or vessel, its cargo and
appurtenances, as for the storing and the security of the effects
and merchandise saved. He may take an inventory of them, without the
intermeddling of any officers of the military, of the customs, of
justice, or of the police of the country, otherwise than to give to the
Consuls, Vice-Consuls, captain, and crew of the vessels shipwrecked or
stranded, all the succor and favor which they shall ask of them, either
for the expedition and security of the saving and of the effects saved,
as to prevent all disturbance.

And in order to prevent all kind of dispute and discussion in the said
cases of shipwreck, it is agreed that when there shall be no Consul or
Vice-Consul to attend to the saving of the wreck, or that the residence
of the said Consul or Vice-Consul (he not being at the place of the
wreck) shall be more distant from the said place than that of the
competent judge of the country, the latter shall immediately proceed
therein, with all the despatch, certainty, and precautions, prescribed
by the respective laws; but the said territorial judge shall retire, on
the arrival of the Consul or Vice-Consul, and shall deliver over to
him the report of his proceedings, the expenses of which the Consul and
Vice-Consul shall cause to be reimbursed to him, as well as those of
saving the wreck.

The merchandise and effects saved, shall be deposited in the nearest
Custom-house, or other place of safety, with the inventory thereof,
which shall have been made by the Consul or Vice-Consul, or by the judge
who shall have proceeded in their absence, that the said effects and
merchandise may be afterwards delivered (after levying therefrom the
costs), and without form of process, to the owners, who, being
furnished with an order for their delivery, from the nearest Consul or
Vice-Consul, shall reclaim them by themselves, or by their order, either
for the purpose of re-exporting such merchandise, in which case, they
shall-pay no kind of duty of exportation, or for that of selling them in
the country, if they be not prohibited there; and in this last case, the
said merchandise, if they be damaged, shall be allowed an abatement of
entrance duties, proportioned to the damage they have sustained, which
shall be ascertained by the affidavits taken at the time the vessel was
wrecked or struck.

Article VIII. The Consuls and Vice-Consuls shall exercise police over
all the vessels of their respective nations, and sh