Sir,
    I have the honour to report that the ship Dirigo, left the Mersey at 7 p.m. yesterday the 9th instant, to continue her voyage to Adelaide, having 420 statute adults on board, all in good health and spirits.
    I avail myself of this opportunity to furnish you with a report of the circumstances connected with this vessel which have come under my immediate observation.

    She was to have been ready for the reception of her emigrants at noon on Friday, the 24th June, but owing to various delays, the whole of her passengers could not be embarked before the 3rd of July ; and although moved into the Mersey on the 29th June, she could not, from the rainy and tempestuous weather, finally sail until the 6th July.
    At the final muster of the emigrants on the 4th of July, when the sailing orders were delivered, the number on board was equal to 426 statute adults ; and with the exception of diarrhoea among children (a very common complaint in emigrant ships at starting), and the case of an emigrant named Nottage, who was recovering from an attack of the same malady, all the people answered to their names, and were to all appearance in good health.
    I can only add to this, that the Dirigo is a fine large ship of about 1,200 tons measurement, with plenty of beam and lofty 'tween decks ; and that after all the emigrants were comfortably berthed, there were vacant berths sufficient to have accommodated 20 more.
    On the 8th of July, Lieutenant Prior communicated to me the receipt of your telegraphic message, announcing that the Dirigo had put into Cork with cholera on board, and the probable return of the ship to Liverpool. I immediately took steps for providing such out-hospital room for the accommodation of the sick as was at my disposal, and for the reception into the depôt of the healthy emigrants, in case the ship should return to Liverpool.
    Our out-hospital room, I may mention, had some time since been suddenly reduced to one-half of its original accomodation, in consequence of the premptory notice to quit received from the owner of one of the two houses engaged for this object ; and although great efforts had been made by the direction of the Board to obtain other premises, instead of the house given up, they were unsuccessful, and were were able to prepare only 10 beds. These were made ready, and all our depôt arrangements, completed before the following evening, Sunday the 9th of July.
    The Dirigo reached the Mersey from Cork the next morning at five o'clock, but instead of being allowed to enter the Birkenhead Dock, she was ordered to the quarantine station by the Customs' officers at Liverpool. Lieutenant Prior reported to you the subsequent release of the ship, and his unsuccessful attempt to obtain admission for the sick into any of the Liverpool or Birkenhead public hospitals, and also the reluctance of the authorities to allow the emigrants, sick or healthy, to be re-landed at all.
    I may here observe, as a fact coming within my own knowledge, that we were not indebted to the corporate action of the Birkenhead Commissioners, or to that of the Guardians of the Wirral Union, for the eventual landing of the people, or for those other arrangements which we were subsequently able to effect for their well-being. The Board of Guardians of the Wirral Union, as far as I could gather from the desultory nature of the proceedings at the meeting of the 11th of July, which I attended with Lieutenant Prior, concurred, with the exception of two or three of their members, in the opinion expressed by their medical officer, Mr. Stephens, viz., that the emigrants ought not to be removed from the ship, as that was the best place for their treatment and recovery from cholera. But notwithstanding the objection which we knew to exist generally as regards the landing of these people in Birkenhead, I had succeeded, with the assistance of the depôt servants, in bringing ashore in a steamer about 300 of the healthy emigrants, at 1 a.m. on the 11th of July ; large fires at both ends of the dining hall having been previously lighted, and tea already made to serve them. The thankfulness of these people at finding themselves once more in the depôt, and as they said, out of danger, more than repaid the anxiety of those engaged in attending their wants.
