The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-31 00:00:00

TJIE BRITISII- VISIT TO THE AMERICAN
SHIP SHINGTON.

OFFICIAL CORREVONDENCE.
The following hi4,,hly interesting correspondence
has been laid bef. )re the Congress of the United
States by the Sec-retary of the Navy :

_
l!lag-ship Roanoke, off San Juan
del Norte, Nov. 20.
Sir,—l have the honour to inform you that I
arrived off this place at six o'clock last evening.
The Savannah, is in the river, and the officers and
men are in good health, having but eleven on her
sick report. The Jamestown left a few days since
for fresh sea air, and would touch at Aspinwall and
return here immediately. I regret to learn she has
some thirty cases -of the fever. Should they not
have lessened I will send her on her arrival imme-
diately back to Aspinwall, as perhaps the most
healthy of the two places.
The Washington, mail steamer, arrived here on
the 18th inst., an d is now firing up for A:Sp;nwr.i.i.
Her passengers !are still on board, there be'l:g no
means to take them either across the o until' or to
San Francisco, 'lnd they reached. San Juan ciel Sur.
The Hermann. left Panama direct to San Francisco.
I anticipated precisely what has occurred, as I
informed you in a previous letter.
The Valorous, Sir W. C. Aldham, with Sir Wm.
Gore Ouseley on board, is now the only. English
vessel-of-war in the river. I have heard a report
that an officer was sent from her in board the
Washington after she had been inspected and
passed by the Savannah, and who put some very
improper interrogatories to her atptain, and that
Capt. Wainwright, in the Leopaxl, was despatched
in great haste to the Colorado River, in search of
200 -filibusters which ruirour stated had been
landed fro: the Washington at that point, and
that he sent a bast ,vi d the American steamer
Catherine Ma-i . '`.en 1 gin that river, to ascer-
tain the co- ..ess of the report. lam taking im-
mei hate ..asures to get full particulars from Capt.
Jarvis, • ind will report them in full by the next
oppor .ity • but, according to my present under-
stan.dh, 3 of the matter, it looks like a renewal of
the scenes which lately occurred around the island
of Cuba, charged only to filibusters for Africans.
You may rely on my taking prompt and efficient
measures to protect the honour of our flag should
it become necessary ; and if really her Britannic
Majesty's officers have instructions to board and
examine American ships for filibusters, under the
very guns of the ships of my squadron, the time
must be very short before the most serious conse-
quences may be anticipated. But I hope some
explanation may be made, so soon as I can inves-
tigate the matter, which may give a more favourable
aspect to the course said to have been pursued.
The Valorous saluted my flag this morning,
which was promptly returned. I write in haste,
to get my letters off by the Washington.
I have the honour to be sir, very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
JAMES M'INTOSH,
Flag Officer, Commander-in-Chief, Home Squadron.
The Hon. Isaac Toucey, Secretary of the Navy.

Flag-ship Roanoke, Aspinwall, Dec. 3.
Sir,—l had the honour, on the 26th ult., in my
No. 52, to inform you of my arrival at San Juan
del Norte on the evening of the 25th, and also that
the Washington had arrived, her passengers still
on board, without the prospect of crossing the
country by that route. She left on the 26th for
Aspinwall, and has again returned to the United
States with a large portion of her deceived pas-
sengers ; verifying, I regret it on many accounts,
precisely what I reported to you might be expected
in my letter No. 48, under date of 16th October
last. That route may, therefore, for the present,
be considered as closed.
The Valorous, Capt. W. C. Aldham, was the only
British vessel of war in port when I left. Sir Wm.
Gore Ouseley and family were still on board.
I reported to you that I had verbally learned
that the Washington had been examined by boats
from the Valorous, subsequently to her being
boarded and passed by Capt. Jarvis, of the Savan-
nah; that Capt. Wainwright, in the Leopard, had
been despatched in great haste to the Colorado
River in search of fillibusters ; that she had boarded
the American steamer Catherine Maria, then at

