In this correspondence it appears that on the 2tn or Mvember, IZ)b ce 
United States consul general at Havana apprised this government that more

than one thousand African negroes had just then been brought to that city;

that they had been landed at Cardenas, or Sagua, from a steamship whose name

and nationality were unknown, and that very prominent and wealthy persons

were implicated in the business, and that the steamer was not captured, but

went to Nassau after delivering her cargo. 
On the 28th of March the Secretary of State communicated this information

to the Secretary of theNavy, and also to the British government. Thereupon

this government and the British government, proceeding under the provisions

of the treaty for the suppression of theAfrican slave trade, united in an
urgent 
appeal to the government of Spain to execute the laws of that country so

effectually as to suppress the introduction of African slaves into the island
of 
t~uba. The government of Spain responded to this united appeal in a kind
and 
liberal spirit, and especially approved of the energetic action of the governor

general of Cuba in executing the laws. 
On the 5th of April, 1864, the minister plenipotentiary of Spain addressed
a 
 note to the Secretary of State, informing him that Jose'Agustin Arguelles
had 
escaped from the island of Cuba, under the charge of having sold into slavery

a large number of recaptured Africans, and taken refuge in New York. The

minister stated the circumstances of the case as follows, namely: That Ar-

guelles, then an officer in the Spanish army, was, in November last, lieutenant

governor of the district of Colon, and while serving in that capacity effected

the seizure of a large expedition of African negroes, (being the same thousand

negroes before mentioned;) that the government of Spain, pleased with his

zeal, paid him a large sum, as his share of the prize-money usually allowed
to 
the captors of such expeditions; that he subsequently obtained a leave of
ab- 
sence for twenty days, to proceed to New York, on false pretences, and that

after his departure it was discovered that-he and other officers of the district

of Colon retained and sold into slavery one huadred and forty-one of the
negroes 
which they had recaptured; that the superior court of the island, having
ex- 
elusive jurisdiction over such cases, had taken cognizance of the case, and
then