[Footnote 82: Transmitting correspondence between the United States minister at London and the British Government in relation to certain slaves taken from the wreck of the schooner _Hermosa_ and liberated by the authorities at Nassau, New Providence.] WASHINGTON, _December 30, 1842_. _To the Senate of the United States_: In reply to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th December, I transmit herewith the accompanying letter[83] from the Secretary of the Navy and the statement thereto appended from the Bureau of Equipment and Construction. JOHN TYLER. [Footnote 83: Relating to the strength and expense of maintaining the African Squadron under the late British treaty, the number of guns it is expected to have afloat in the United States Navy during 1843, and the estimated expense of the naval establishment for 1843.] WASHINGTON, _December 30, 1842_. _To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_: I communicate herewith to Congress copies of a correspondence which has recently taken place between certain agents of the Government of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands and the Secretary of State. The condition of those islands has excited a good deal of interest, which is increasing by every successive proof that their inhabitants are making progress in civilization and becoming more and more competent to maintain regular and orderly civil government. They lie in the Pacific Ocean, much nearer to this continent than the other, and have become an important place for the refitment and provisioning of American and European vessels. Owing to their locality and to the course of the winds which prevail in this quarter of the world, the Sandwich Islands are the stopping place for almost all vessels passing from continent to continent across the Pacific Ocean. They are especially resorted to by the great number of vessels of the United States which are engaged in the whale fishery in those seas. The number of vessels of all sorts and the amount of property owned by citizens of the United States which are found in those islands in the course of the year are stated probably with sufficient accuracy in the letter of the agents. Just emerging from a state of barbarism, the Government of the islands is as yet feeble, but its dispositions appear to be just and pacific, and it seems anxious to improve the condition of its people by the introduction of knowledge, of religious and moral institutions, means of education, and the arts of civilized life.