United States consul at Cadiz up to some time last summer; both of whom are commissioned to purchase coal at Cadiz to supply the Sumter, by her captain. This state of facts being presented to me, together with other reliable information in reference to the disloyalty of those men to the federal government, induced me to take necessary steps for their arrest, which I have done, and they are now held as prisoners in the United States consulate at this place. I now make the request that you come here at your earliest convenience possible, so that I may deliver the said Tunstall and Lieutenant John Smith, alias H. Myers, into your custody, to be conveyed by you to the United States on your return, and on your arrival there to be placed by you under the proper authority of the federal government of the United States of America, to be dealt with according to law, and this shall be your warrant for so doing. Given under my hand and seal of the United States consulate at Tangier, Morocco, Africa, the day and year above written. JAMES DE LONG, United States Consul. The COMMANDER of the United States Steam Sloop-of-war Tuscarora. No. 2.] CONSULATE OF the United States, SIR: I have been expecting you daily since the 20th, but suppose you cannot leave the Sumter. I have the united good will of the British minister here and all the consular corps, as well as the Moorish authorities. The first parties named are strictly neutral, but, at the same time, I am very unpleasantly situated. My guards are all Moors, and the prisoners have tried several times to bribe them; first they offered them a valuable gold watch and one hundred dollars in gold. This is very tempting to semi-barbarians. They finally offered to secure to them five thousand dollars to assist them in making their escape. I had to put them in irons, and Myers got a case knife and sawed off the rivets, and got the irons off, and jumped out of the second story of the consulate, but fortunately into the consulate lot; he then got over the wall into the house of a Moor, and was again arrested and taken back to his room, and the number of guards increased. I understand that there is bitter feeling against you and myself in Gibraltar, against me for what I have done in this matter, and against you for some remarks you seem to have made. I have never had the honor to know you, but you will please excuse me for advising you to keep cool and calm, and give no offense to any one. It is hard to do so, for the English, a great many of them, are extremely insulting to the federals, and are nearly all on the side of the rebels. I am informed that a federal man-of-war arrived at Cadiz on the 19th instant, and if you cannot come after the men will you do me the favor to telegraph to the captain of that man-of-war to come here immediately. It may be that the rebel portion of Europeans might combine with the Moors to raise a mob and try to have these men released. The captain of the Sumter is trying to get up a feeling in his favor for that purpose in Gibraltar, so by all means these prisoners should be placed on board a federal man-of-war as soon as possible. And I trust you will consider the very disagreeable position I am in and release me as soon as possible. Myers is a desperate fellow. He was commissioned in the federal navy on the 21st June, 1854, as paymaster, with the rank of lieutenant, and is a citizen of the State of Georgia. About this there can be no possible doubt. I found out his name and residence through Tunstall. I then referred to the United States Navy Register, in page 46, for the year 1861, and find Henry Myers as paymaster, and as above stated. Excuse any mistakes in my letter, as I wrote in great haste, to get it ready for the boat about to leave. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, JAMES DE LONG, United States Consul General. P. S.-I learned last evening that there is a secret movement on foot. The captain of the Sumter is making many false representations to accomplish some deep plot. I want the presence of a federal man-of-war in this bay. The COMMANDER of the Tuscarora. J. D. L. No. 3. UNITED STATES STEAMER TUSCARORA, SIR: On receipt of your communication of February 21 I was so situated as not to be able to leave this bay. I made no reply to your letter, as I wished to gain time, and not through any disinclination to assist you. I now send to you the United States steamer Ino, Lieutenant Commanding Creesy, who will receive from you the rebels whom you have taken into your custody. Will you please send me a written statement of the particular circumstances which caused you to apprehend them; how long they had been on shore in Tangier at the time of their arrest, and what they were doing there? Very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES DE LONG, Esq., United States Consul, Tangier. J. AUG. CRAVEN, Commander. No. 4. PRAISE BE TO OUR GOD. To our dear and wise friend the consul general for the American nation, James De Long, esq., which premised, we continue to make inquiries regarding your welfare, and praying God that you are well. We have received a letter from the captain of the steamer Sumter, from the Confederate States, in which they inform us that the two men that you have seized are of the best of men, and they are guiltless, except that they are from the separated Confederate States. I know that you have sent to ask from our lieutenant-governor to help you in their seizure. The lieutenant-governor has acceded to your demand, and sent you soldiers to make the arrest without ascertaining the case; but now that we received the said letter informing us of these men that they are of the best of men, and without any fault, except a political affair, and, as a matter of this character, I beg that these men should be considered in this country the same that have been at Gibraltar and Cadiz. If I am to keep still in this affair, after the receipt of the said letter, it woul appear that I am dealing different of what other people do. Therefore we ask from you to deliver us these men to remain free as they were in other places, as we wish to act in the same manner that other nations have acted. We have no doubt that when you receive this letter you will put them free. as our object is to do good and to cultivate friendship with all the nations and race. Written on the 25th of "Shahbon," year 1278, corresponding February 25, 1862, and beg from you a prompt answer. God bless you. The employed of the throne elevated by God. MOHAMED BARGASH. God may protect him. No. 5. CONSULATE OF the United StaTES OF AMERICA, DEAR SIR: Your note of the 25th instant was duly received last evening at 6 o'clock p. m., informing me that your excellency had received a letter from ! the captain of the steamer Sumter, of what you styled the Confederate States, in which they inform you that the men I have seized, through the assistance of the Moorish authorities, are of the best of men, and they are guiltless, except that they belong to the Confederate States, and therefore you demand of me their