Mr. Depuy de Lôme to Mr. Sherman.
Lenox, Mass., September 2, 1897.
Mr. Secretary: Continuing the work undertaken in order to remove from the shores of the United States a hostile expedition against a Spanish province, which work has, for some weeks past, given rise to various notifications from this legation, a large number of Cubans left Tampa last Saturday for Cleveland by special train, this point being about 6 miles from Punta Gorda, Fla., where they embarked, if my information is correct, on board of the schooner Cherub, from Key West.
The movements of certain well-known filibustering agents at Miami, Fla., and at Cape Florida lead me to suspect that the members of the Tampa expedition are on one of the keys near the points which I have mentioned, and I therefore beg your excellency to consider whether it would be proper for a revenue cutter to watch and search those keys in order to prevent the Dauntless, in one of the false sorties which she is making, from taking them on board, as is doubtless her intention, and conveying them to the place where they probably expect to receive the arms shipped by the schooner Donna F. Briggs.
I avail myself, etc.,