Confidential

I have the honor to inform you that an Officer of Her
Majesty's Navy who will be leaving Portsmouth on the 14th November will
be entrusted with a Confidential Despatch for delivery to you and I have
to request you to acknowledge its receipt by the earliest opportunity in
terms which need not describe its contents.

The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have informed me that the
Officer in question will not reach Panama before the middle of January.