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leave to mention that she went into Maranham under the protection of our guns, and the Sumter was for that time disappointed.

ana) on the 20th of August. We hustled three though it was dark, and informed us that the hundred and fifty tons of coal on board, and Sumter had only left the port of Maranham five sailed immediately in chase. On the 10th Sep- days ago, having cruised off the month of the tember we communicated with the American river until three days previous to our arrival, consul at Barbadoes, and learned by a mail to capture an American brig that was daily ex (that day received) that the Sumter had sailed pected-the Maria, from New York. For the from Surinam on the 31st August for parts un-information of the owners of said vessel, I beg known. We remained only an hour at Barbadoes, and shaped our course for Demarara, to see if the Sumter had stopped there, or had turned n her track and gone back to the Caribbean Sea. On the 12th of September communicated with the light-boat at Demarara, and obtained no news of importance; struck out for Surinam, where we arrived on the morning of the 13th. Here we were informed that the Sumter had left that port on the 31st of August, having remained there ten days trying to get coal, which the Governor and merchants were very much opposed to giving. Orders were, however, issued from head-quarThe Governor of Surinam ordered the Sum-ters to go ahead and coal up, which, being a ter to leave the port in twenty-four hours, but, slow business in Maranham, we did not get as she was entirely out of coal, the captain re- through until six days, the Sumter thus having fused to go until he was supplied, and the Gov-nine days start of us again. ernor had not the means to make him go, although there was a Dutch and French steamer of war at the time in port.

Previous to entering the port of Surinam the Sumter had gone to Cayenne, (French Guayana;) but the Governor of that place would not permit her to enter or receive supplies of any kind; in consequence of which the Sumter was obliged to proceed to Surinam under sail. Had vessels been sent in pursuit of her at once after her escape from the Brooklyn, or had the Niagara followed her up, instead of stopping the pursuit at Cienfuegos, the Sumter would long before this have been captured; but there was a great want of intelligence displayed in this matter, for which those concerned have no cause to congratulate themselves.

You may suppose there was no little excitement on board the Powhatan at finding how close we had run the Sumter with our damaged old boilers, and five hundred sheets of copper off the bottom; but there was considerable dejection when it was ascertained that the bird had flown, and we could not follow her for want of coal, having only a supply on board for six days.

The limits of this communication will not permit me to give an account of Maranham and all our doings, sayings, and hearings at that place; my object is to keep the run of the Sumter, and let the merchants and those concerned know what she has been about, and where she is now likely to be.

We found a curious state of affairs existing in Maranham; the people, from the Governor down, being Sumter-mad, and politics running as high as they ever did in the South-the Brazilians sympathizing almost to a man with the secessionists, under the impression that the South was fighting the battle of Brazil, fighting to protect their property in slaves.

Addresses were made by Capt. Semmes to the Governor and people of Maranham, in which he used the most specious arguments to prove that after the North had abolished slavery in the Southern States she would turn her attention to abolishing slavery in the Brazilian Empire. Of course, the arrival of the Powhatan was looked upon with distrust, and a reward of five hundred dollars (made by an American) to any one who would knock a hole in her bottom, so that she could not follow the Sumter, was received with great favor, the Government taking no steps to stop such proceedings.

When the Sumter left Surinam, which she was enabled to do by getting coals from an Englishman, (who else would have supplied her?) she anchored outside, lowered her pipe, made all sail, and, under canvas alone, stood to the northwest. This proceeding was intended to humbug us, but it deceived very few. The Powhatan's head was put to the southeast, and, after various mishaps to our boilers, having to run under low steam against strong head winds, we arrived on the 21st September in Maranham, in the Empire of Brazil, some six hundred miles to the east of the great Amazon, and two degrees south of the Equator. It was a thick and mucky day when we arrived off the mouth of this dangerous river, and there was no prospect of getting a pilot. Our charts were of no account, and there was a prospect of our bring-out all we wanted to know about the Sumter ing up on a mud bank; but fortunately we got in by all the dangers, and toward evening picked up a fisherman pilot, who, after a fashion, took us to anchorage, where at low water we found ourselves high and dry, (almost,) the tide rising and falling here eighteen feet.

