[Untitled], August 18, 1863.

[Untitled]

My Dear Button: Thomas Armson, the master of the Ellesmere, will hand this to you; he has told me the truth to the fact that they were persuaded to go in a shore boat to Saldanha bay, and there join the Sea Bride. The act of the master is an illegal one, and comes under the spirit of the 207th section M. S. act 54, par. (4,) which see. What is to become of these men? The contract cannot be severed without the sanction of the shipping-master.

I enclose you a letter, put into my hands, from Baniel Johnson, one of the missing men, to his wife, whom I sent to you under charge of Scott, of the Water Police.

Yours faithfully,