3.  Upon the receipt of this intelligence I ordered Captain Forsyth, of the Valorous, to hold himself in readiness to proceed to any of the ports in this colony where the Alabama might anchor, in order to preserve the rules of strict neutrality.

4.  By a letter addressed to the Governor of this Colony by Captain Semmes, copy of which was telegraphed to me on the 4th instant, it appears that the Alabama had proceeded to Saldanha Bay for a few days, anchoring there on the 29th of July.

5.  On the 5th instant I received a private telegram to the effect that the Alabama was off Table Bay, when I directed the Valorous immediately to proceed to that anchorage; and shortly afterwards a telegram reached me from the Governor stating “that the Alabama had captured a vessel (American), which was in sight, and steering for Table Bay.”  The Valorous reached that Bay at 10.15 P.M., where the Alabama had anchored at 3 o’clock in the afternoon of the same day.

6.  Captain Forsyth having informed me that the tender to the Alabama had been ordered by Captain Semmes to Simon’s Bay for provisions, and having learned that this vessel had been captured off the coast of Brazil, and not been condemned in any Prize Court, I had doubts as to the legality of considering her in the light of a tender, being under the impression that it was a ruse to disguise the real character of the vessel.  I therefore wrote to the Governor to obtain the opinion of the Attorney-General of the Colony upon this subject, which correspondence is inclosed.

7.  On the 8th of August the tender Tuscaloosa, a sailing barque, arrived in Simon’s Bay, and the boarding officer having reported to me that her original cargo of wool was still on board, I felt that there were grounds for doubting her real character, and again called the Governor’s attention to this circumstance.  My letter and his reply are annexed.  And I would here beg to submit to their Lordships’ notice that this power of a captain of a ship of war to constitute every prize he may take a “tender,” appears to me to be likely to lead to abuse and evasion of the laws of strict neutrality, by being used as a means for bringing prizes into neutral ports for disposal of their cargoes, and secret arrangements—­which arrangements, it must be seen, could afterwards be easily carried out at isolated places.

8.  The Alabama, after lying three days in Table Bay, came to this anchorage to caulk and refit.  She arrived here on the 9th, and sailed again on the 15th instant.  Captain Semmes was guarded in his conduct, and expressed himself as most anxious not to violate the neutrality of these waters.

9.  I should observe that, from the inclosed copy of a letter from Captain Forsyth to the Governor, it would appear that the vessel Sea Bride, taken by the Alabama off Table Bay, was beyond the jurisdiction of neutral territory.