The American Consul came on board at once,

In all communities there are weak-minded people who cannot keep a secret intrusted to them; there were some such in Maranham. Capt. Semmes' particular friends let out many facts in relation to his movements which he would much rather have kept secret. We found

what coal she could stow, what was her speed, what number of men and what kind of crew she had, and where she would likely turn her attention to capture prizes.

Her cruise to Maranham was rather a barren one, having captured no prizes since she fell in with the "Abbie Bradford" and the "Joseph

Maxwell;" the former recaptured by the Pow- | Brazil, all of which pass the Equator between hatan, the latter given up to the American consul at Cienfuegos.

the longitude of 32° and 40°, and follow one beaten track to the north and west.

Having taken in all the coal we could, (without losing time,) the Powhatan left Maranham on the 27th of September, and steered to get into the track of homeward-bound Indiamen; all hands hoping that we might find the Sumter somewhere about those regions. But it is a wide belt of water, and it would be a mere chance hitting the precise spot she would go to.

It was said in Maranham that the captain of the Sumter had made arrangements with the Governor by which he could bring his prizes into that port and dispose of them, and there does not seem to exist much doubt on this subject; at all events, Capt. Semmes asserted such to be the case, and his friends and admirers repeated it to show in what high esteem the Sumter and her marauding crew were held. The visit of the Powhatan to Maranham hapIt would take up too much time to tell all pened at a moment when the interests of the that relates to the reception of the Sumter in United States were being jeoparded by the Maranham; suffice it to say that her reception stupidity of the Governor of the province, the was in direct violation of our treaty with Bra- | fanatical and ignorant people acting in accordzil, and in opposition to the views of the Minis-ance with the example set them by their supeter of Foreign Relations expressed in the House rior. of Deputies in Rio Janeiro.

So irregular, indeed, did the actions of the Governor appear, that the commander of the Powhatan addressed him on the subject, and in such plain terms that he was not left in doubt as to the opinion entertained of his conduct by those on board this ship, or what would be the course of the Government of the United States when it was made acquainted with the actions of the Maranham authorities.

No courtesies passed between the ship and shore; the commander refused to call on the Governor. The party opposed to his Excellency were in high glee at the mistakes he had committed, and were confident that he would be removed by the Brazilian Government the moment the matter was laid before them.

In a certain degree the United States merit all the indignity shown toward them by these pitiful South American States; they will learn hereafter the value of a navy, for heretofore the miserable politicians who have had this matter in charge have been too mean and short-sighted to provide means even for the protection of our commerce in a small portion of the globe. It is not too late to remedy some of these defects. Our flag officer commanding the West India squadron should be on his station with a dozen effective vessels, and let these small colonies know that they cannot violate treaties with impunity.

It was a great misfortune that the Powhatan did not find the Sumter in the port of Maranham, for then she would have taken her despite the ships and batteries of Brazil, and would have deinonstrated to the violators of neutrality that there is a law of nature which does not prohibit nations from relieving themselves from a grievous annoyance in any manner they may think proper.

We waited until the mail steamer came in from the south, and the one from "Para," in the Amazon. From all the accounts gained from these steamers the Sumter could not (without being seen) have gone east, west, or south; and it was supposed by the commander that she had gone to the northeast to lie in wait for vessels bound home from India, the Pacific, and

The arrival of so large a ship, (the largest that had ever been seen in that port,) the discipline and good order on board, the drill at great guns, and a sharp shrapnel exercise with the boat guns which took place in the harbor, impressed the citizens with the idea that such a vessel was fully capable of enforcing respect to American rights in that ill-fortified harbor. Ier presence was very gratifying to the American Consul, who had seen his flag overshadowed by the ridiculous banner adopted by the so-called Confederate navy. If the Powhatan did not change the secession sentiment, she at least taught the Brazilians that their ports were accessible to our largest ships of war, and they could not allow prizes to Confederate privateers to be held with impunity in that port. They were in no way surprised when informed by the captain and officers that the Sumter would have been taken at all hazards, under the guns of their ships and batteries, and many there were, who, under the circumstances, thought this course perfectly just and proper. These, however, were anti-secessionists, of whom there was a party, (opposed to the Governor,) and the most influential people in the province.

