Mr. Burnley to Mr.
Seward
Washington,
December 28, 1864,
Sir: On receipt of your note of the 6th
October, in which you requested me to invite the attention of the
colonial authorities at Nassau to the alleged fact that vessels were
being fitted out at Nassau, New Providence, with a view to operations
against the commerce of the United States, I at once transmitted a copy
of that note to the lieutenant governor of the Bahamas.
I have now the honor to transmit to you a copy of a despatch which I have
received from the administrator of the government at Nassau, by which it
appears that no vessels are believed to have been fitted out at Nassau
with a view to any such operations as those alluded to.
I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most
obedient, humble servant,
Hon. William H, Seward,
&c., &c., &c.
Governor Nesbitt to Mr.
Burnley
Government House,
Nassau,
December 8, 1864
SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, on the 3d instant,
of your despatch dated Washington, the 8th of October last, with
copy of a note of the 6th of that month, received by you from the
Secretary of State of the United States, requesting you to invite
the attention of the authorities of this colony to the proceedings
of insurgent agents engaged in fitting out vessels at Nassau, New
Providence, with a view to piratical operations against the commerce
of the United States.
I now forward to you the copy of a communication which, on the
receipt of your despatch, I at once made to the receiver general of
this colony, together with a copy of that officer’s report, by which
latter document you will perceive that the receiver general remarks
that on the first arrival of several steamers reports were
circulated without the slightest foundation
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as to their ultimate conversion or
appropriation for warlike purposes, such, for instance, as the
steamer Hope, referred to in Mr. Seward’s note to you, and which
steamer has since been captured off Wilmington, with a general cargo
on board, by the blockading squadron of the United States, thus
effectually disposing of the question of her having been fitted out
here as a privateer.
You will perceive in the postscript to my communication to the
receiver general of the 3d instant, that I especially called his
attention to the steamer Mary, late Alexandra, now in the port of
Nassau, with the view of his reporting on the character of that
vessel, and, as far as practicable, preventing any violation of her
Majesty’s proclamation of neutrality.
In concert with the attorney general, I have had the case of the
Mary, late Alexandra, under consideration, and it forms the subject
of correspondence at present between the United States consul of
this port and myself, copies of which correspondence will be
forwarded to the secretary of state for the colonies for the
information of her Majesty’s government.
I have, &c., &c.,
J. Hume Burnley, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
