The principal correspondent is Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane. His letters, and others accompanying them, deal with smuggling (folios 1-11), the disposition of military and naval forces while Cochrane was blockading Ferrol in 1804-1805 (folios 18-25), matters relating to Cochrane's commands, 1806, 1810, 1814, in the West Indies and on the North American station (folios 26-41, 46-55), and the court-martial, 1823, of a Captain George Harris, in which Cochrane was involved (folios 104-140). Folios 58-101 consist of correspondence, 1822, relating to the escape of slaves from Turks Islands in the Bahamas, sent by Admiral Sir Charles Rowley, 1st Baronet, of Hill House, to the 2nd Viscount Melville.