"Many Americans were missing. One of them, Mitchell Bettern, was found murdered in the woods. He had two thousand dollars on his person before he was killed.

"Those of the passengers who escaped and who afterwards reported the affair to the various New York and San Francisco papers, united in declaring that there was no excuse whatsoever for the police firing into the hotels, depot, and crowds of innocent passengers who were striving to escape, and the whole affair arose from their hatred of the Americans and a determination to kill and rob all of them they could.

"Thirty or forty natives were killed or wounded in the mêlée, chiefly by revolvers in the hands of returning Californians.

'Altogether, the losses of the American passengers and European residents of Panama who aided them, were eighteen killed and fifty or sixty wounded, ten of them mortally. Among the killed were two of the railroad watchmen. W. H. Hunter, secretary of the United States consul, Theodore de Sabla, and Palmer, an employé of the Panama Railroad Company, were wounded.

"The names of the others who fell upon that day can be found in the New York and San Francisco journals of the time. But Totten's report is decisive on the following points: The railway officials called upon the governor and the police for protection, and the governor and the police arrived. Instead of attempting to quiet the mob, they immediately began firing upon the railroad depot and the helpless passengers, men, women, and children, who had fled to it for safety.

"This is also borne out by the following letter from the commander of the United States sloop-of-war in Panama harbor at that time:

U. S. SHIP ST. MARY'S, HArbor of PANAMA, April 23, 1856. His Excellency DON F. DE FABRIGA, Governor of Panama.

SIR, - On the 15th several citizens of the United States, France, and Great Britain were massacred; others were seriously wounded, and a large amount of American property was plundered by the police and inhabitants of Panama and its vicinity.

These outrages, robberies, and murders were for the most part committed upon innocent and unarmed men, women, and children, who were peacefully endeavoring to pass this great highway of nations.

It is my chief duty to employ the force under my command for the prompt protection of the lives and property of American citizens. An early explanation, therefore, of the causes of the catastrophe, as well as some evidence of your Excellency's inclination and ability to prevent such occurrences, is desired by me, in determining the necessity of my immediate interference for the protection of the persons and property of the citizens of the United States until specific orders from my government shall be received.

I am respectfully yours, sir, your obedient servant,

(Signed) T. BAILEY, Commander U. S. N.

"The atrocious conduct of the Governor of Panama and his police was confirmed by the report of Mr. Corwine, the American Commissioner appointed by President Pierce to go to Panama and investigate the outrage for the American government. Mr. Corwine reported officially that the massacre was the result of a preconcerted plan, to which the Panama authorities were privy, and that they encouraged the plot. He also affirmed that the government of New Granada was utterly powerless to preserve order upon the Isthmus and to protect foreigners resident there or passing across. He recommended that ample indemnity be demanded for the loss of life and property,

and that the New Granadian government be required to make provisions for the protection of American citizens, and that in case these demands be not complied with, military occupation should be taken of the Isthmus by the United States.

"These charges were, of course, belittled and parried both by the governor of Panama and the government at Bogotá."

Captain Allen McLane, agent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at Panama, made a deposition before the United States consul at Panama, which was embodied in the report of Mr. Amos B. Corwine to the United States government, and which may be regarded as authentic. I quote from Moore's Int. Arb., Vol. II, pp. 1363 et seq., as follows:

"Captain McLane gives a graphic description of the scene in and about the railway station just before the riot, showing that the passengers were orderly and not anticipating any trouble. About six o'clock in the evening he heard the report of a firearm, which seemed to come from a spot outside of, but near the gate of, the railway station. This, as he was afterward informed, was the report of the shot fired during the altercation between the passenger and the watermelon vender. This report was followed almost instantly by shouting and hallooing from the same direction.

“A moment after he heard the report of the firearm, Captain McLane saw a native man come to the beach and run along it toward the city for about four hundred yards, when he lost sight of him. A few minutes later he heard a bell in the city ring an alarm, and immediately thereafter saw large crowds coming toward the railway station. From the time he heard the report of the firearm until he saw the crowds collecting about the station he thought that not more than ten minutes elapsed. From the time he heard the report until he heard the noise, which proved to be an attack on the hotels, he thought that not more than five minutes elapsed.

