Catalogue description Correspondence, Original - Secretary of State: Despatches from Edward Wells Bell, acting...

Correspondence, Original - Secretary of State: Despatches from Edward Wells Bell, acting governor of Jamaica, and Charles Henry Darling, governor, together with correspondence from 'offices' (government departments and other organisations) and Individuals. Correspondence from offices and individuals is not, and correspondents and subjects are as follows: Offices:

• Admiralty (proceedings of Commander de Horsey to prevent collisions between the parties carrying on submarine explorations on the Silver Cay and Navidad Banks);
• Agent (requests instructions in connection with a bill drawn by the Crown commissioner);
• Foreign Office (disbursements from Crown funds on account of certain shipwrecked French seamen, recognition of Mr B Everett Smith as US vice consul);
• Emigration Office (Mr James Winter's proposal to lease part of the principal salina in West Caicos, application from eight residents for lease of 65 acres);
• Law Officers (opinion on question of whether certain Bahamas legislation extended to the Turks and Caicos authorises the reduction of public salaries);
• Board of Trade (fees proposed for services connected with the measurement and registry of shipping, legality of granting a British register to a vessel owned by 'two Africans both old inhabitants' of the colony);
• Treasury (payment by French government of money spent on behalf of shipwrecked French seamen, no objection to the estimates of receipt and expenditure for 1857, no objection to the arrangement entered into by President Inglis with the Boston Submarine and Wrecking Company for the exploration of the Silver Cay and Navidad Banks, proposed purchase of site for Government House, application from Mr Hamilton for permission to resign, no objection to appropriation ordinance and estimates for 1858, no objection to additional expenditure on temporary Government House, forwards copy of legal opinion on a claim of the Boston Submarine and Wrecking Company, approves decision of the governor of Jamaica to refuse to sanction distribution of property recovered from the Silver Cay Banks, approves of appointment of an auditor of public accounts)

• Henry Frith and seven others (tender for 65 acres of land in the West Caicos salinas)