DE KOSTE, Notary Public to Cape Town , November 2, 1871, October 17, 1871

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, wherein you request that instructions may be issued for preparation from the custom-house records of a return, showing all supplies shipped on board the Shenandoah and other confederate vessels which touched at the Cape in the year 1863 and 1864, and specifying the quantities entered to each and by whom supplied. In reply, I am directed by his excellency the governor to acquaint you, that upon reference to the honorable the collector of customs, it appears that, as the vessels in question were viewed as “men-of-war” and treated as such, no account was taken by that officer’s department of the coals, &c., supplied thereto. His excellency therefore regrets his inability to furnish the information which you desire.

I have the honor to be, sir, &c.,

CHARLES MILLS, (Signed for the) Colonial Secretary.

[740] W. W. Edgecomb, Esq., Consul for the United States of America, Cape Town.

A true copy from the original exhibited to me this day by W. W. Edgecomb, United States consul, Cape Town.