treaty called for. The table shows how many guns were on ships assigned to the squadron, not what were actually on the coast.
Commodore M. C. Perry was the first officer to command on the coast under this treaty. He got his orders on April 6, 1843, and reached Liberia on August ist. It was almost a year after the treaty was ratified before we had a gun on the coast, and even then she was at an American free colony.
Perry’s ship was the Saratoga, a frigate, whereas light, swift schooners were needed. However, the Porpoise did cruise on the slave-coast. The instructions to her commander, as issued by Perry, may be summed up in the following paragraph taken from a letter under date of August 1st:
It is only necessary for me to add that under no circumstances are you to permit, without resistance for the extent of your means, any foreign vessel of war, of whatever force or nation, in the exercise of any assumed right of search or visitation, to board in your presence (you having‘first forbidden it) any vessel having the American flag displayed. But you are to use every vigilance in examining, with your own officers, the vessels so displaying the American flag, and if it shall be found that she has unauthorizedly hoisted such flag, you will, if there be no cause for detention by yourself, immediately give notice to any vessel of war in sight that, she (the vessel examined by you) has no rightful claim to your interference or protection.
The Decatur also cruised on the slave-coast. Her orders said:
It is my desire that you show your ship at as many of the slave and trading marts as time and circumstances will authorize.
