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In 1839 the cargo of negro slaves on board this Spanish vessel bound for Puerto Principe from Havana, rose and killed the whites and took possession of the ship. The ship was seized by a U. S. war vessel off Long Island and carried to New London. The U. S. District Court of Connecticut decided that the slaves were "property rescued from pirates" and should be returned to their Spanish owners, under the treaty between the United States and Spain. The Supreme Court of the United States reversed this decision, declaring that the blacks, having been kidnapped from a foreign country, were free men and not bound by treaties with Spain.