(Inclosure 2.)-Her Majesty's Commissioner to the Governor-General of the Province of Angola.

SIR,

Loanda, November 7, 1859. I HAVE had the honour to receive your Excellency's letter of the 4th instant, referring to the proceedings of Her Majesty's naval officers employed in the suppression of the Slave Trade on the coast north of this city.

With regard to the case of the Cabenda launch, destroyed by Her Majesty's steamer Pluto, I have only to observe that, as I see no reason for departing from the proper and established custom of submitting such matters to the head of that branch of Her Majesty's service concerned therein, I must therefore beg to refer your Excellency to my despatch of the 26th ultimo, and to add that, in fulfilment of the assurance therein given, this matter has been brought by me under the notice of the officer commanding Her Majesty's naval forces on this coast.

Respecting the case of the boat Barboleta, brought into this port by Her Majesty's steamer Viper, and delivered over to your Excellency, I shall proceed to offer a few remarks.

It appears to me that there has been some error or misunderstanding in regard to the necessity for the passports furnished by the Government of this province to coasting vessels being renewed annually. This question having been recently agitated, and the instructions under which Her Majesty's officers are acting in regard thereto having been brought to my knowledge, I have referred to the orders and regulations now in force on this subject, and I find by a Portaria of His Most Faithful Majesty dated 29th May, 1854, which was published in the official "Boletim" No. 477, of the 18th November, 1854, that the passports granted by this Government to colonial coasting vessels, which, prior to the date of that Portaria, were limited in duration, have since been considered to all intents permanent as royal passports. The instructions to Her Majesty's officers, however, point out that the passports in question require to be renewed annually. These instructions were, no doubt, issued in ignorance of the above-mentioned alteration in the law regulating the coasting trade in this province, and I shall therefore hasten to communicate this circumstance to the Rear-Admiral Commanding-in-chief on this coast, and to lay before him a copy of the Portaria referred to.

I shall also lose no time in suggesting to the officer now in command of this division of the African squadron the expediency of his suspending the execution of so much of his instructions regarding Portuguese coasting vessels as relates to the necessity of their passports being renewed annually, until this matter has been arranged between the two Governments.

Commander Hewett resolved upon bringing the Barboleta into

this port, and delivering her over to your Excellency, on the ground that her passport, being dated more than a year previously, was invalid. Whether, under all circumstances of the case, there was sufficient reason for such a proceeding, it is not for me to say; but I believe that he did so from a conviction that he was acting in strict accordance with his instructions, and I cannot refrain from adding the expression of my regret that this act of a British officer should have been the cause of so much dissatisfaction on the part of your Excellency.

It cannot be seriously supposed that any infringement on the dignity and independence of the Portuguese Crown was intended, or that the proceedings of Commander Hewett had any other object in view than that of facilitating the efficient performance of a duty to which the Governments of Great Britain and Portugal are mutually and solemnly pledged.

The open and notorious assistance which is given to the Slave Trade by these small coasting craft to the north, not only in embarking slaves, but in conveying them from one depôt to another along the coast, renders it necessary for Her Majesty's officers to be very assiduous in watching and examining them; and I must add that, from the reports which reach me, it would appear that their owners, independent of the renewal of their passports, are extremely neglectful in regard to the other papers with which some of them are furnished by the Portuguese authorities at this place.

Upon the well known criminal pursuits of the individual who owned the Barboleta, I presume it is unnecessary for me to offer any observation. His name has already been brought by me under your Excellency's notice as one of the shippers of slaves in the American vessel Mary E. Smith, captured on the coast of Brazil in 1857; his character, therefore, is, beyond all dispute, if not legally, at least morally, proved, and it is generally reported at this place that his establishments to the north are maintained for Slave Trade purposes.

It is stated, on oath, by Senhor Pamplona in his protest, a copy of which your Excellency has sent me :

1st. That his boat was proceeding from the River Congo to his factories to the north when detained by the Viper.

2ndly. That she had on board a cargo of goods and provisions. 3rdly. That her crew were landed among the Mussorongos.

Now, I beg to state, in the first place, that the Barboleta came down the River Congo for the sole purpose of communicating with Her Majesty's steamer Viper to ascertain the particulars respecting another boat, which was then under examination by that vessel, and subsequently released; secondly, that she had not, under these circumstances, a single particle of cargo on board when she went

alongside Her Majesty's steamer, and, intending as she did to return to Ponta da Lenha immediately, it appears quite natural that she should have had no provisions on board; and, lastly, that the crew, consisting of two white men and three or four negroes, were transferred to the boat released as above stated, in which they all, at their own request, returned to Ponta da Lenha.

These facts have been stated to me by Commander Hewett, and can all, I presume, be substantiated by the evidence of every officer and man on board Her Majesty's steamer Viper. Your Excellency, on comparing them with the particulars detailed in Senhor Pamplona's sworn protest, will see how unfounded and calumnious are the representations brought forward against Her Majesty's officer by that individual.

Your Excellency expresses an apprehension that the measures of repression by which Her Majesty's cruizers are endeavouring to put a stop to the Slave Trade in the north will interfere with licit speculations in that quarter, and adds that the commercial body of Loanda is loud in its denunciations of those measures.

