Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of July 4, with a copy of your despatch to Mr. Dayton, No. 599, and also a copy of a note of the Secretary of War in relation to our ships-of-war in European waters.
My reflections and observations here have led me to conclude that the rebels do not desire to send to sea more ships of the character of the Florida and Alabama. With the existing scarcity of our vessels on the ocean, there is little to encourage such piratical enterprises.
[Page 321]I do not doubt, however, that the rebels are struggling to get some ironclads afloat, which will enable them to break the line of our blockade, or to retake New Orleans, &c. The class of ships we have here would not interfere with such a design. The Niagara and Sacramento are at Antwerp; Commodore Craven, of the Niagara, informs me he is without orders.
I have heard nothing more of the remaining corvette built at Bordeaux, the Osacca.
The fact that the Yeddo, though kept from the hands of the insurgents, (perhaps voluntarily sold by them,) has been allowed to pass into the possession of a belligerent in Europe, engaged in a war against a power with whom France is at peace, affords serious grounds for suspicion that the rebels may yet obtain iron-clads from French ports. * * * *
Your telegraph in relation to the purchase of the corvettes reached me through Mr. Dayton.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.
[Note.—The enclosures above referred to are published elsewhere in this correspondence.]