Mr. McMath to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that on the 17th instant I received a confidential communication from the United States consul at Gibraltar, informing me information had come to his knowledge which had led him to suppose [Page 431] that Mr. R. O. Joyce, a merchant in that city, who acted as the pretended agent of the rebel steamer Sumter while in that port, intended to send to Mogadore the five guns which were taken out of the Sumter and stored in a hulk in that bay. The consul could not ascertain on whose account Mr. Joyce intended to transship the guns to Mogadore.
I at once called on the acting Moorish minister for foreign affairs, and informed him I had learned the five guns formerly on board the rebel steamer Sumter, but now lying in a hulk in the bay of Gibraltar, were about to be sent to Mogadore, but on whose account I could not learn, and inquired of him if an agent of his Majesty the Sultan had bought them on government account. The minister replied that he knew nothing about the transaction, but would write at once to the Moorish consul at Gibraltar, and ascertain if the guns had been bought for the Sultan. I then informed him the guns were, in fact, the property of the United States; and while we could not object to the purchase of guns by the Sultan from rightful owners, yet, with reference to these particular guns, I wished to inform him, as soon as they were landed on the coast of Morocco, I would demand their lawful seizure as the property of my government, and if this information was communicated to the Moorish consul he might prevent their shipment. On the 20th instant the minister informed me he had just received information from the Moorish consul that an English merchant had offered to sell him the guns on account of the Sultan, to be delivered in Mogadore, but since a difficulty was apprehended from the purchase and shipment, he would neither buy nor permit them to be sent to the coast of Morocco. My opinion is, the consul had bought them for the Sultan.
The Koran prohibits the “true believers” from effecting an insurance on any articles shipped by them. To avoid this prohibition, the Sultan purchases on the condition of the delivery of the article on the coast of Morocco. The pretended agent had in a very quiet manner offered to pay $100 to the master of a vessel if he would deliver the guns in Mogadore. This leads me to believe they had been bought by the consul. I presume the English government would not have interposed any objection to the sale of the guns, and their shipment to Mogadore on account of the Sultan, if Mr. Joyce had given bond for the delivery of them to the authorities of the Sultan at that port. It is not probable a private individual could succeed in getting the guns away from Gibraltar, or that they will again be used for destructive purposes by the rebels; and any other than this government would not buy them. While lying in the hulk in Gibraltar bay they cannot be of any benefit to the rebels, neither can they be used to our injury; but if sold, the consideration would be directed into a channel which might, in all probability, injure the government, and materially benefit the rebels. Wherefore, I believed it to be my duty to prevent the sale of them to this government.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of United States of America.