Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and required to pay, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of seven hundred dollars to Robert Purkis, of the State of Rhode Island, or to his legal representatives; which sum of seven hundred dollars is paid to him as an evidence of the sense entertained by Congress of his valor and good conduct in having recaptured, alone and unassisted, a vessel called the Little Sarah, together with four seamen of the British navy, which prisoners were delivered to the district of Rhode Island, and as a compensation for the prisoners so taken.

Approved, August 14, 1848.