I am aware that complaints of this nature have lately been made at this place, and many rumours respecting the proceedings of the British cruizers have reached my ears; but I am not disposed to lend implicit confidence to every fabricated tale which comes to my knowledge tending to criminate officers of the British navy engaged in this arduous service, and until each case has been fairly and openly investigated, I do not consider it right to offer any opinion upon its merits.

There are various observations contained in your Excellency's letter to which I cannot pretend to reply until I shall have received specific instructions upon the subject; but I take leave to assure your Excellency that Her Majesty's Government duly appreciates the rights and reciprocal duties of independent and friendly nations, and that, whilst resolved to exercise any powers in regard to the suppression of the traffic in slaves which Great Britain may have acquired by Treaties with other States, it by no means arrogates an authority to exert any action in matters of this nature where such a right has not been conceded to her.

In conclusion, it only remains for me to assure your Excellency that a copy of your letter of the 4th instant, and of this reply, shall be transmitted to Her Majesty's Government without delay. I have, &c.

The Governor-General of the
Province of Angola.

EDMUND GABRIEL.

(Inclosure 3.)—The Governor-General of the Province of Angola to Her Majesty's Commissioner.

(Translation.)

EXCELLENT SIR,

Palace of Government, Loanda,

November 10, 1859.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 7th instant, in answer to mine of the 4th, relative to the rigorous proceedings taken by the British cruizers against the coasting-vessels to the North.

In the said despatch I specified some cases in which an unquestionable excess appears to me to have been committed by the British cruizers respecting the supervision which they ought legitimately to exercise over the said vessels with a view to the repression of the Slave Trade, and, above all, in the course which has been pursued of destroying the said vessels without any form of trial when it is believed that there are grounds for supposing them to be implicated in that traffic; the said cruizers thus constituting themselves, against all laws of right--even of natural right-accusers, judges and parties interested in the effects of condemnation, in consequence of the benefit accruing to them from the appropriation of the vessels and their cargoes.

You have been pleased to give me the just hope that such excesses shall be prohibited, by your intervention with the commander of this division of the squadron, and likewise to assure me that you will promptly bring my above-mentioned despatch to the knowledge of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, as I stated to you that I would communicate these occurrences to the Government of His Most Faithful Majesty.

Without desisting from the right upon which I have already protested for indemnification for any breach of the dispositions of the Treaty of the 3rd July, 1842, and for the reparation of any private loss which may have resulted from the proceedings of the British cruizers, it is extremely gratifying for me to have to communicate your reply to his Majesty's Government, and I shall consider myself yet happier if, in future, I may be able to say that the repression of the traffic in slaves is only carried out in conformity with those dispositions, and those eternal principles of universal justice which on no secondary consideration ought to be thrown. aside. God preserve, &c.

JOSE RODRIGUES COELHO DO AMARAL.

Her Majesty's Commissioner.

(Inclosure 4.)-Her Majesty's Commissioner to the Governor-General of the Province of Angola.

EXCELLENT SIR,

Loanda, November 14, 1859.

I AM honoured by the receipt of your Excellency's despatch of

the 19th instant, again referring to the measures recently adopted by Her Majesty's cruizers in suppressing the Slave Trade, which is now carried on in launches and coasting-craft to the North.

I should have limited myself to a mere acknowledgment of that despatch, but, in reply to your Excellency's assertion that British officers in destroying those launches constitute themselves judges and accusers, as well as being the parties interested, it is my duty to point out that the destruction of launches and vessels employed in the Slave Trade does not, as your Excellency appears to suppose, release the captor from the necessity of bringing each case before a Court of Adjudication.

These launches, although provided with regular papers from this Government for the sole purpose of enabling them to enter the ports of the province, when met by Her Majesty's cruizers in flagrante delicto, are very careful not to produce those papers, fearing the justice they would receive from the Mixed Commission at this place; they therefore, as happened with two of them seized by Her Majesty's steamer Vesuvius with slaves on board, some time since, destroy these papers, and do not claim any nationality. They are, consequently, captured under an Act of the British Legislature, and not brought for judgment before the Mixed Commission at this place, under the Treaty of the 3rd July, 1842. The slaves, if any, are removed on board the capturing ship, and the launches, being incapable of making the voyage to St. Helena, are destroyed on the spot. This mode of dealing with them, however, I beg leave to assure your Excellency, does not in any degree supersede or prevent a regular trial, but, on the contrary, in each case it is required that documents and proofs be sent before the Court of Vice-Admiralty, upon which the Judge pronounces his decision as to whether the capture was legal or not.

I beg leave to add that, whilst writing this despatch, I have received intelligence of Commander Hewett's having captured a brig with a cargo of slaves a few days after leaving this port. The scene which presented itself on board this vessel is described to me as most revolting; and the master of her informed Commander Hewett that, with the assistance of several launches employed on this coast, he had embarked his cargo of 518 slaves in one hour and a half, on the night of the 3rd instant, at Macula.

On carefully reviewing all the circumstances connected with the case of the Barboleta, and more particularly the statements made on oath by the slave-dealer Pamplona, as set forth in his protest, of which your Excellency has sent me a copy, it appears to me that he has clearly committed perjury, and laid himself open to an indictment for that crime. I hasten, therefore, to submit to your Excellency's consideration the expediency of causing the public prosecutor