widely circulated among our whalers and seafaring men whose spirit
of enterprise might lead them to the inhospitable regions where that
heroic officer and his brave followers, who periled their lives in the
cause of science and for the benefit of the world, were supposed to be
imprisoned among the icebergs or wrecked upon a desert shore.

Congress being now in session, the propriety and expediency of an
appropriation for fitting out an expedition to proceed in search of the
missing ships, with their officers and crews, is respectfully submitted
to your consideration.

Z. TAYLOR.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, _January 14, 1850_.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: I transmit herewith, to be laid before the Senate for its
constitutional action thereon, a treaty concluded with the half-breeds
of the Dacotah or Sioux Indians for lands reserved for them in the
treaty of July 15, 1830, with the Sioux and other Indians, with
accompanying papers.

Z. TAYLOR.

WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1850_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I herewith transmit reports from the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of the Navy, containing the information called for by the
resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, in relation to the
abduction[2a] of Rey, _alias_ Garcia, from New Orleans.

[Footnote 2a: By the Spanish consul at New Orleans.]

Z. TAYLOR.

WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1850_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration, a copy of a
correspondence between the Department of State and the charge d'affaires
of Austria near this Government, on the subject of the convention for
the extension of certain stipulations contained in the treaty of
commerce and navigation of August 27, 1829, between the United States
and Austria, concluded and signed on the 8th of May, 1848, and submitted
to the Senate on the same day by my predecessor.

Z. TAYLOR.

WASHINGTON, _January 23, 1850_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to a resolution of that body
passed on the 17th instant, the accompanying reports of heads of
Departments, which contain all the official information in the
possession of the Executive asked for by the resolution.

On coming into office I found the military commandant of the Department
of California exercising the functions of civil governor in that
Territory, and left, as I was, to act under th