Mr. Peck to Mr. Seward.
Sir: In consideration of the historical importance of the affair of her Britannic Majesty’s ship Bulldog at Cape Haytien, and of the bombardment of the defences of that town, which grew out of that affair, I have taken pains to collate the facts connected with both events, and would beg leave to present them in this despatch. In the latter part of September last, the revolutionists at Cape Haytien captured the government blockading steamer Voldrogue, rechristened the Providence. Repaired, manned, and put under the command of Captain Villaneuava, the prize was soon ready to do service for her new owners. Several schooners were also put in commission by the revolutionists and attached to the steamer, and by the middle of October the extemporized fleet was at sea.
Finding nothing off the cape to oppose him, Captain Villaneuava at once steered to the mouth of the harbor of L’Acul, which, being the base of the operations of President Geffrard’s army, he proposed to close.
On the 19th of the month (October) the Jamaica packet, a British merchant steamer, which for some months had been in the transport service of the Haytien government, and which was now loaded with army supplies, appeared off the port. The packet did not understand the character of the fleet which was in her way, and sailed, without hesitation, directly into its embrace. The first notice of peril which she bad was a round shot from the Providence, which carried away a part of her flag. Not waiting for further information, she put on steam, and soon ran through the threatening crowd which surrounded her. At the moment of her escape she saw her Britannic Majesty’s ship Bulldog, which was on her way into L’Acul to notify President Geffrard that the blockade of Cape Haytien no longer existed, and that British vessels must not be called to account by the government if they entered or departed from the port. The packet had a mail for the Bulldog, to deliver which she ran down to her. Going on board the Bulldog with the mail, and reporting the treatment he had just received from the revolutionists, Captain Cosgrove, of the packet, was told by Captain Wake, of the Bulldog, (the account of the affair given by Captain Cosgrove to many persons on his return to this city is here followed as strictly as possible,) “I have no right to protect you, but I will try to bluff these fellows this time. But you must not come here under a charter for the government again. If you come under a charter for President Geffrard with our flag flying, you will get our government into a scrape. If President Geffrard will buy your ship, and sail her under his own flag, very well. Otherwise, you must not come here; and if you do, I will not protect you.” He then fired a gun to notify the Sal-nave fleet that it must desist from further assault upon the packet.
At this Captain Villaneuava brought the Providence under the quarter of the Bulldog, and by awkward steering came foul of her. He then came upon the deck of the Bulldog, and in strong and not polite language, which was [Page 503] accompanied by menacing gestures, a pistol being in each of his hands, protested against the interference by which he had lost his expected prize. He claimed that the packet was not entitled to British protection, since she was carrying “contraband of war,” and had gone into her present business with the knowledge that she was subject to capture by the revolutionary party, and had accordingly required the Haytian government, as a condition of the charter, to insure her owners against loss by such capture. He then proposed that Captain Wake and himself go on board the packet and examine her papers, promising that, if the papers showed that the ship’s voyage was legal, and that she was entitled to British protection, he would allow her to go without further molestation. To the violent language which Captain Villaneuava at first employed Captain Wake replied, that he had “quite a mind to capture his (Villaneuava’s) whole fleet;” and to the proposition that the packet’s papers should be examined, he answered by saying, that he knew that the vessel was entitled to English protection, which protection she should have, at all events, and that the papers should not be examined. He also demanded of Captain Villaneuava proof of his right to stop British vessels, which proof the captain could not or would not produce. He then summarily ordered the Salnave officer to make off with himself and his fleet, or he would be punished for what Captain Wake called his “insufferable impudence.”
Captain Villaneuava had no alternative but to run to Cape Haytien and report what had occurred between himself and the Bulldog. His story produced great excitement. As a consequence the revolutionary “Committee of Public Safety” decreed (1) that none of the Bulldog’s officers or crew should be allowed to land on their return to the Cape, for the Bulldog was at the time stationed at the Cape, and (2) that the British consul should be required to give up the “political refugees” who were being sheltered under his flag.
Immediately on the return of the Bulldog to her anchorage the decree was put in force in both its parts. The British consulate was menaced by an armed party, and the person who was for the moment in charge of the house—for the consul had gone on board the Bulldog as soon as she came within the harbor— opened the door and gave up seven of the refugees. About the same time a boat from the Bulldog, in which was Captain Wake himself, was warned off from the wharf which it was approaching, with a notice that it would be fired upon if it did not respect the warning.
