As the preliminary examination is not yet concluded, it is not yet known who and how many the guilty parties are.

You no doubt have the note of November 9, written in reply to Minister Egan, in which I request him to furnish testimony which he would not give, although he had said that he had evidence showing who the murderer was and who the other guilty parties of the 16th of October were.

That and all the other notes will be published here. You will publish a translation of them in the United States.

Deny in the mean time every thing that does not agree with these statements, being assured of their exactness as we are of the right, the dignity, and the final success of Chili, notwithstanding the intrigues which proceed from so low [a source] and the threats which come from so high [a source]. M. A. MATTA.

V

Señor Matta's letter was regarded by both President Harrison and his Secretary of State as a grave insult. The latter outlined the feelings of the administration in the following letter to Mr. Egan.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, January 21, 1892.

I am directed by the President to say to you that he has given careful attention to all that has been submitted by the government of Chile touching the affair of the assault upon the crew of the U. S. S. Baltimore in the city of Valparaiso on the evening of the 16th of October last, and to the evidence of the officers and crew of that vessel, and of some others who witnessed the affray; and that his conclusions upon the whole case are as follows:

First. That the assault is not relieved of the aspect which the early information of the event gave to it, viz. that of an attack upon the uniform of the United States Navy, having its origin and motive in a feeling of hostility to this government, and not in any act of the sailors or of any of them.

Second. That the public authorities of Valparaiso flagrantly failed in their duty to protect our men, and that some of the police and of the Chilean soldiers and sailors were themselves guilty of unprovoked assaults upon our sailors before and after arrest. He thinks the preponderance of the evidence and the inherent probabilities lead to the conclusion that Riggin was killed by the police or soldiers.

Third. That he is therefore compelled to bring the case back to the position taken by this government in the note of Mr. Wharton of October 23 last (a copy of which you will deliver with this), and to ask for a suitable apology and for some adequate reparation for the injury done to this government.

You will assure the government of Chile that the President has no disposition to be exacting or to ask anything which this government would not, under the same circumstances, freely concede. He regrets that, from the beginning, the gravity of the questions involved has not apparently been appreciated by the government of Chile, and that an affair in which two American seamen were killed and sixteen others seriously wounded, while only one Chilean was seriously hurt, should not be distinguished from an ordinary brawl between sailors in which the provocation is wholly personal and the participation limited. No self-respecting government can consent that per-. sons in its service, whether civil or military, shall be beaten and killed in a

foreign territory in resentment of acts done by or imputed to their government, without exacting a suitable reparation. The government of the United States has freely recognized this principle, and acted upon it, when the injury was done by its people to one holding an official relation to a friendly power, in resentment of acts done by the latter. In such case the United States has not sought for words of the smallest value or of equivocal meaning in which to convey its apology, but has condemned such acts in vigorous terms and has not refused to make other adequate reparation.

But it was not my purpose here to discuss the incidents of this affair, but only to state the conclusions which this government has reached. We have given every opportunity to the government of Chile to present any explanatory or mitigating facts and have had due regard to the fact that the government of Chile was, for a considerable part of the time that has elapsed since October 16th, upon a provisional basis.

I am further directed by the President to say that his attention has been called to the note of instructions sent by Mr. Matta, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, to Mr. Montt, under date of the 11th ultimo. Mr. Montt very prudently, and, I must suppose, from a just sense of the offensive nature of the despatch, refrained from communicating it officially to this government.

But in view of the fact that Mr. Montt was directed to give it to the press of this country, and that it was given the widest possible publicity throughout the world, this government must take notice of it. You are therefore directed to say to the Chilean government that the expressions therein imputing untruth and insincerity to the President and to the Secretary of the Navy in their official communications to the Congress of the United States are in the highest degree offensive to this government.

Recognizing the usual rules of diplomatic intercourse and of the respect and courtesy which should characterize international relations (which he cannot assume are wholly unfamiliar to the Chilean foreign office), the President was disposed to regard the despatch referred to as indicating a purpose to bring about a suspension of diplomatic relations; but, in view of the fact that Mr. Matta was acting provisionally and that a reorganization of the Chilean cabinet was about to take place, and afterwards in further view of the expectation that was held out of a withdrawal and of a suitable apology, notice of this grave offence has been delayed. I am now, however, directed by the President to say that if the offensive parts of the despatch of the 11th December are not at once withdrawn, and a suitable apology offered, with the same publicity that was given to the offensive expressions, he will have no other course open to him except to terminate diplomatic relations with the government of Chile.

Mr. Montt, in a note of January 20, has advised me that he has been directed by his government to inform the government of the United States that you are not persona grata to the government of Chile, and to request your recall. This has been laid before the President, and he directs you to say that, in view of the foregoing, he does not deem it necessary to make any present response thereto. It will be quite time to consider this suggestion after a reply to this note is received, as we shall then know whether any correspondence can be maintained with the government of Chile upon terms of mutual respect.

You will furnish to the Minister of Foreign Affairs a full copy of this note. BLAINE.

