Lord Lyons to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday’s date, transmitting to me copies of a correspondence between yourself and the Danish minister at this court relative to the use made by the United States cruisers at the port of St. Thomas.
I observe in the letter from the governor of St. Thomas to Rear-Admiral Wilkes, which is appended to your note to the Danish minister, the following passage:
“I cannot but acknowledge and record your assurance that, in all these cases, you have made it a point not to infringe on our rights and the interests of this place, which require that no prosecution of outgoing vessels is immediately commenced from this harbor by any man-of-war.”
The governor, immediately before the passage which I have quoted, mentions that Rear-Admiral Wilkes had given him explanations concerning the cases of the Dolphin, the Peterhoff, and some other vessels. As these explanations have not been communicated to me, I have no means of forming an opinion with regard to them.
It is, however, my duty to recall to your recollection the contents of the papers which I had the honor to submit to you, with my notes of the 3d and 8th of April last, relative to the case of the Peterhoff. It appears from those papers that the United States ship Vanderbilt, after having communicated, at the mouth of the harbor of St. Thomas, with the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Wilkes, which was lying inside, went out to sea, and, within sight of the place, captured the Peterhoff, which had left the harbor the same day.
I deem it to be also my duty to remind you that it appears, from the papers which I had the honor to lay before you with my note of the 4th ultimo, that the United States ship Wachusett, being in the harbor of St. Thomas, slipped her cable at midnight, and followed the Dolphin to sea, captured her, and returned to the harbor on the following morning, with sixteen of the crew of the captured vessel on board.
No satisfactory explanation of these circumstances has been offered to me, nor has any assurance been given to me that orders have been issued to put a stop to such proceedings. I am therefore bound, in obedience to the orders of her Majesty’s government, to address the government of the United States a fresh and more urgent remonstrance against the use made by its cruisers of the neutral port of St. Thomas.,
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.