surrender. This, may it please your excellency, is a most extraordinary proceeding, after my having received from the Moorish authorities soldiers to make the arrest in pursuance of all precedents heretofore practiced and acted upon in your country, and that, too, under circumstances not so aggravated as I now detail to your excellency: First. There is no government known and recognized as Cor federate States, and the captain of the steamer Sumter, his crew, and the men in my custody are citizens of the federal government of the United States, which I represent in your empire, all owing allegiance to the same. The steamer Sumter is a federal vessel, and has been seized by the traitors and rebels to the constituted authorities of the federal government, and has been engaged for the past eight or ten months in capturing, plundering, burning, and sinking merchant trading vessels of the United States; two of which were captured, plundered, and sunk in the straits of the Mediterranean sea; and these men that I have in custody-one of them being an officer of the said pirate Sumter came to this place without any passport, or any government empow ered to give them passports except the government I represent, and were on their way to Cadiz for the purpose of devising means to renew their depredations. With reference to what your excellency alludes to, and desiring to pursue the same line of policy that has been adopted at Cadiz and Gibraltar, with reference to the said pirates, you are aware that the regulations by which they are gov erned in Europe have no reference whatever with that of your country, which is regulated by treaties with foreign governments. I have no doubt that if your excellency had been aware of these facts you would not have adhered to the representations made to you by a pirate. Shall seventy-six years of uninterrupted friendship that has existed between your government and that of the United States be brought to an end for the sake of pirates? I trust in this brief note to your excellency that, after the explanation given, no impediment will be offered to my embarking the prisoners on board of the American man-of-war now in your harbor. Very truly, your most sincere friend, His Excellency SIED MOHAMED BARGASH, JAMES DE LONG. Moorish Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. De Long to Mr. Seward. CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Since the embarcation of the prisoners, Myers and Tunstall, I had every reason to believe that the representatives for foreign governments had failed to do their duty in reference to their subjects residing at this place, who composed the mob of the 26th ultimo, and who are under their sole and exclusive jurisdiction, and over whom their power is unlimited. The mob was got up in the neighborhood of the residence of the consuls, in the market place, where they had a table, with pen, ink, and paper, set out in the middle of the street, signing and pledging themselves in a solemn manner to force the release of the prisoners in my custody, at all hazards. In addition to this, I had no evidence that they had made any attempt to withdraw their subjects and keep down the mob, until they were directed to do so by the Moorish minister. I therefore addressed a circular to all the representatives, asking an explanation upon the illegal act of their subjects towards the United States consulate; a copy of the same, with their replies thereto, I have the honor to submit to the department. The mob was mostly composed of English, French, Spanish, and Italian subjects. There was not one Moor engaged in the mob; on the contrary, the Moorish soldiers performed their duty faithfully. Through all my trials in connexion with this transaction, Mr. John H. Drummond Hay, her Britannic Majesty's minister resident at this place, although he was strictly neutral, was, at the same time, my true and faithful friend. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. JAMES DE LONG. P. S.-I shall carry with me to the latest period of my life the scenes of the 26th ultimo. I have heard of barbarian mobs in barbarian countries, but it is the first time in my life that I have ever heard of nearly the entire Christian population in a semi-barbarian country raising a mob to interfere with the acts of a Christian consul. But thank God that I have overcome all, and sustained the honor of the American flag. J. D. L. CONSULATE OF the United STATES OF America, SIR: In the afternoon of the 26th ultimo the United States consulate was besieged, the American flag insulted, and my life endangered by an armed mob, composed of European subjects residing here under the protection of representa tives from foreign governments. The circumstances connected with the history of this outrage lead me to believe that there was no intervention by any of the representatives before mentioned to put down the mob until directions were given by the Moorish minister of foreign affairs. If temporary civil war is raging in my beloved country, we still have a Union and a Constitution, which we will, in God's name, preserve and transmit unimpaired to our children and children's children through succeeding generations; and a flag known and honored throughout the world shall not be insulted by a rabble European mob on the coast of Africa without a proper acknowledgment being made by those who perpetrated the outrage, or those who connived Trusting that in your early response to this communication you will be able to acquit yourself honorably, and enable me to make a satisfactory report to my government, at it. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, JOHN HAY DRUMMOND HAY, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Minister Resident, Tangier. The same to HADJOUTE PELLISSIER, Esq., Acting French Chargé d'Affaires. S. D'EHRENHOFF, Esq., Swedish Consul General. GUISEPPE DE MARTINO, Esq., Italian Agent and Consul General. FRANCISCO MERY Y COLOM, Esq., Spanish Chargé d'Affaires. JOSÉ MANUEL COLACO, Esq., BRITISH LEGATION, Tangier, March 2, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yes terday's date, acquainting me that on the 26th ultimo the United States consulate was besieged, the American flag insulted, and your life endangered by an armed mob of Europeans, residing here under the protection of the representatives of foreign governments; and you further state "that the circumstances connected with the history of this outrage lead you to believe that there was no intervention by any of the representatives to put down the mob, until directions were given by the Moorish minister for foreign affairs." In reply, I beg to repeat what I have already had the honor to state to you│ verbally, viz: That her Majesty's consul, Mr. Beade, previously to the receipt of any message from the minister for foreign affairs, had, on hearing of the tumult amongst the European community, taken the necessary steps to prevent any persons under our jurisdiction from breaking the peace, or in any way interfering with your acts as consul for the United States. |