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.