Your Petitioner begs favor to inform Your Honour
about the Last of November [?] was my [Arrival? here] after which
Mr. Hansberry and myself agreed to hunt together and Hansberry
[inform?]ed me he had a canoe left in his care by John Hollaway which
canoe we should hunt in. Some time after the said canoe broke [loose?]
by some means or other and I followed her and brought
her to shore and after that she got loose again and got quite off.
She was never left in my care neither had I [?] any
charge of her, - - - - ; Likewise, last February I was sitting on the
river [bank?] when John Halloway came in and desired of me to try
and get his [boat] which had got adrift from his […?] cove. On my
way down I found the canoe in possession of some Frenchmen. I
demanded her but the French informed me they had been a [good deal?]
of trouble and expense about her to the amount of fifteen
dollars. I offered her to them ten dollars but they refused
to accept that sum for her. After that I applyed to Mr. [Pierre Joseph de] Favrot
[Commandant [1779-1781] of Batonrouge [Baton Rouge] he ordered me to
pay the French men five dollars and for them to deliver me the canoe.
I gave the five dollars got another canoe in exchange of her as [?]
[Microfilm p. 109]
by the Driftwood along the River which canoe
was appraised at [five crossed out] ten Dollars. After that I was obliged to hire
a man to assist me up with the said canoe to there, and furnished him and
provisions for the same and brought her up to this island in …
of this then the wind being against me and my provisions quite
exhausted I was under the necessity of leaving her. Then in a few days
the said Hollaway's wife came in and asked me if I had seen [any]
thing of their Canoe. I informed her of what I had done. She said its
very well and they neglected finding for her there on.
She [the pirogue] was taken off by some Indians some time afterward.
Now your petitioner begs Your Honour will take the same into consideration and
not suffer Your Petitioner to pay for these canoes which hushed his life to
savages[?] and through their own request they cost them [an..?]
mine and Your petitioner as in duly found will pray 11th September 1781
- John Townshend
Signe
Jean Townshend
Natchez Sep th 8 da 1781.
[a Caleb Hansborough witnessed a deal signed on Nov 24, 1779 between John Row and
Jeremiah Bryan who sued Row for part of the deal in Sep 1781. Deal included
improvements To land on Sr. Catherine's Creek. By Sep 21, 1781 Caleb Hansborough
was listed as "absconded" in an inventory of debts, McBee, Book A, p. 6]