“In a letter from Sir George Jackson, British commissioner at Loanda, addressed to Lord Palmerston, which was shown to the commander of the Perry, it is stated that the present state of the slave-trade arises from the activity of British cruisers, the co-operation of part of the American squadron on the southern coast within the year, and its capture of two or three slavers bearing the flag of that nation, together with the measures adopted by the Brazilian government; and also that it may be said that the trade on this southern coast is now confined to a few vessels bearing the Sardinian flag. “The British commander-in-chief has expressed himself equally sanguine as to the state of the trade; and is of the opinion that the continued presence of our vessels, in co-operation with the English, will tend to depress, if not effectually break up the traffic. “The impression was entertained previously to joining this squadron, that the orders of our government--giving such narrow latitude to the commanders--superadded to the difficulty of getting a slaver condemned in the United States courts, that had not slaves actually on board, were almost insuperable obstacles to the American squadron’s effecting any thing of consequence towards the suppression of this iniquitous traffic, or even preventing the use of our flag in the trade. But observation and experience have entirely changed these views, and led to the conclusion that if even the commodore had a small-sized steamer--which is here wanted more than on any other station--in which he might visit the cruisers at points along the line of the slave-coast, that we should no more hear of a slaver using the American flag, than we do now of his using the British flag. Notwithstanding our legal commerce here exceeds that of Great Britain or France, yet the United States have not had, for a period of more than two years previous to the arrival of this vessel, an American man-of-war, an American consul, or a public functionary of any kind, on the southern coast of Africa. In consequence, the slave-trade has been boldly carried on under the American flag, while American legal traders have been annoyed, both by the interferences of foreign cruisers at sea, and custom-house restrictions and exactions in port. “Checked as the slave-trade is for the time being, if vigilant cruising were to be relaxed, or the coast left without a man-of-war, this trade would soon revive; and even if with Brazil it should be suppressed, then with Cuba it would break out, with greater virulence than ever, in the Bight of Benin. Hence the importance of well-appointed cruisers for its suppression, to say nothing of their agency in the vindication of our commercial rights in the protection of legal traders.