No. 481.
Mr. Vidal to Mr. Hunter.

No. 10.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the steam-frigate Guerriere, Capt. Thomas H. Stevens, of the United States Navy, came from Malta to Tripoli on the 8th instant, at 7 o’clock a.m., and left yesterday afternoon at about 4 o’clock for Alexandria.

As the steamer which will bring this dispatch to Malta will leave in a few moments, I have no time to enter to-day into the details of that visit. Suffice it for the present to say that, thanks to my personal relations with the Pacha, the officers of the Guerriere were received by His Excellency in a more brilliant and flattering style than any war-vessel, either American or of any other navy, had ever been before. I took the opportunity of the presence of one of our steamers in the roadstead of Tripoli to request the Pacha to allow Capt. T. H. Stevens to take away the main anchor of the United States frigate Philadelphia, which, in the month of February, 1804, was taken and burned in the port of Tripoli by Lieutenant Decatur of our Navy. Not only did the Pacha grant my request, but he courteously added that he was making a present to our government of the eight thousand Turkish piastres which it cost to his government to raise that anchor from the bottom of the sea. In my next dispatch I will have the honor to give you more details in regard to the visit of the Guerriere and the anchor of the Philadelphia.

I have, &c.,

M. VIDAL.