MANUSCRIPT LETTER PURPORTING TO BE WRITTEN AND SIGNED, BY S. DILLINGHAM, CAPE FRANCOIS, HAITI, JULY 12, 1797, TO MESSRS. IMLAY & TUTHILL, MERCHANTS, PHILADELPHIA: "GENTLEMEN| THE 5TH INST. I WAS TAKEN BY A FRENCH PRIVATEER AND CONDUCTED TO JEAN REBEL [sic]. MYSELF AND PAPERS SENT TO THIS PLACE. I HAVE THIS DAY BY THE ASSISTANCE OF MR. DODGE GOT MY CLEARANCE, WITH PERMISSION TO PROCEED TO GONAIVES. I HAVE WRITEN [sic] MORE FULL BY ANOTHER CONVEYANCE. FOR YOUR FURTHER INFORMATION I ENCLOSE MR. STILES LETTER. AMERICAN PRODUCE HERE IS LOW AND THAT OF THE ISLAND HIGH. AT GONAIVES QUITE THE REVERSE. THERE ARE MANY OF OUR COUNTRYMEN IN MY SITUATION AND SOME WORSE UPWARD OF THIRTY AMERICAN VESSELS NOW IN THE MOLE [sic] UNDER ADJUDICATION.

6.5" x 8.5". [4] pp, folded, untrimmed. Letter is written on rectos only; page [4] with address, wax seal remnant, and docketing information. Folded for mailing. Light browning, Very Good. We are unfamiliar with S. Dillingham's handwriting and thus do not warrant that the letter bears his actual signature or that it is in his own hand.

Dillingham chronicles his interesting experience as a victim of French Spoliations. He was captain of a ship in the employ of the addressee, a Philadelphia mercantile firm. His Letter demonstrates that American vessels captured by France were taken to Haiti, and illustrates the depredations on American shipping in the Caribbean which would lead to the XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War with France. In March 1797 President Adams was informed of the seizure of American ships; in July 1797, as this Letter was written, Adams sent an American delegation to France. The diplomatic fiasco that ensued led, one year later, to the Quasi War. France had begun seizing American ships in 1796, when the U.S. halted payment of its war debt to the French Revolutionary government and sought to resume trade with England. In June 1797, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering reported to Congress that France had already seized more than 300 American merchant ships.
Gonaives, in northern Haiti, is the city in which Haitian Independence was declared in 1804. Jean Rabel is a city in northwest Haiti. The firm of Imlay & Tuthill consisted of partners John Imlay and Jacob F. Tuthill, located at 5 North Water St. in 1797, according to the contemporary Philadelphia directory.