ss at the opening of the session adverted
to the pending negotiations between this Government and that of Great
Britain relative to the fisheries and commercial reciprocity with the
British American Provinces, I transmit for the information of Congress
the accompanying report from the Department of State on the present
state of the negotiations, and I respectfully invite the attention of
the two Houses to the suggestion in the latter part of the report.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, _February 9, 1853_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Navy,
accompanied by the first part of Lieutenant Herndon's report of the
exploration of the valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, made by him
in connection with lieutenant Gardner Gibbon, under instructions from
the Navy Department.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, _February 14, 1853_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I herewith communicate to the Senate, for its consideration with a
view to ratification, a convention on the subject of the extradition
of fugitives from justice between the United States and Belgium,
concluded and signed in this city on the 11th instant by the respective
plenipotentiaries.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1853_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, embodying the substance
of recent communications made by the minister of Her Britannic Majesty
to the Department of State on the subject of the interoceanic canal by
the Nicaragua route, which formed the chief object of the treaty between
the United States and Great Britain of the 19th April, 1850, and the
relations of Great Britain to the protectorate of Mosquito, which she
expresses herself desirous of relinquishing on terms consistent with
her honorable engagements to the Indians of that name.

In consequence of these communications and other considerations stated
in the report, it is deemed advisable by the Department that our
diplomatic relations with the States of Central America should be placed
on a higher and more efficient footing, and this measure meets my
approbation. The whole subject is one of so much delicacy and importance
that I should have preferred, so near the close of my Administration,
not to make it the subject of an Executive communication. But inasmuch
as the measure proposed can not, even if deemed e