"At the time of the breaking out of the riot there were on the pier, where Captain McLane was standing, some thirty or forty natives who had been employed by the steamship company in discharging freight and baggage from the cars into the scows. Some of these men, seeing the excited crowds rushing toward the station shouting and waving their arms, jumped from the pier and started to join them; they returned, however, at Captain McLane's order, he explaining to them that they would only increase the excitement and become parties to the riot which had already begun. Some of these natives subsequently joined the rioters; others did not.

"When Captain McLane observed the rioters coming toward the railway station, which was about one hundred yards distant, he proceeded thither in company with two gentlemen named Center and Nelson. On his way to the ticket office he saw a party of men loading an old iron cannon, substituting for balls and bullets, of which none could be obtained, iron boiler rivets. This cannon, when loaded, was carried and placed outside of the gate of the railway station, commanding the street leading from the gate to the cienaga, and was put in charge of a trustworthy man, with orders not to fire it unless the natives should advance on the station and could not otherwise be restrained.

"Before he reached the station the appearance of a riot seemed so great

that Captain McLane despatched a message to the chief of police to bring his force at once. The messenger was a burly native who had for some time been in Captain McLane's employ. While bearing the latter's message, he was wounded by a ball in the neck, but he performed his mission.

"Arriving at the railway station, Captain McLane found the clerks engaged in registering tickets, the windows through which the passengers handed them being crowded; for, while the tumult was going on outside, the passengers had no conception of its seriousness, and Captain McLane himself did not expect that the station would be regularly assaulted.

"By this time many shots had been fired, principally by the natives, at the adjacent hotels, and a few by the inmates of the hotels in self-defence. Captain McLane expected the police soon to be on the ground, when it would only be necessary for them to draw up in the clear space between the station and the cienaga in order to restore quiet. With a view, however, to remove the passengers as speedily as possible from the reach of the excited natives, he directed the ticket clerks to put away their books and papers and to send the passengers on board the California steamer. Evidences of excitement and confusion began to appear among the persons assembled in the station. Captain McLane saw some old rusty muskets taken from the side of the room, where they had been hanging for months, and attempts made to load them; he saw pistols in the hands of several persons; many persons were asking for ammunition, though no one to his knowledge could find any; he heard afterward, however, that some was obtained and that the muskets, or a portion of them, were loaded. Perceiving the condition of affairs, he proposed to Mr. Nelson that they should endeavor to organize a few of the men around them and prepare to defend the station, should the police not arrive soon enough to prevent an attack upon it. This was found to be utterly impossible; hardly any one was armed, and there was a general feeling of helplessness and panic. About twenty men were collected at the gate of the station looking toward the cienaga. They were endeavoring to preserve order, and exerted themselves to restrain three or four men who would rush out in front of the gate and fire at random among the huts of the cienaga. Captain McLane while at the gate saw the iron cannon before referred to; it was planted so as to command the street leading from the cienaga to the station, and was in charge of an American named Willis, who, as has been stated, had orders not to fire it unless the natives attacked the station.

"During these scenes at the gate and early in the riot some of the passengers came on the ground in great excitement, saying that their families were in the upper stories of the hotels attacked by the natives. Some men were advanced to one of the hotels, and breaking in the side door, which was out of the range of fire, allowed the passengers to escape; at the same time a ladder was placed at one of the back windows, down which others escaped. During these occurrences many shots were fired from the cienaga at the hotels and toward the station. The fire of the natives on the station now increased considerably, and for the first time Captain McLane thought that an assault would be made.

"Some time before this he had invited on board the California steamer two native ladies who had come from the city to witness the embarkation and who were in an exposed position on the balcony of the railway company's mess house. He stated that their presence subsequently saved a heavily charged cannon from being fired into a crowd of some six hundred defence

less men, women, and children, who had been placed on board the steamer for safety.