Immediately upon returning to his ship Captain Wake wrote to the “Committee of Public Safety,” demanding an explanation of and satisfaction for their, as he regarded it, singular and outrageous conduct. This note he sent to Captain Walker, of the United States ship De Soto, then lying in the harbor, with the request that it should be sent ashore by Captain Walker. Captain Walker received the note and at once put it on its way. In a letter acknowledging the receipt of the note, and informing Captain Wake that it had been sent to its destination, Captain Walker expressed regrets for the untoward events which had occurred, and begging Captain Wake, in consideration of the bearing which hasty measures might have on the fate of the refugees who had been taken from the British consulate, and on the interests of the foreigners residing in the town, to act with caution, and, in a spirit of conciliation, offered to be mediator, if it would be agreeable to both parties. Captain Wake at once acknowledged the receipt of the letter, but gave no other reply to the suggestion as to the character of the measures to be employed than to ask if Captain Walker would assist him in executing the measures he should adopt. For a reason why such assistance should be given by Captain Walker, he said that the assault upon the consulate was an offence which it was to the interest of all nations having consulates in the town to rebuke.
To this request Captain Walker replied that he was not sufficiently in possession [Page 504] of the facts to enlighten his judgment as to what he ought to do. He would inform himself and give a more specific answer the next day.
At daylight the next morning (October 20th) Captain Wake again wrote to Captain Walker, asking him to send an enclosed letter to the British consul, and also in terms declining Captain Walker’s offer of mediation.
Captain Walker then wrote again to Captain Wake, counselling moderation and forbearance. At the same time he wrote to the president of the “Committee of Public Safety,” asking what measures the committee proposed to take, and advising that such a course should be taken as would justify to the world the claim made by the revolutionary government that in all its acts it intended to be governed by a wise and just policy.
The next morning (October 21st) Captain Wake sent to Captain Walker another letter, in which he expressed the opinion that, as the committee had made no reply to his demand for redress, there was no room to hope that conciliation could effect anything, and adding that it was evident that resort must be had to extreme measures.
During this day Captain Walker visited the “Committee of Public Safety,” hoping to induce them to put themselves in the way of reconciliation with Captain Wake. He, however, found them irritated by the language of Captain Wake’s letters to them, which they regarded as menacing and insulting; they were consequently indisposed to come to terms. Later in the day Captain Walker called on Captain Wake and reported to him that he had found the committee convinced that “the forcing of the consulate was only a just retaliation for the indignity they had received in the Jamaica packet affair, and consequently that they were all for war.”
But in the mean time parties ashore had followed up Captain Walker’s labor with the committee, and induced that body to offer to Captain Wake, through Captain Walker, any reasonable satisfaction, provided Captain Wake would make suitable acknowledgments to them. At a late hour of the night Captain Walker was apprised of this new conclusion, but at such a time he could not communicate it to Captain Wake.
Early the next morning (October 22d) Captain Wake got under way and stood out of the harbor, having, while he was getting up his anchor, sent to the De Soto two letters, one for Captain Walker and the other for Mr. Rodatz, a prominent merchant of the place and consul for Hamburg. In the letter to Captain Walker he expressed regrets that Captain Walker had felt obliged to decline assisting him in his affair with the committee, and said he was convinced that this refusal had given moral strength to the committee. He also requested Captain Walker (1) to protect the British residents of the town, and (2) to provide for the safety of the refugees taken from the consulate by notifying the committee that the continuance of his (Walker’s) intercourse with them must depend on their doing no violence to the refugees.
In the letter to Mr. Rodatz Captain Wake, after some preliminaries, (see A, in the file accompanying this despatch,) remarked, “I have determined, in the interest of the said foreigners and refugees who have been taken from under the protection of the British flag, to abstain for the present from retaliatory measures in the bay of Cape Haytien.”
This letter to Mr. Rodatz led the foreigners ashore to believe that, as retaliatory measures were to be deferred, they might safely remain at their homes and not go on board the De Soto, as Captain Wake advised them to do.
To the astonishment of everybody, however, about sunrise on the 23d the Bulldog again appeared off the port, coming at a high rate of speed. The ship had been, since leaving the Cape, at L’Acul, where the British consul and Captain Wake conferred with President Geffrard, the result of which conference was a programme for a joint attack, the Bulldog to assail the fleet and the shoreworks, while the President assaulted the land defences of the town.
