Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: With an instruction to your predecessor, Mr. Dallas, No. 203, of the 10th of October, 1859, the department transmitted a copy of a communication from certain respectable ship-owners and others of New York, with reference to the deficiency of light-houses at the northeastern entrance of the Caribbean sea, bounded on both sides by islands of the Bahama group, which are in possession of Great Britain. Mr. Dallas lost no time in making a representation in regard to it to the British government. It appears, however, that the matter is not mentioned in the correspondence on file here subsequently to his despatch No. 230, of the 16th of December, 1859, with which he enclosed a copy of a note of Earl Russell to him of the 13th of December, stating that they were awaiting the report of their engineer in the Bahamas. It is presumed that the report must have long since been received. You will consequently make inquiries of the Foreign Office as to the determination in the matter. Ship-owners whose vessels ply between New York and Aspinwall are particularly interested in having the light-houses erected, and the President, in a memorial of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, of the 3d instant, is asked to renew the application to the British government.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.