I have never interfered by my orders with his dispositions. If he thinks that in a given case ten days suffice, ten days shall be imposed; if forty in another, it shall be forty, and if in another one hundred days, it must be one hundred. I think, however, that the medical officer can make a difference with regard to the duration of the quarantine between a vessel which has only touched at the Havana and another which has loaded and taken her crew on board there. This must be borne in mind in order to explain the difference of the duration of the quarantines.

Above all it must be observed that, as is public and notorious, the state of New Orleans, in point of salubrity, is not to-day better, if indeed it is not already worse, than that of the island of Cuba; but setting apart this consideration, and even admitting the differences which General Butler establishes either himself directly or the medical officer of the Lazaretto, who fixed the duration of the quarantines, it is very singular that the Pinta and the Maria Galante, as previously to the Cardenas, which arrived at New Orleans in the most satisfactory state of salubrity, a quarantine of thirty days should have been systematically imposed upon them, while to other vessels, under other flags which, at most, could come under the same conditions, it has not been deemed necessary to impose them one of more than two days. Furthermore, it must be remarked that one of these vessels, the Pinta, had a passage of twenty-one days when she presented herself at the Lazaretto.

The undersigned therefore finds himself under the necessity of addressing himself in the most formal manner to the Honorable Secretary of State, requesting him to be pleased to inform him what are the rules which, with regard to quarantines, obtain in New Orleans, and especially the difference which appears to be intended to establish with respect to Spanish vessels.

In the present case the circumstances even arises that the Pinta and the Maria Glance are the vessels which, with the knowledge of the Government of the United States, have come to take on board quantities of tobaccos, which, to the injury of the Spanish exchequer, have been for a long time detained in New Orleans, and the Honorable Secretary of State will judge whether he should or should not give the order, already too late, that they be immediately dispatched. In any event he must understand that in the island of Cuba the most rigorous reciprocity will be observed with regard to the vessels of the United States which may arrive at those ports.

To use the phrase of General Butler: "If it is thought that i n a given case ten days suffice, ten days will be imposed; if forty in another, it shall be forty, and if in another one hundred, it shall be one hundred"--the same in the island of Cuba as at New Orleans.

In the correspondence with the commander of the Blasco de Garay and in other communications to the consul of New Orleans, general Butler expressed himself in terms of the greatest friendships toward the Spanish nation. His acts, however, are in contradiction with his words, and neither the Government of Spain nor the undersigned, in consequence of the responsibility which he had therein, can see with indifference the unjustifiable arbitrariness with which the Spanish vessels are being treated in New Orleans, particularly the contrast being so great between this conduct and that which is being observed toward the vessels of the Untied States both in Cuba and in Spain.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the Honorable Secretary of State the assurance of his most high consideration.

GABRIEL G. Y TASSARA.