convoy, which will at least afford you some personal security. In any case, see the commander-in-chief of Vera Cruz, to whom I will write, so as to facilitate you the means of conveyance, and he will do for you anything in his power. I will also communicate to the French Government the object of your mission, and call attention to this great importance. The English packet, which will be back in the morning, will carry the communication from me.

After the conference I went immediately to the commander-in-chief of Vera Cruz. He announced to me the arrival of the courier, and also that he could not procure me any means of conveyance. He advised me to wait for the first convoy. In the meantime I wrote to you, general, off the actual state of my mission, and also took the liberty to send to Mr. Slidell, in Paris (whom I knew had received a copy of my instructions from Colonel Lamar), a statement of my conversation with the admiral and what I intended to do, asking to join in me efforts near the Emperor to carry out the objects of our Government.

I was compelled to stay in Vera Cruz until the departure of the first convoy, which left only on the 8th of March. I will not enter, general, into the details of that voyage, where we were exposed to all the perils and hardships of a soldier's campaign. I will merely state that to travel 28 leagues, with an escort of over 500 men,we took until the 23rd of March to reach Orizaba.

Arrived there, I found that two mails had been detained there by superior orders, with prohibition not to let pass any one or any dispatch, even those of the Emperor.

Two days after, the general of division, A. Woll, arrived direct from Paris, and was compelled, like myself, to submit to the order; he could not proceed any farther. As I knew that general had for many years the command of the northern frontier of Mexico, and that he knew well Matamoras and the importance that port could acquire, I thought it good policy during my forced residence in Orizaba to get acquainted with the general; and, if fact,in the fifteen days of my stay there, I succeeded in establishing with him not only ordinary relations, but intimate friendship. I was acting as much for the future as the present, knowing he had the mission form the Emperor to organize the regular army of Mexico,and that he was appointed the first minister of war. I thought it good policy to propose that way the friendly relations of both Governments, which are called, by their geographical positions, to be in daily contact with each other.

On the 10th of April, a convoy of powder was expedited to Pueblo, and,in spite of the rigid orders to the contrary, I obtained the favor, through some particular friends I met in the French army, to go with the convoy,which favor even General Woll could not obtain.

We arrived before Pueblo on the 15th of April,traveling with the French consul on his return to that city. Our party reached a mill,which we found to be the residence of Mr. De Saligny,to whom we all immediately paid a visit. I took the first opportunity of introducing myself, asking of him the privilege to visit him privately, which request he granted. Two days after, I paid him a visit,and asked him if he had been reinstated in his diplomatic powers, to which he answered that he had not, but that he thought that General Woll, whose delay he could not understand, was the bearer of dispatches from the Emperor which would change his position near General Forey. I thought it mu duty to explain to him the object of my mission, more so after he declared to me that all his sympathies were with our Confederacy, that he himself was a Secessionist,and that his best friends were all engaged in the Southern cause. I asked him to advice me upon my best course, as seeing his good disposition I was more desirous to treat with