1822. The Trinidad. serts, the original voyage to Buenos Ayres, was a mere commercial adventure, the crew must have been composed principally of Americans or residents in Santissima our country. They enlisted at Buenos Ayres on board the Independencia, as officers and seamen for the purposes of warfare, and there is no evidence in the case as to the length of time of their engagements, or of the place where the crime was to terminate. Why are the documents on this subject, for documents must exist, in the possession of the claimant; why are they not produced? If the cruise was to terminate at Buenos Ayres, or at a specific period of time, the fact would have a material bearing on the merits of the cause. Yet though the pressure of this point must, at all times, have been forcibly felt, there has not, up to the present moment, been the slightest effort to relieve it from the darkness which thus surrounds it. Under such circumstances, the natural conclusion would seem to be that the crew were to be discharged, and the cruize to terminate at Baltimore. This was their native or adopted home, the place where they first embarked on board the Mammoth, and that to which most of them must be supposed solicitous to return. The conduct of the vessel indicated the same intent. She underwent general repairs, some of which could hardly be deemed of great necessity, and must have been induced by the consideration that Baltimore was a port peculiarly well fitted for naval equipments. During the repairs (a period of two months) the crew were necessarily on shore; and it is scarcely to be supposed that they were held together by 1822. The Santissima Trinidad. Hlegal outfit of the Altravida. any common bond of attachment, or that they had ment. The If any doubt could be be entertained as to the Independencia, none can be as to the predicament of the Altravida. This vessel was formerly a privateer, called the Romp, and was condemned for illegal conduct by the District Court of Virginia; and under the decree of the Court, was sold, together with the ar 1822. The Trinidad. mament and munitions of war then on board. She was purchased ostensibly for a Mr. Thomas Taylor, but was immediately transferred to Captain Chaytor. Santissima She soon afterwards went to Baltimore, and was attach ed as a tender to the Independencia, having no separate commission, but acting under the authority of Captain Chaytor. Part of her armament was mounted, and a crew of about twenty-five men were put on board at Baltimore. She dropped down to the Patuxent a few days before the sailing of the Independencia, and was there joined by the latter, and accompanied her on a cruise in the manner already mentioned. Here, then, is complete evidence from the testimony introduced by the claimant himself of an illegal outfit of the Altravida, and an enlistment of her crew within our waters for the purposes of war. There is no pretence that the crew was transferred to her from the Independencia, for the claimants own witnesses admit that a few only were of this description. The Altravida must be considered as attached to, and constituting a part of the force of the Independencia, and so far as the warlike means of the latter were increased by the purchase, her military force must be deemed to be augmented. Not the slightest evidence is offered of the place or circumstances under which the enlistment of the crew took place. It consisted, according to the strong, language of the testimony, of persons of all nations; and it deserves consideration, that throughout this voluminous record, not a scintilla of evidence exists to show that any person on board of either vessel was a 1822. The Santissima Trinidad. native of Buenos Ayres. We think, then, that the fact of illegal augmentation of force, by the equipment of the Altravida, is also completely established in proof. What, then, are the consequences which the law attaches to such conduct, so far as they respect the property now under adjudication? It is argued on the part of the libellant, that it presents a casus fœderis The sixth arti- under our treaty with Spain. The sixth and four cle of the Spa nish treaty of teenth articles are relied upon for this 1795 only pro purpose. The vides for the former is in our judgment exclusively applicable to restitution of Spanish ships Our jurisdic tion. captured within the protection and defence of Spanish ships within our territorial jurisdiction, and provides for the restitution of them when they have been captured within that jurisdiction. The latter article provides, that no subject of Spain "shall apply for, or take any commission or letter of marque for arming any ship or ships to act as privateers," against the United States, or their citizens, or their property, from any prince or state with which the United States shall be at war; and that no citizen of the United States "shall apply for, or take any commission or letters of marque, for arming any ship or ships to act as privateers" against the King of Spain, or his subjects, or their property, from any prince or state with which the said king shall be at war. "And if any person of either nation shall take such commission or letter of marque, he shall be punished as a pirate." In the Spanish counterpart of the treaty, the word "privateers" in the first clause has the corresponding word "corsarios;" but in the second clause, no such word is to be found. But it is ob 1822. The Trinidad. vious that both clauses were intended to receive, and ought to receive, the same construction; and the very terms of the article confine the prohibition to, Santissima commissions, &c. to privateers. It is not for this Court to make the construction of the treaty broader than the apparent intent and purport of the language. There may have existed, and probably did exist, reasons of public policy which forbade an extension of the prohibition to public ships of war. It might well be deemed a breach of good faith in a nation to enlist in its own service an acknowledged foreigner, and at the same time subject him by that very act, and its own stipulations, to the penalties of piracy. But it is sufficient for the Court, that the language of the treaty does not include the case of a public ship, and we do not perceive that the apparent intention or spirit of any of its provisions, justifies such an interpolation. The question, then, under the Spanish treaty, may be dismissed without further commentary. This view of the question renders it unnecessary to consider another which has been discussed at the bar respecting what is denominated the right of expatriation. It is admitted by Captain Chaytor, in the most explicit manner, that during this whole period his wife and family have continued to reside at Baltimore; and so far as this fact goes, it contradicts the supposition of any real change of his own domicil. Assuming, for the purposes of argument, that an American citizen may, independently of any legislative act to this effect, throw off his own allegiance to his native country, as to which we give no Quere, as to expatriation! the doctrine of |