The action of the Governor in regard to the Sumter makes a strong ground for his removal on the demand of the United States Government, and there is an influential party in Maranham who will take advantage of the late disgraceful affair to have him put out of office. Independent of a violation of treaty obligatious, he has gone in direct opposition to the views expressed (in the Camera Dos Deputadoes) by the Minister of Foreign Relations, who express. ly denies any intention on the part of the Brazilian Government to permit privateers or their prizes to enter Brazilian ports.

A description of the Sumter, taken from a faithful photograph, may not be uninteresting to merchant captains who may wish to avoid her. She is an awkwardly-rigged bark-half man-of-war, half merchantman. Her mizzenmast is a long way off from her mainmast, and her sails bear a great disproportion to her hull, being too little canvas for so long a vessel. She carries three try sails, all being larger than those

carried by a sailing vessel. She carries a forestaysail and jib, and her bowsprit and headbooms have no steve. She has two large quarter boats, and one hanging at the stern. She carries topgallantsails, and has a seven feet royal pole without stays. Her courses are deep, (particularly the mainsail,) and her topsails look as if they had a reef in them, being short. She carries no guns on the spar deck, and her pivot gun being nearly in the middle of the ship, it cannot be used in chasing without yawing the ship six points.

Any smart sailing vessel can run away from her on an easy bowline, for on a wind, under sail, she can do nothing of consequence, and she cannot carry her sail on that course without its shaking or getting aback. The range of her largest gun is only twenty hundred yards at high elevation, and she could not hit any thing at a greater distance than fifteen hundred yards, and could not carry her ports out with a heavy

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The discipline is severe, and though it might be tolerated on board a regular ship of war, it will not be borne by the pirates on board the Sumter, who are already getting discontented, and are only kept in good humor by the anticipation of getting eight hundred dollars each for the prizes they have already captured. When they find that all their prizes have been restored to the owners thereof, bitter will be the disappointment and curses in consequence. Capt. Semmes is not yet aware that all his prizes have been recaptured, or, if he does know it, he does not let his crew into the secret. He sailed from Maranham with fifteen of his men in irons. It would not improve their temper to know that they had worked so long without prize-money, on short rations and hard treatment. It would be a "denouement" worthy of the cause in which the Sumter is engaged to have the crew rise upon the officers, and swing them up to the yard-arm they held in terrorem over American citizens who were guilty of no crime, and such will likely be the end of this wicked enterprise.

From the cruise of the Powhatan one thing has resulted-a conviction that foreign Governments are disposed to consider the power of the United States so far crippled that she cannot give protection to her commerce abroad, and that an attempt is being made to place the privateers of the rebel States on a footing with our ships of war. Our merchant ships are no longer safe in what we generally have considered as friendly ports for it has been seen that her coal in neutral tvessels lying in

the Sumter has re ports, has thre

port at the time with capture when caught outside, and has cruised after such vessels, being enabled to do so by the aid of neutrals.

The French are the only people who have acted honorably in this matter. The Sumter was ignominiously turned away from the only French port (Cayenne) she tried to enter; the Governor would not permit him to go in on any terms, though entirely out of coal.

There is but one remedy for such a state of things-an order to capture, sink, or destroy any vessels cruising against United States commerce, let them be overtaken where they may. This protection to privateers is a one-sided business altogether, and the United States had better at once show her dissatisfaction in terms that cannot be misunderstood.

As things stand at present, Brazil will be open to privateers, and the sale of prizes allowed. It is well understood in Maranham that the Governor gave permission to the captain of the Sumter to bring the brig Maria into port and dispose of her cargo, which vessel fortunately escaped, though the Sumter cruised two days off the port for her.

Much disappointment was felt on board the Powhatan at the non-capture of the Sumter. It was confidently anticipated that we should find her in Maranham, when her fate would have been sealed. We lost her only by three days; and had the ship been in a condition to run, or could she have made even seven knots an hour, we would have caught the Sumter and three or four days to spare. The sooner the Government takes steps to capture her the better; twenty vessels would not be too many to send after her. The moral effect of a Confederate privateer wandering over the ocean, (unmolested,) destroying our commerce, is very bad indeed. We must remedy it without delay.

Having returned to the north, taking the track of China traders, and looking out carefully for vessels, we arrived in St. Thomas on the 9th of October.

Respectfully yours,

Doc. 120.

Q. E. D.

THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION. REPORT ON THE CONDITION OF REBEL PRISONERS.