    One considerable advantage resulted, however, from the meeting of the Guardians to which I have just alluded. A deputation (consisting fortunately of some of the dissidents from Mr. Stephens' opinion), to which Lieutenant Prior, the Rev. Mr. Welch, the depôt chaplain, and myself were added, was formed for the purpose of waiting upon the officer of the Liverpool Board of Health, Captain Bevis, to ascertain the practicability of having a hulk, then moored in one of the docks, brought out into the river, and fitted in time to meet the emergency of the case ; but while on our way to Liverpool, Lieutenant Prior urged upon the gentlemen accompanying us the superior advantage of carrying out a suggestion, made, I believe, by Mr. Welch, to build an iron house as a cholera hospital in some spot at a distance from the town, which could be got ready in a few hours. This plan, too, it was thought might probably remove the great repugnance which prevailed at the meeting of the Wirral Board of Guardians to adopt any other course than that of keeping the emigrants on board the Dirago, or of removing them into a hulk. Lieutenant Prior's recommendation was finally agreed to at Messrs. Coltart,s, the owners of the ship : thanks to their offer to bear all the expenses connected with the erection of the house. Is is, however, but an act of justice to state that Mr. Case, a member of the Wirral Board of Guardians, afterwards accompanied me to Mr. Laird, who readily granted us a piece of land, and to Mr. Hemming, the iron jouse builder ; and I consider that, but for the assistance of these gentlemen, the great progress which was made towards the construction and putting up of the building, before the close of the same day, Tuesday, could not have been effected. The iron house was calculated to hold about 35 beds, which, together with the 10 beds in our old out-hospital, gave 45 beds in all.
    I have already reported to you the circumstances under which, after our own arrangements for providing hospital room were on the point of completion, we had an offer from the relieving officer at Birkenhead, on Wednesday evening, the 12th of July, to admit some of our cholera patients into the Union Infirmary. Accordingly, a second party, consisting of 65 emigrants, were landed at 3 a.m. on the 13th ; and the sick, in all about 25, were conveyed to that place.
At this time there were only 20 people remaining in the ship, chiefly sick and convalescent ; and when they were landed on the following night, they were divided between the depôt, our own out-hospital, and the infirmary.
    I did not, however, overlook, while attending to my other duties, the importance of carrying out the Commissioner's instructions to induce the people to take daily walking exercise in the country.
    On several occasions I took parties of women and children to spend part of the day in the park, adjoining Birkenhead, regaling them with cakes and milk ; at another time, I hired half a dozen spring carts, and conveyed the whole of the people, men, women, and children, a few miles into the country ; giving them, in addition to their usual rations, which we took with us, a liberal supply of cakes and milk, and a small allowance of beer for the men ; and still further to encourage them to take exercise in the open air, away from the town, a notice was posted at the depôt, that such as might desire it should have cooked rations for the whole day served out to them in the morning.
    I have much gratification in pointing to the success which attended these simple efforts to promote the healthful recreation and amusement of these people ; for instead of leaving, en masse, dispirited and discontented, long before the time came for a general muster preparatory to re-embarkation, good health, good spirits, and confidence were restored, and the number of those who had returned to their homes, instead of being 250, as at first threatened, did not exceed 50 adults altogether ; that is to say, the number in adults of the original passengers who re-embarked was about 300.
    The deaths on board the Dirigo, between the time she left the Mersey and her return to the river on the 10th of July, were 31 in number, viz. 30 cholera cases, including the elder Nottage, and one case (Nottages's daughter) not reported cholera. Ten more died in the river before the last of the people were re-landed on the morning of the 14th of July.
    Out of the 300 healthy emigrants admitted into the depôt on the 11th July, 51 were prescribed for on that day, including cases of cholera, diarrhoea, colds, &c. Eight of these afterwards proving cases of acute cholera, were removed to the out-hospitals. Between the 12th and the 17th, when the last case occurred among the emigrants, only three more cases of acute cholera had been removed, besides one of the depôt nurses ; and patients under treatment at the depôt was reduced on the 21st to two persons.
    There were altogether 58 patients in the depôt, from first to last, labouring under premontitory symptoms of cholera. These, with the exception of those already named as having been removed to the out-hospital, yielded to medical treatment. The number of patients admitted into our own out-hospital was 12, including the depôt nurse. Of these, four recovered, six died, and two were removed to the infirmary.
    The number of patients admitted into the infirmary was 37, including one of the seamen of the ship, who still remains under medical treatment ; of the rest 10 died and 26 recovered.
    There were therefore 47 cases of acute cholera in all after the ship returned to the Mersey, 35 of which were landed in that state from the ship, and 12, who had been admitted into the depôt, afterward attacked. Out of these 47 there were 16 deaths and 31 recoveries. The total mortality from first to last was 57.