there in safe custody until they can he condemned and disposed of?

They cannot send them to their own ports for the reasons already stated.
Except for the purpose of destruction, therefore, their right of capture
would be entirely defeated by the adoption of the rule in question,
whilst the enemy would suffer no inconvenience from it, as all his ports
are open to him. I take it for granted that Spain will not think of
acting upon so unjust and unequal a rule.

But another question arises, indeed has already arisen, in the cases of
some of the very captures which I have brought into port. The cargoes of
several of the vessels are claimed, as appears by certificates found
among the papers, as Spanish property.

This fact cannot of course be verified, except by a judicial proceeding
in the Prize Courts of the Confederate States.

But whilst this fact is being determined, what is to be done with the
property? I have the right to destroy the vessels, but not the cargoes,
in case the latter should prove to be, as claimed, Spanish property--but
how am I to destroy the former, and not the latter? I cannot before
sentence unlade the cargoes and deliver them to the claimants, for I do
not know that the claims will be sustained; and I cannot destroy them,
for I do not know that the claims will not be sustained.

Indeed, one of the motives which influenced me in seeking a Spanish
port, was the fact that these cargoes were claimed by Spanish subjects,
whom I was desirous of putting to as little inconvenience as possible in
the unlading and reception of their property, after sentence, should it
be restored to them.