Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part II, Volume I

Mr. Harlow, United States marshal, to Mr. Fish, Secretary of State.

[Extract.]

New York, April 27, 1870.

[132] Sir: I have the honor to report that, on the 26th of February last, Señor Balbino Cortez, the Spanish consul at this port, called at my office, (then marshal for the southern district of New York,) and informed me that he had reliable informa*tion that an unlawful expedition of Cubans would attempt to leave this city the same evening. He left with me a memorandum of the steamers in which the expedition would leave, (as he supposed,) with the number of Cubans that would take passage in said steamers. I immediately called upon Mr. Davies, of Pinker ton’s detective agency, and also employed two of my most expert deputies to investigate the matter, and, if possible, to thwart the schemes of the filibusters.

Mr. Davies, and his detectives, as also my deputies, labored vigorously to discover such an expedition, but, after a watch of three or four days, found that the Spanish consul had either been mistaken, or our watchfulness had become known to the filibusters, who abandoned their intended expedition.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

S. R. HARLOW,
(late) United States Marshal.

Hon. Hamilton Fish,
Secretary of State.