Mr. Hammond to the Secretary to the Admiralty Foreign Office, November 6, 1861 Sir, I am directed by Earl Russell to request that you will acquaint the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that he communicated to the French Ambassador the substance of your letter of the 1st instant, respecting the place at which the junction of the allied squadrons, about to proceed to Mexico, should be effected: and that the French Ambassador has informed me to-day that the French naval expedition will take its departure from France on Monday next, and will touch at the French Colonies in the West Indies, and probably at Jamaica, on its way to Havana, where it is expected to arrive between the 15th and 20th of December. Arrangements have already been made for its obtaining provisions and supplies at Havana, which, it is calculated, it will require four or five days to embark, so that the French expedition will probably be able to proceed on the 20th or 25th of December to the point off Cape St. Antonio at which it was proposed in your letter that the squadrons should unite. (signed) E. HAMMOND Back to Table of Contents: Booklet No. 8, Mexico 1861-67 Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by The South and Central Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com