the matriculation of Coran, captain of the Spanish steamer Cardenas, the latter of Havana, accompanied by two witnesses, that declaration should be made, and deposed that on the 31st day of May, of 1862, he departed from Havana with his vessel on the course for this port, and with the regular clearance from the Spanish authorities and from the consul of the United States at the Havana, pursuing his voyage with fair weather until the 3rd of June, on which, at 5 o"clock in afternoon, he came in sigh of the light-house at the Pass a" l"Outre of the Mississippi River, and proceeded up the stream. It was 8.30 of the same evening he came to the outpost of the customhouse, where, in normal times, note was taken of the place whence sailed, of the cargoes of vessels, and from whence advises were sent by telegraph to the consignees thereof. There he stopped the engine, blew the steam whistle, and seeing that no one was coming near him, followed up the river to Forts Jackson and Saint Philip, where also he slowed and stopped the engine, blowing the steam whistle as before. No one gave any hindrance to his passing, and the steamer followed her course to the Lazaretto, where he repeated the same doings as he had done at the customs station and at the forts. No one replied, but an officer called Dikman, of the U. S. Army, and who probably belonged to that detached post, asked of the captain the favor to take him up to the city, favor which the captain allowed, and at 5 o"clock on the afternoon of the 4th arrived here at this place and made fast to one of the wharves. Before getting through with this work the vessels was invaded by a crowd of people from the city. Even at 6 o"clock there had not come on board any authority to receive her. Then the captain notified the consignees of the Cardenas, Messrs. Avendano Brothers, and agreed with them to present himself on the following day, as it was no longer with business hours at the customhouse or at this Her Majesty's consulate. But at 8 o"clock at night an officer came on board, accompanied by the aforementioned Captain Dikman, and after having the townspeople who had come on board go ashore he asked the captain in a rough way if he had a permit from the commander at the forts to pass up. The captain answered in the negative, relating to him at the same time the circumstances already narrated. Then the officer, whose name is Stafford, wrote an order by which he directed that the Cardenas must go down and anchor below the two forts until otherwise ordered; which order isd a few moments after being made by the same person who wrote it, who gave it to the captain verbally, ordering the debarkation of the passengers, firing up, and going away immediately.

This was not possible, and by force of entreaty the captain got permission for the supercargo of the Cardenas, which individual spoke English, to accompany him to one of the officers to present him to General Butler, commanding general of the department, and state to him that, never having been at this port, the captain was ignorant of the usages here established; that he had stopped upon entering the river, on passing by the forts, and on reaching the Lazaretto, and that no one hindered him from passing on, nor made any signal to him; that if at either of those points he had received orders to stop he would have respected and obeyed them; that, unused to the practice, having boilers in bad condition, and both empty, he could not depart immediately; that it was not just that the interest of the charterers of the vessel should suffer for the neglect of the commander at the forts; that as for the passengers, following the old