No. 294.
Mr. Fish to General Schenck.

No. 524.]

Sir: I inclose extracts from the material parts of a dispatch of the 6th of November last addressed to this Department by Mr. Vidal, the intelligent consul of the United States at Tripoli. A copy of the accompaniments to the dispatch is also inclosed.* As these papers seem to show that the African slave-trade has, until recently, at least, been carried on by the way of Malta and Constantinople, and that British authorities at the former island have not been as zealous in checking it as the policy of their government upon the subject may be supposed to require, it is deemed advisable that the subject should be brought to the notice of Earl Granville, in order that the necessary measures may be adopted toward causing that policy to be duly respected at Malta.

I am, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.
  1. For this correspondence see Barbary States.