Mr. McCulloch, collector, to Captain Webster.
Collector’s Office, November 3, 1820.
Sir: Please to proceed down the bay with the cutter Active under your command. The Sally, Caruthers master, cleared here on the 16th October, and after examination was permitted to proceed with one gun in the hold, &c., as reported in her manifest. Circumstances, concurring with information from the Spanish embassador, lead us to believe that there is an intention to cruise with that vessel before *her arrival perhaps at a foreign port. If you find any additional men on board under the name of passengers or otherwise, you had better take [Page 506] her into Norfolk and search her thoroughly. If more guns are found on board, or articles of warlike preparation considerably beyond the contents of the manifest, bring her here for trial. If no addition of men or no material difference of military stores appears, take away the gun-carriage or its trucks, rammers, &c., to prevent any use being made of it during the passage outward, or make them land the gun itself, that no pretense may be left of their having fitted here for hostilities. [146]
I am, yours, &c.,
- J. H. McCULLOCH.
- Captain John A. Webster.