Hammond to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to your letter of the 15th of September
last,

I am directed by the Earl of Malmesbury to transmit to you herewith, for
the information of Secretary Sir Edward Lytton, a copy of a Despatch from
Mr Bidwell, the Acting British Consul at Panama, announcing the
departure from that place for San Francisco of Captain Grant and the
Party of the Royal Engineers who left Southampton on the 17th of
September last for British Columbia.