season, and the want of an appropriation by Congress to enable me to
furnish and equip an efficient squadron for that object. All that I
could do in compliance with a request which I was deeply anxious to
gratify was to cause the advertisements of reward promulged by the
British Government and the best information I could obtain as to the
means of finding the vessels under the command of Sir John Franklin to
be 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.