Mr. Riotte to Mr. Seward.
Sir: With reference to the subject of my despatch No. 148, I have the honor to report that Mr. Joaquin Fernandez, the commissioner sent out by this government to investigate the action of the transit company on Colorado and San Juan rivers, has returned a few days since and told me he found—
1. That trunks of trees, carried down by and deposited along the banks of San Juan river, had been dragged to Colorado river and sunk at the point of bifurcation, so as to form by the action of nature, in the course of time, a barrier; and,
2. That at the bifurcation of Taura river (i. e., the second branch sent through Costa Rican territory east, and directly to the ocean by river San Juan) some seventy men were at work, with a steam ram, driving big piles across the river bed, and filling up the interstices with brushwood.
That he thereupon saw the company’s agent at San Juan del Norte, Mr. Babcock, and lodged with him, in the name of this government, a protest against the continuance of the works in said two rivers; that he was received by that gentleman in the most courteous manner, and by him informed that he was but carrying out the distinct orders of his company, which, as he had supposed, had previously procured the assent of the Costa Rican government to these works through Mr. Molina, in Washington, but that after receiving Mr. Fernandez’s protest he would have the works in the rivers immediately stopped. Thus this incident has been arranged to the fullest satisfaction of the government, as I learn from Mr. Volio.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.