The exports from the islands were limited chiefly to molasses and rum; sugar and coffee being prohibited in American bottoms.

According to the British interpretation of the "right to search," every American vessel which had taken in a cargo in a British, or any other port, was liable to be searched, from the truck to the keelson, by any British cruiser when met with on the high seas.

And this inquisitorial process was submitted to as a matter of course, though not without murmurs loud and deep, from those who were immediately exposed to the inconveniences attending this arbitrary exercise of power.
On the afternoon succeeding the day on which the schooner John left Martinico, as we were quietly sailing along with a light breeze, under the lee of the mountainous Island of Gaudaloupe, we saw a large ship at anchor on a bank about a mile from the land, with the British ensign at her peak, and a pennant streaming from her mast-head, sufficient indications that we had fallen in with one of John Bull's cruisers.

But Captain Turner, conscious that his schooner was an American vessel, and had been regularly cleared at St.Pierre, with a cargo of rum and molasses, and there being no suspicious circumstances connected with her appearance, her cargo, or her papers, apprehended no detention or trouble from the British man-of-war.
A boat was soon seen to put off from the frigate, and it was not long before it was alongside the John.

An officer stepped on deck, and politely asked the privilege of examining the ship's papers.