Mr. Hatch, collector, to Mr. Buchanan, President.
Collector’s Office, September 22, 1859.
Sir: Referring to my letter of yesterday’s date, I have the honor to annex above two notices cut from the New Orleans Orescent, of this date, which go to strengthen the suspicion of an intended illegal expedition.
[632] *This H. Maury I presume to be the captain of the schooner Susan, which’ escaped from the United States authorities at Mobile, in the month of December last, and met with a disastrous shipwreck in the Bay of Honduras shortly after.
I have made diligent inquiries about 119 Exchange Place, and learn that it is a room or alley connected with a large boarding-house fronting on another street, in which General Walker now sojourns.
If the expedition is really to start from Mobile, then the cutter Washington ought to remain under the control of the collector of that district; if, on the other hand, this advertisement is only a blind, and the expedition is to depart from the islands before referred to, as my informant still believes, then all the force the Government intends to employ to arrest this movement should be placed at such ready disposal as circumstances may justify from time to time; and further, if the departure is to be made in a steam-vessel, it may require a vessel of this kind to prevent it.
Waiting any instructions or information you may be pleased to communicate, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
- F. H. HATCH
Collector. - James Buchanan,
President of the United States, Washington, D. C.