"What afterward occurred may be given in Captain McLane's own language:

"Not a sound went from the station; doubtless each person there felt that dreadful scenes of massacre, rapine, and plunder were inevitable, unless the authorities of the country could be brought and interposed between the reckless and maddened rioters and their innocent, unarmed, and defenceless victims. At this moment the long-listened-for sound of the bugle note was heard, bringing relief to many an aching heart. We congratulated each other, and in a moment more would have been outside the enclosure to welcome our deliverers, when there was poured into the station a volley of musketry, accompanied by savage shouts for blood. This volley was quickly followed by others; the dreadful reality came upon us that the police had joined the mob. In a moment the police, headed by Colonel Garrido, had crossed the clear space between the cienaga and the station houses, and from under the windows of the ticket office and freight room commenced firing into them. At the same time the outside mob, with some of the police in company, entered the station from the west end along the track, firing through it to clear the way, and broke into the various rooms, machetes in hand, and began their work of murder and plunder.'

"When the police took possession of the station, Captain McLane, accompanied by another person, went to look for the governor, and, having found him after some delay, prevailed upon him to accompany them to the station and stop the massacre. But the order which it was said that the governor had previously given to the police to fire upon and occupy the station was carried out by them in such a manner that nearly every person in the station was massacred by them and the mob. It was also alleged that the governor was remiss in efforts to prevent the plunder and bloodshed which took place in his presence."

The reader will be interested in hearing what the United States government did in view of this premeditated outrage on its citizens, many of whom were helpless and unarmed.

The administration of Franklin Pierce deserves lasting censure for its despicable inactivity. After some years, an "International Mixed Commission" was appointed to "arbitrate" this affair. Its shocking disregard of the commonest principles of justice or decency is fully set forth herein, in the chapter on "Sundry Arbitrations between the United States and Latin-American Countries." Helpless people had been robbed, wounded, murdered. But no redress whatever was given them or their heirs; the perpetrators of the hideous crime were not punished; the brigand government of the country of the crime suffered not at all for the terrible part taken by armed official forces of one of its divisions; and the United States government maintained its customary attitude,— the laissez-faire of a too easy-going spirit.

VOL. II 14

CHAPTER XVI

CHILI'S ALLEGED FRIENDSHIP FOR THE UNITED STATES. THE BALTIMORE AFFAIR

HE American people should not rely too implicitly upon the

T prophetic utterances of American diplomatic representatives

to Latin-American countries. To illustrate, here is a quotation from a letter from William R. Roberts, of the United States Legation, Santiago, Chili, dated December 29, 1886, addressed to Secretary Bayard:

"I enclose extracts from two speeches delivered in the Chilian Senate on the 22d instant to which I beg to call your special attention. The subject under discussion was the annual appropriation for the Department of Exterior, and the speeches are important for two reasons: first, as an evidence of the desire of Chilian statesmen to act in concert with the United States on the question of bimetallism; next, as showing the existence of a new and better spirit towards our country. . . . I am informed on good authority that never since the formation of this government have such friendly sentiments been uttered in Congress about the United States. I look forward with great confidence to their steady and permanent growth. I may mention that Senator Concha i Toro is a very wealthy and influential man."

There is but one final test of things, the truth. Was Chili at that time friendly to the United States? Is it friendly now, -not friendly for diplomatic purposes, but really friendly?

An account of the killing and wounding of American sailors in Valparaiso, and of other events in Chili in 1891, follows. Such occurrences suggest an answer to the above questions, an answer not in the phrases of diplomacy, but in the logic of events. Our ministers to Latin America would do well to restrain their exuberant prophecies and confine themselves to facts.

I. THE AMERICAN LEGATION AT SANTIAGO UNDER ESPIONAGE

During the long and bloody revolution that led to the overthrow of Balmaceda, Dictator of Chili, in 1891, and his suicide on September 19th of that year, the Chilians committed a vast number of outrages against civilized foreigners. The American Legation, Mr. Patrick Egan, Minister, was appealed to for protection by large numbers of