THE following is the report of the United States Sanitary Commission upon the condition of the prisoners in the forts at New York:

NEW YORK, October $1, 1861. SIR: With your permission I visited the prisoners of war and of State at Governor's Island on Monday last.

I should have extended my visit the next day to Fort Lafayette and Ellis Island, where smaller portions were placed, had I not learned that they were all to be removed the next day to Boston harbor. I suppose, however, that

none of the prisoners could be badly off if those crowded in the casemates of Castle William were not, and therefore a report of the condition in which I found them may properly serve as a sufficient reply to all the complaints which have appeared in the New York papers.

No doubt the circumstances under which these men were brought to Governor's Island made their condition for a week or two very trying, and almost inhuman. Ill clothed, already sick from the voyage and previous exposure, they were suddenly precipitated upon a post not prepared to receive them, when there was neither adequate room, clothing, nor medical force; but these unavoidable deficiencies were supplied with all the expedition possible. All alacrity was shown, it appears, by the commandant and his surgeon and other officers to meet the case. In a very short time bedding, blankets, sufficient food, and suitable medical attention were furnished to all. As I saw them they were in a better condition in all respects than half our own men in the field-not so crowded as most soldiers in tent, with as abundant food, as good blankets, and more devoted medical attention. There was nothing to complain of, except the unavoidable fact that casemates although here quite roomy-furnish very poor ventilation, and are in no case comfortable quarters.

The men complained of nothing, (although I gave them ample opportunities to do so,) except the loss of liberty. They spoke kindly of their physicians, and the officers in command. The climate seemed their chief objection to this region. It went sore with them to be sent still further north. They wanted to stay where they had made friends-knew their prison and their keepers, and where they were nearer to sympathizers and to home.

The men were usually reluctant either to wash or to exercise. They had to be driven to both. Pains were taken to compel them to be in the open air several hours each day. They were not confined within narrow bounds, but had many acres for a play-ground.

The surgeon told me he had seen only one tooth-brush in use among the rank and file. They were evidently careless in personal habits, dirty, and sluggish. The officers were perfectly comfortable for prisoners, and complained of nothing. I saw on the whole abundant evidence of the unreasonableness of the complaints made of the treatment of these men.

It would be a source of great consolation to believe that our prisoners were treated by the rebels half as well. Very respectfully, yours,

HENRY W. BELLOWS, President of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. HON. W. H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

Doc. 121.

GOV. ANDREW'S PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE, NOV. 21, 1861.

THE example of the Fathers, and the dictates of piety and gratitude, summon the people of Massachusetts, at this, the harvest season, crowning the year with the rich proofs of the Wisdom and Love of God, to join in a solemn and joyful act of united Praise and Thanksgiving to the Bountiful Giver of every good and perfect gift.

I do, therefore, with the advice and consent of the Council, appoint THURSDAY, the 21st day of November next, the same being the anniThe casemates were singularly clean. I pur-versary of that day, in the year of our Lord sixposely went unannounced, and found the floors teen hundred and twenty, on which the Pilbright and sweet. Every man had his own bed grims of Massachusetts, on board the Mayflower, and adequate blankets. In addition to the Gov-united themselves in a solemn and written comernment supplies, the State of North Carolina had been permitted to send some comforts to the prisoners, and disinterested beneficence in New York had done something more. I could really find no room to add any thing from the stores of the Sanitary Commission.

The hospitals were humanely and tenderly administered by Surgeon Swain and Assistant Surgeon Peters. The sick men looked perfectly comfortable in the regular hospital, and in the temporary hospitals as comfortable as casemates permitted. Medicines of the best kinds, in unlimited quantities, and necessary stimulants in abundance, were supplied to the sick. Several very desperate cases of typhoid had been saved by the assiduity of the physicians. The low spirits of all prisoners are, of course, highly unfavorable to convalescence, and doubtless the sick list and the bill of mortality (seventeen had died) were both larger than they would have been had not home sickness very much prevailed.

pact of government, to be observed by the
people of Massachusetts as a day of Public
Thanksgiving and Praise. And I invoke its ob-
servance by all people with devout and religious
joy.

