Freeman's Chronicle

From the Evening Post.

An infamous transaction. I use the term infamous, not in the loose and random manner in which we see it every day introduced into certain newspapers, but I use it in a precise sense to express the abhorrence I feel and wish to inspire of the following affair. By an arrival at Newport from Rio Janeiro of the 30th Nov. a passenger landed there of the name of Fanning, Capt. Edmund Fanning, who communicated the following particulars, which have been published in the several papers. He informs that he belonged to the American brig Nanina, Capt. Bernard, of New York, which had been on a voyage to the Falkland Islands in search of skins, oil, &c. before the declaration of war: that while lying there to obtain her cargo she was informed by the ship Hope, of the existence of the war. That after leaving her first port, and in her way to another of the Falkland Islands called New Island, she came across an English ship, called the Isabella, Capt. Elson, in distress, having been stranded on a reef of rocks near Eagle Island, & the crew in danger of perishing. The Nanina stopped and took them all on board, informing them, for the first time of the war between the two countries. As soon as they were safe aboard and out of danger, being much more numerous than the crew of the Nanina, they seized upon her by force, carried her into Eagle Island and delivered her up to the Hyder, an English brig of war, as good prize, and she was to sail under a convoy of the frigate for England.

Such are the particulars, and allowing them to be correctly related, I cannot refuse to declare that a more infamous and detestable transaction, whether we consider its base rapacity, its ingratitude, or its downright injustice, has rarely been heard of since the days of civilisation. In a light of such magnitude do I view it that I hold the character of the English nation to be implicated in seeing prompt and effectual justice done to the injured, and if it is not, it will be a foul and indelible blot in their history.