A decree of the National Convention of the French Republic granted neutral vessels the same rights as those which flew the tricolor.

This privilege reopened a rushing trade with the West Indies, and hundreds of ships hastened from American ports to Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St.Lucia.
Like a thunderbolt came the tidings that England refused to look upon this trade with the French colonies as neutral and that her cruisers had been told to seize all vessels engaged in it and to search them for English-born seamen.

This ruling was enforced with such barbarous severity that it seemed as if the War for Independence had been fought in vain.

Without warning, unable to save themselves, great fleets of Yankee merchantmen were literally swept from the waters of the West Indies.

At St.Eustatius one hundred and thirty of them were condemned.
The judges at Bermuda condemned eleven more.