In obedience to your order assigning me to the command of this ship, I will return by the first conveyance to England, where the joint efforts of Commander Bulloch and myself will be directed to the preparation of the ship for sea. I will take with me Lieutenant Kell, Surgeon Gait and First Lieutenant of Marines Howell--Mr. Howell and Lieutenant Stribling [Stribling had been second lieutenant of the Sumter] having reached Nassau a few days before me, in the British steamer Bahama, laden with arms, clothing and stores for the Confederacy. At the earnest entreaty of Lieutenant-Commanding Maffit, I have consented to permit Lieutenant Stribling to remain with him, as his first lieutenant on board the Oreto (Florida),--the officers detailed for that vessel not yet having arrived. Mr. Stribling's place on board the Alabama will be supplied by Midshipman Armstrong, promoted, whom I will recall from Gibralter, where I left him in charge of the Sumter. It will, doubtless, be a matter of some delicacy and tact to get the Alabama safely out of British waters without suspicion, as Mr. Adams, the Northern envoy, and his numerous satellites in the shape of consuls and paid agents, are exceedingly vigilant in their espionage. We cannot, of course, think of arming her in a British port, this must be done at some concerted rendezvous, to which her battery, and a large portion of her crew must be sent in a neutral merchant vessel. The Alabama will be a fine ship, quite equal to encounter any of the enemy's steam sloops, of the class of the Iroquois, Tuscarora and Dakotah, and I shall feel much more independent in her upon the high seas than I did in the little Sumter. I think well of your suggestion of the East Indies as a cruising ground, and I hope to be in the track of the enemy's commerce in those seas as early as October or November next: when I shall, doubtless, be able to lay other rich "burnt offerings" upon the altar of our country's liberties.