anchor in that river, with armed loits, in search of

them ; that I was taking immediate measures to get
the full particulars from Capt. Jarvis, and that I
-would report to you in full by the next opportunity.
Before I proceed further, however, I will here
state that the reports in relation to the Catherine
Maria were greatly exaggerated, and have been
most satisfactorily explained to me by Capt. Ald-
ham, and that I have not the slightes reason to
believe that another case, such as occurred on board
the Washington, will be repeated. I am, however,
constrained to say that I believe, had Capt. Ald-
ham been left entirely to his own judgment, such
a proceeding would not have occurred at all.
I herewith enclose to you copies of the corres-
pondence with Capt. Aldham on the subject, by
which you will perceive that he claims a protecto-
rate over the harbour of " Greytown " (Nos. 1,2,
and 3). I trust that my letters will meet your
approval.
I should here state that my first letter to Capt.
Aldham reached him on Saturday, the 27th ultimo,
and that his answer was not received until Monday
morning ; but at the same time I received a private
note of a most friendly character from Sir W. G.
Ouseley, in which he stated that he had had inter-
views with the President and yourself just previ-
ously to his leaving the United States. I had sent
my card to him by my flag-lieutenant in the first
boat that Jeft my ship after my arrival, anddesired
him to express my regret to Sir William that the
exceedingly bad weather and heavy sea prevented
me from personally paying my respects.
You will perceive that my second letter to
Captain W. C. Aldham is dated on the day
his answer to my first was received. It
was with a private note to Sir Wm. Gore Ouseley,
sent in on that afternoon by my secretary, Mr.
Zantzinger, in which I stated to Sir William that
he might be confided in, as he had stated in his
note. "he would have been glad we should have
met, as he would have been pleased to have had a
little chat on subjects of mutual interest to both

of us."

I would here inform you that, from`the moment
of my anchoring up to the time I left San Juan del
Norte, it was blowing a norther, with a heavy sea
heaving in, the ship rolling the muzzles of her gun•
deck guns deeply in the water, requiring the offi-
cers and men to get into and out of the boats by
ropes and ladders, and the selection of the most
active to do it even in that way. It was attended
with great danger, and, in my weak state, precluded
the possibility of doing it, which was my only rea-
son I did not wait on Sir William.

Mr. Zantzinger returned to the ship about 6 p.m.,
bringing with him Capt. Aldham, of the Valorous,
and who, upon my invitation, at once consented, in
consequence of the roughness of the weather, to re-
main with me for the night. A short period after
his arrival, Mr. Synge, Sir William's Secretary of
Legation, came on board, intending also to spend
the night. I had determined, when I sent Mr.
Zantzinger in with my second letter to Capt. Ald-
ham, to leave the anchorage as soon as he returned,
for I could not remain longer there with the ship
straining in every direction, the oakum starting
from her seams, and the danger of injuring some
portion of her engines. I therefore concluded, as I
was obliged to leave, and as I thought it necessary
you should receive the very earliest information as
to all the facts, to return to Aspinwall, so as to
meet the steamer of to-morrow. I requested Mr.
Zantzinger to inform Sir William and Capt. Ald-
ham that I should proceed to Aspinwall when I
left, and would be pleased to take any communica-
tions they might desire to send.
To this, most probably, and to a great desire, as
Captain Aldham declared, to have an interview
with me, I was indebted for the unceremonious
visit of both him and the Secretary of Legation ;
the latter, no doubt, being sent by Sir William
purposely to remove all unfavourable impressions
and talk over, rather than write further upon the
subjects at issue ; which in truth I did not regret,
for I was not insensible of the fact that, in such a
correspondence, Captain Aldham would have the
benefit of the advice and experience of Sir William.
Captain Aldham and myselfconversed most frankly
upon the subject of the Washington. He declared
his having no intention of an interference with
American vessels ; his great desire to act in con-
cert with me in endeavouring to prevent the land-
inf., of " fillibusters ;" that he could not possibly
see the slightest cause for the apprehension of any
difficulty ; and that so far as he was concerned,
there should be none.
With Mr. Synge the conversation was equally
.frank. He, however, distinctly declared that Eng-
land had never abandoned the protectorate, but that
he believed before the Ist of Jan. next the whole
matter would be finally settled; that as to boarl-
jug and searching American vessels, they had al-
ready abandoned it, not from fear or pusillanimity,
but because England felt she could do so honour-
ably, and ought to do it ; and it was not probable
that it was now to be revived; that there was cer-
tainly nothing secret or mysterious in Sir William's
mission, as it was well understood in Washington,
and that no officer in her Britannic Majesty's ser-
vice would be less likely to do any act which could
be construed as offensive, or as an interference with
us, than Captain Aldham. In the conversation I
had little to say, for my position had been taken in
my correspondence, and I desired there to leave it.

.1 do not pretend to give you the precise words of
these free and frank conversations, but I have en dea-
1-owed, se far as my memory serves me, to give you