[Extract.]
Mr. Webb to Mr.
Seward
No. 50.]
Legation of the United States,
Petropolis,
June 7, 1863.
Sir: I enclose herewith three despatches to the
secretary of foreign affairs, numbered, respectively, 1, 2, and 3,
according to date. You will perceive that two of them have reference to
the presence of the pirates Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, in Brazilian
ports.
* * * * * * * *
I also forward a copy of a despatch from the Marquis d’Abrantes, marked
No. 4, dated May 29, in response to mine of the 27th.
* * * * * * * *
I have the honor, &c.,
Hon. William H. Seward, &c., &c., &c.
[Page 1276]
Mr. Webb to the Marquis d’Abrantes
Legation of the United
States, Petropolis,
May 27, 1863.
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
from the United States, has the honor to report to his excellency
the Marquis d’Abrantes, counsellor to his Imperial Majesty and
secretary of state for foreign affairs, that on the 20th instant, in
the evening, the pirates Alabama and Georgia were still in the port
of Bahia. The Alabama arrived there on the 11th and the Georgia on
the evening of the 12th, so that the former had been in Bahia nine
days, harbored, protected, and supplied with the necessary stores
and provisions by the authorities of that port, in defiance of the
solemn protest of the consul of the United States, and in utter
disregard of the well-known fact that this pirate had captured and
destroyed American shipping in the waters of Brazil; and for so
doing, thereby violating the neutrality and insulting the
sovereignty of the empire, had been ordered by the president of
Pernambuco to leave the island of Fernando Noronha.
The pirate Georgia having arrived at Bahia on the 12th, had been in
that port eight days, receiving coal and such stores and provisions
as were necessary to enable her to continue her depredations upon
the unprotected commerce of a friendly nation; and both the pirates
landed a large number of prisoners, with the sanction and aid of the
governor, proclaiming them to be the passengers, officers, and crews
of unarmed American merchantmen, trading with Brazil and other
friendly nations, which had been captured and destroyed by the
freebooters, who were so kindly received and harbored by the
authorities and inhabitants of Bahia. And in the streets and on the
wharves of that city, with the knowledge and approval of the
president and authorities, the freebooters of both the piratical
vessels publicly hawked about and sold the articles of clothing and
bijouterie of which they had pillaged and
robbed the defenceless females and other passengers, as well as the
officers and crews, of the American ships they had burned and
destroyed at sea.
By arrangement the English bark Castor arrived at Bahia almost
simultaneously with the two pirates, having on board coal shipped
for them at Liverpool, to be delivered to them in the port of Bahia;
and it was publicly remarked that, in addition to coal for the
pirates, she had also on board two guns of 125-pound calibre each,
and other munitions of war. Thereupon the consul of the United
States represented the facts to the president, suggesting that a
guard should be placed on board said bark Castor, and she be
prohibited from going alongside of the pirates, particularly at
night, to discharge into them her coals and munitions of war, in
violation of the neutrality of Brazil. This protest the president
acknowledged to have received at 6 p. m. on the day it was written,
and yet on that same night the said bark Castor was permitted to go
alongside the Georgia, and only ordered to leave her on the
following morning, when, of course, she had accomplished her purpose
of going alongside, whatever that purpose was.
These facts, in the opinion of the undersigned, are calculated very
seriously to compromise the government of Brazil and the cordial
relations existing between it and the United States, and they are
placed before your excellency in the hope and belief that the
president of Bahia will be so dealt with by the imperial government,
without any specific demand from the undersigned, that he may call
the attention of his government to the proceeding, as another
evidence of the desire of Brazil to maintain, unimpaired, [Page 1277] the very cordial and
friendly relations now existing with the United States. And he
avails himself of this occasion to renew to your excellency the
assurances of his most distinguished consideration.
The Marquis d’Abrantes, &c., &c., &c.
D.
The Marquis d’Abrantes to
General Webb
Ministerio dos Negorios
Estrangeiros, Rio de
Janeiro,
May 29, 1863.
Fulfilling the duty of acknowledging the reception of the note, dated
the 27th of the present month, which Señor James Watson Webb, envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the United States,
has done me the honor of sending me, in this city, for the purpose
of exclaiming against the recent facts which he states to have been
done by the president of the province of Bahia, in violation of the
neutrality of the empire, in favor of the confederate steamers
Alabama and Georgia, I take upon me, in answer, to assure Señor Webb
that, giving my whole and due consideration to these allegations, as
soon as shall have arrived the information in regard to the matters
claimed to have been done by the aforesaid president, the imperial
government, as I have informed General Webb in my note of the 23d of
the current month, will not hesitate to proceed in conformity with
the position it has assumed and to which it is bound.
I renew to James Watson Webb the expressions of my high
consideration.
General James Watson Webb, Envoy Extraordinary, &c., &c.,
&c., to the Court of Brazil.
