13 February 1804, Department of State. “Godsrey Hyer, an American Seamen, impressed some time ago at Liverpool into the British Service, has written a letter to his friends in this Country, a copy of which you will find among the enclosed documents, requesting that you might be furnished with proof of his Citizenship, to be used for effecting his discharge: and I accordingly forward to you herewith copies of sundry papers that have been supplied by his friends for that purpose.”1