In reply to your Letter of the
25. Ins., requesting that the Detachment of Royal Engineers about to proceed by the Packet
to Colon may be conveyed in one of Her Majesty's Ships from
Panama to
Vancouver Island, if the Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers should deem such Transport necessary,
also that the Detachment may be offered any facilities generally for their conveyance
to
British Columbia; I am commanded by my Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty to state, for the information of the Secretary
Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, that orders to this effect will be sent addressed to the Senior Officer at
Panama, but there is little expectation of a Ship of War being there to convey the Detachment.