalier curveting his graceful Andalusian steed and bowing low to passers-by; and within hearing of the rumbling of wheels, the cracking of whips, the martial calls of the bugle, and the sweet-toned bells of the Cathedral and other churches, the skipper of the Republican, as he turned to catch a last view of that orb, his faithful guide o'er the vast waste of water, then sinking in the west, felt all that desolation of heart and foreboding of the future, which are invariably experienced by the friendless and homeless of a great and bustling metropolis. From the American Consul, Capt. Coville could obtain no consolation. The Consul said, and said truly, that Capt. Coville's owners ought to have known better than to have sent him out to Europe, and particularly to Spain, without the necessary papers, and that under the circumstances, it was out of his power to aid him. Not knowing what to do, Capt. Coville remained at anchor until the third day, when he was notified that his departure must no longer be delayed. "Where am I to go?" said the poor man to the officer who communicated to him this order. "I am a stranger to the customs, language and people of this part of the world, and I am anxious to do everything in my power to extricate myself from a dilemma in which an unforseen omission has placed me. Do advise me, I pray you." "Well," said the sanitary officer, who was no less a personage than the President of the Board of Health of Cadiz, and whose sympathies, as the sequel will show, were really, and to my own surprise when I learned it, enlisted in behalf of the American, "Be governed by my advice. Proceed, without delay, to Tangier, Morocco. Your Consul there is one of the Sanitary Board of that empire. Endeavor to procure an interview with him; he may possibly extricate you so that you can return here and discharge your cargo. I know of no other mode. Vaya con Dios." And again was the usual salutation made, and again, as before, did the boat gracefully glide off toward the town. *"God be with you." Capt. Coville thanked the officer for his kindness, and after returning his salutation, gave orders for immediately getting under way for the "Land of the Moor." Whilst on his way to the port of Tangier, Capt. Coville is battling with the currents and chop seas of the Straits of Gibraltar, which are not unlike those in the English Channel, permit me to give you an extract from a despatch of our Consul at Cadiz, and also an extract from one of my own despatches to the Department of State: "The quarantine regulations, although subject to the Central Board at Madrid, 'La Suprema Junta da Sanidad,' are, at most, entirely under the control of the Local Board of Cadiz, who, by their arbitrary measures, greatly inconvenience and embarrass navigation, causing very frequently unnecessary detentions, and the incurring of heavy expenses, ordering vessels off to lazarettos-as only a quarantine of observation can be performed here-in the face of clean bills of health, upon mere reports, without any official information to warrant such extraordinary measures. Vessels clearing from ports having no quarantine communication with Cadiz are either ordered off or subjected to great annoyance and expense." Although somewhat irrelative, I deem it my duty to record the following: An important provision, which is to be found in no other commercial law of the world, exists in the Spanish Commercial Code. It is often criticized, although good reasons are alleged in its favor. It provides that foreign vessels anchored in Spanish ports shall not be detained for debts which have not been contracted within the Spanish dominions, and for the benefit of the said vessel; therefore a bottomry bond, signed by a master of an American or other foreign vessel going to a Spanish port, can only be enforced upon the freight she may have earned, and in no case against the vessel herself. The following is an extract from my own despatch: "The quarantine regulations of the empire of Morocco are framed and carried into execution by the Consular corps, who are invested by the Sultan with all the attributes of a regularly constituted Board of Health, each Consul, in alphabetical |