"Sing aloud unto God, our strength: make a
"joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
"Take a psalm, and bring hither the

"timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. "Blow up the trumpet in the new moon,

"in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

"For this was a statute for Israel,

"and a law of the God of Jacob."-Psalm 81,

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fulness with which He has blessed us in our basket and in our store, giving large reward to the toil of the husbandman, so that "our paths drop fatness:"

For the many and gentle alleviations of the hardships which, in the present time of public disorder, have afflicted the various pursuits of industry:

For the early evidences of the reviving energies of the business of the people :

For the measure of success which has attended the enterprise of those who go down to the sea in ships, of those who search the depth of the ocean to add to the food of man, and of those whose busy skill and handicraft combine to prepare for various use the crops of the earth and the sea:

For the advantages of sound learning, placed within the reach of all children of the people, and the freedom and alacrity with which these advantages are embraced and improved :

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sacrifices of the people and the precious blood of their sons, of the doctrine and faith of the fathers, and consistent with the honor of God and with justice to all men. And,

"Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: "let them also that hate him flee before him.""As smoke is driven away, so drive them away." -Psalm 68. vs. 1 and 2.

"Scatter them by thy power, and bring them

"down, O Lord, our shield."-Psalm 59, v. 11. Given at the Council Chamber, this thirty-first day of October in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and the eighty-sixth of the Independence of the United States of America. JOHN A. ANDREW.

By His Excellency the Governor with the advice and consent of the Council.

OLIVER WARNER, Secretary.

GOD SAVE THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHU

For the opportunities of religious instruction SETTS. and worship, universally enjoyed by consciences untrammelled by any human authority:

For "the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and the hope of glory."

And with one accord, let us bless and praise God for the oneness of heart, mind, and purpose in which He has united the people of this ancient Commonwealth for the defence of the rights, liberties, and honor of our beloved country:

May we stand forever in the same mind, remembering the devoted lives of our fathers, the precious inheritance of Freedom received at their hands, the weight of glory which awaits the faithful, and the infinity of blessing which it is our privilege, if we will, to transmit to the countless generations of the Future.

And, while our tears flow in a stream of cordial sympathy with the daughters of our people, just now bereft, by the violence of the wicked and rebellious, of the fathers and husbands and brothers and sons, whose heroic blood has made verily sacred the soil of Virginia, and, mingling with the waters of the Potomac, has made the river now and forever ours,-let our souls arise to God on the wings of Praise, in thanksgiving that He has again granted to us the privilege of living unselfishly and of dying nobly, in a grand and righteous cause;

For the precious and rare possession of so much devoted valor and manly heroism;

For the sentiment of pious duty which distinguished our fallen in the camp and in the field;

And for the sweet and blessed consolations which accompany the memories of these dear sons of Massachusetts on to immortality.

And in our praise let us also be penitent. Let us "seek the truth and ensue it," and pare our minds for whatever duty shall be manifested hereafter.

Doc. 122.

RETIREMENT OF LIEUT.-GEN. SCOTT.

THE following letter, from Lieut.-Gen. Scott, was received by the President on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 31:

HEAD QUARTERS OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTON, D. C., Oct. 31, 1861. The Hon. S. Cameron, Secretary of War:

SIR: For more than three years I have been unable, from a hurt, to mount a horse or walk more than a few paces at a time, and that with much pain. Other and new infirmities, dropsy and vertigo, admonish me that a repose of mind and body, with the appliances of surgery and medicine, are necessary to add a little more to a life already protracted much beyond the usual span of man.

It is under such circumstances made doubly painful by the unnatural and unjust rebellion now raging in the Southern States of our so late prosperous and happy Union, that I am compelled to request that my name be placed on the list of army officers retired from active service.

As this request is founded on an absolute right granted by a recent act of Congress, I am entirely at liberty to say that it is with deep regret that I withdraw myself, in these momentous times, from the orders of a President who has treated me with distinguished kindness and courtesy-whom I know, upon much personal intercourse, to be patriotic without sectional partialities or prejudices, to be highly conscientious in the performance of every duty, and of unrivalled activity and perseverance.

And to you, Mr. Secretary, whom I now off. cially address for the last time, I beg to acpre-knowledge my many obligations for the uniform high consideration I have received at your hands, and have the honor to remain, sir, With high respect, your obedient servant, WINFIELD SCOTT.

May the controversy in which we stand be found worthy, in its consummation, of the heroic

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