vided with transportation to Halifax, but on your return you will provide for yourself unless fortunate enough to meet with a Government vessel coming home, in which case no charge for passage will be made against you.
In addition to the duties confided to you by the instructions of the 19th instant, I have now, at the instance of the President, to add another.
We are informed that several hundred of the officers and men enlisted in our service who were captured by the enemy, are now in Canada, having escaped from prison; that they are without means of returning home, although anxious to resume service. The Government fully recognizes the duty of aiding these unfortunate public servants to reach their posts of duty, and can only regret that it was not sooner informed of their condition. You are requested to make in Canada and Nova Scotia the requisite arrangements for having passage furnished them via Halifax to Bermuda, where they will receive from Major Walker, the agent of the Department of War, the necessary aid to secure their passage home. Colonel Kane, from whom we have just learned the facts, suggests that a proper agent be employed at Montreal, who shall give public notice that he is authorized to furnish passage to the Confederacy of all officers and men heretofore enlisted in its service who desire to return to their homes; that the applicants be sent down the Saint Lawrence and round to Halifax by water, as the cheapest conveyance, and from Halifax to Bermuda. In Halifax you will find the mercantile house of B. Weir, to which you can apply with confidence for any advice or assistance in making these arrangements.
The whole number of escaped prisoners is supposed not to exceed four hundred, and it is not probable that all will make application.
You will receive herewith a letter of credit on Liverpool for twenty-five thousand dollars, which we presume to be enough for the present, and which you will use as may be needed for this purpose; and you are requested to send as early news as convenient, of the prospect of restoring our fellow-citizens to their country, the number likely to come, and whether a further sum of money is necessary for the purpose.
It would be advisable, before acting in this matter, to inform the British colonial authorities of your design, in order to obviate any misrepresentations of our enemies, who will assuredly endeavor to
