brown rate handstamp (Clarke 501b) on incoming folded letter from Captain Joseph Ingraham in Algiers, Algeria, addressed to "Cap't James Leander Cathcart, to the care of Wm. Robert Montgomery, Esq., American Consul", letter includes contents about a plague in Algiers which claimed the lives of three sailors, disinfection slits, fine and rare, a fascinating and important artifact documenting the prelude to the Barbary Wars

During the early years of the United States, Barbary pirates along the coast of North Africa posed a serious threat to American sailors in the region, taking a number hostage and keeping them under inhumane conditions. A bubonic plague outbreak in the mid-1790s only worsened matters. By June 16, 1796 two Americans (Nicholas Hartford of Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Abraham Simmonds of Cape Ann, Massachusetts) had died of the plague while in prison, followed by the passing of Joseph Keith of Newfoundland shortly before June 16. This letter, from Revolutionary War veteran and Pacific explorer Captain Joseph Ingraham, is addressed to Captain James Leander Cathcart, himself an Algerian prisoner for 11 years who was freed under the Treaty of Tripoli and later served as United States Consul to Tunis, Tripoli, Madeira, and Cádiz.