Mr. Dayton to Mr. Seward.
Sir: The following is a translation of a telegraphic despatch which I have just received from Mr. Van Home, United States consul at Marseilles:
“A letter received from the consul at Messina says that the corsair Southerner, Captain Butcher, (English,) arrived at Malta the seventeenth of this month, coming from Alexandria and going to Algiers, with three hundred and three Arabian pilgrims.”
The above is important if true, though I do not well see how it can be.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, &c., &c., &c.