VOL. II- - 15

66

""But what good came of it at last?' quoth little Peterkin." The mass of impressive correspondence produced but a meagre result. The charity of the United States toward the Latin-American countries usually seems inexhaustible, and no precedents were broken this time. A "new government" was organized in Chili. There had been an "election," and "Provisional President" (i. e., Military Dictator) Jorge Montt now became "President." In this new shuffle of the cards the venomous Matta had been superseded by a Chilian gentleman of smoother tongue, Señor Luis Pereira. Pereira was disposed to apologize rather than take chances. So he withdrew the offensive portions of Matta's despatch of December 11, and Chili agreed to pay to the wounded Americans and the families of those murdered an indemnity in the munificent sum of seventy-five thousand dollars. Minister Egan was notified soon thereafter that this sum was at his disposal, and, on orders from Washington, he accepted it.

Prior to this date Secretary Blaine had become alienated from President Harrison, and now took the opportunity, at a banquet given by a distinguished foreign diplomat, to criticise severely the President on account of his policy towards Chili. Mr. Blaine's criticism was telegraphed all over the United States the next morning. Mr. Blaine's comments seem disingenuous, perhaps unjust. President Harrison's preferences in this matter were perhaps thwarted by the indifference of Congress, and he probably thought that in accepting the indemnity offered by Chili, he was making the best of the situation.

CHAPTER XVII

REIGN OF TERROR UNDER THE BLOODY LOPEZ

A

DESCRIPTION of Francisco Solano Lopez, the fiend incarnate, Dictator of Paraguay from 1862 to 1870, is given in the chapter on "Typical Latin-American Dictators - the Worst." During the war, from 1865 to 1870, which he provoked with the allies, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, there were committed by this monster in human form more assassinations and other outrages than can be charged to Nero, Caligula, or any other human beast of history. A strange combination of ignorance, superstition, cunning, crime, and insanity, instinct with a certain military genius not to be despised and a resourcefulness seldom possessed by one of his type, Lopez thought himself to be, as a matter of course, the Napoleon of South America, and the terror-stricken populace bowed before him at his own valuation.

During this long and frightful time of carnage Lopez perpetrated inconceivable atrocities against all classes of men and women, irrespective of age or nationality. With war raging all around him, and his soldiers decimated by great battles and swept away by fevers and other calamities, Lopez augmented the general terror by torturing and murdering the victims of his displeasure. In one of these massacres, in 1868, Lopez put to death many distinguished foreigners, accusing them of a conspiracy against him, a wretched figment of his degenerate imagination.

It seems incredible that such a monster should have been able to sway and rule a whole nation, that thousands of men should have stood by, ready to aid his hellish purposes and carry out his diabolical orders.

But such were the facts, and even to-day terrible facts like these exist in many other Latin-American dictatorships, of which the most conspicuous is Venezuela.

Akers says:1

"How frightful the war was for the Paraguayans may be judged from the fact that in 1863 the population was 1,337,489. In 1871 the returns showed only 221,079 persons resident in the Republic. This attenuated population comprised 28,746 men, 106,254 women, and 86,079 children. The adult

1 Mr. Akers' figures are based on Paraguay's alleged "statistics," which of course are guesswork.

males were those who from infirmity or weight of years had been incapable of bearing arms. In other words, the whole able-bodied male population had been sacrificed. In the latter part of the struggle women had been utilized as beasts of burden, and when no longer available for transport purposes were left to die by the roadside."

What a strange thing was that species of human nature which allowed this ferocious beast in human form practically to exterminate it? And what indecent wretches are those who will laud such a being to the skies, who will fawn and flatter at his heels like a dog at the feet of a leper, who will praise him and deify him, and call his butchery sacred, and extol his mistress as if she were a woman immaculate and holy, and place under anathema or put to mortal torture any one who does not join in the grovelling!

I

Charles A. Washburn, a distinguished man, tactful and honorable, was the American minister to Paraguay during much of this era of blood. Mr. Washburn thus describes how Lopez grasped the presidency:

"He was elected in October, 1862. His father died in August, 1862, I think. He elected himself. He was the minister of war under his father, and had command of the army, and he just took possession when the old man died. The government at Asuncion has to each district a chief and a judge, and they constituted the government of that district, and sent to the congress in Asuncion the men that Lopez wished; but even then he was afraid there was a conspiracy, and there were a great many people arrested. It was reported that his brother, who has since been shot, was engaged in the conspiracy, and that Padre Maiz, who has been a sort of head inquisitor lately, was getting up a conspiracy against Lopez. At any rate there were very strong precautions taken, and there was a great military demonstration made. The congress was held in the Cabildo, or government house. It was surrounded by soldiers. One of the richest men in the country ventured to remark in the congress that Francisco Solano Lopez was not the proper person to be elected; that the Constitution of the country declared that the government should not be the heritage of any one family, and that therefore the son of the deceased president should not succeed him. The objection was negatived, and everybody voted for Francisco Solano Lopez, and he was elected. This gentleman was immediately put in prison, and was never heard of afterwards."

Mr. Washburn's description of the "court" atmosphere of Asuncion is strikingly suggestive of the conditions in Caracas, Bogotá, and other cities in Latin America under tyrant domination:

"Nobody there dared say a word but 'Viva el gran Lopez!' His little paper is filled up with nothing but flourishing adulations of the great Marshal Lopez. All the time before the evacuation they were holding public meetings every week or two to make presents to Lopez. Even the women and

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