[Page 505]The return of the Bulldog being reported to Captain Walker, he ordered a boat to put off and convey to Captain Wake a notice that he (Walker) was confident that matters were in such a train that the unfortunate quarrel could, be settled to the satisfaction of both parties. The Bulldog, however, took no notice of the boat, although the officer commanding it made two earnest efforts to reach her, and although it was distinctly seen by the Bulldog, as her captain afterwards admitted.
Meantime Captain Walker, fearing that matters might come to extremes, sent all his unemployed boats ashore for the foreigners.
After getting inside of Fort Picolet, the seaward defence of the town, the Bulldog opened fire on the fort. The fort answered the fire by only two shots, but a battery within the town fired vigorously on the vessel as soon as she came within reach. This fire the Englishman returned with interest.
As the Bulldog, which was at the moment running with a full head of steam for the steamer Providence, which she evidently intended to run down, came abreast of the battery she ran upon a spit and was instantly hard and fast aground. This, however, did not make her abate her fire, which she still resolutely maintained against the battery and the Providence. Her shots soon sent the Providence to the bottom.
It will be seen that the fire which the Bulldog drew from the battery exposed the De Soto, which having cold boilers could not move out of the way, nor was it until two hours had passed, during which the Bulldog still kept up her fire, that she could change her position.
Captain Walker, finding that his ship was in danger, and apprehending that the foreigners, some of whom were at the moment being brought off in his boats, and others of whom were yet on shore, would be likely to be killed by shots from either the Bulldog or from the battery which was firing upon her, or by the enraged populace in town, sent to Captain Wake and demanded his reasons for his unannounced act, by which a frendly ship of war and the lives of so many foreigners on shore were put in jeopardy. Captain Wake replied that he had got into a bad fix, but trusted to American generosity, and hoped Captain Walker would not take advantage of his position. Meantime the Bulldog still kept up her fire, thereby destroying a number of houses, and wounding three Germans in the town. She also sent a musketry fire from her tops upon the crew of the Providence who were struggling in the water. Captain Walker, seeing this, sent a boat to pick up the men in the water. Soon after this Captain Wake sent one of his boats on the same errand.
While this was passing the populace of the town was being excited, beyond measure, by the acts of the Bulldog. At the opening of the Bulldog’s fire a clamor for the lives, not only of the refugees taken from the British consulate, but of all foreigners remaining in the town, was raised. With much difficulty General Salnave appeased the people by reminding them that the quarrel was not with foreigners as a class, but with the British only. He thus succeeded in averting the blow from the foreigners, and even saved four of the refugees. The other three he ordered to be shot, which order was immediately executed.
Captain Wake, finding that he could not get his ship off without help, sent to Captain Walker, and asked his assistance. Captain Walker replied that his own ship was adrift among the reefs, and that his first duty was to secure her safety. At a later hour, Captain Wake again appealed to Captain Walker for aid, saying, that if Captain Walker would get him off the spit, he “would at once leave the harbor.” Captain Walker replied, that he “was sorry to see Captain Wake in a position so melancholy, but that he could not interfere as his ally in a war so recklessly begun by him. What he could do, however, without violation of neutrality, should be heartily done. He would take and provide for the Bulldog’s sick and wounded, but could not tow her from under the fire of her enemy.” In accordance with his offer to provide for the sick and wounded, he immediately [Page 506] sent a boat, prepared to receive disabled men, to the Bulldog. The boat was alongside the Bulldog when a shell from the shore battery blew up one of the ship’s boilers.
Captain Wake at first declined Captain Walker’s offer as to the sick and wounded, but afterwards accepted it, and sent such of his crew as were hors de combat to the De Soto.
About nine o’clock at night Captain Wake, finding that his efforts to get his ship afloat availed nothing, blew her up, and with his crew left the harbor in his boats.
By this time the De Soto was crowded with the sick and wounded from the Bulldog, and the foreigners who had come from the shore. To relieve himself of the inconvenient company, Captain Walker sailed for Port Royal, Jamaica, where he landed the Bulldog’s men; thence he came here and landed the foreigners. And it is in place for me to say here, that I regard the protection which Captain Walker extended to those foreigners as a service to humanity, for which he should be heartily thanked; nor do I doubt that the expense to our government occasioned by his hospitality to these shelterless people will come back in the future in large returns of valuable good-will to our flag.
The day before Captain Walker came into this port her Britannic Majesty’s frigate Galatea sailed from here for Cape Haytien, having on board her Britannic Majesty’s chargé d’affaires in Hayti, Mr. Spencer St. John, and expecting to be joined on her way to the Cape by several other British men-of-war. It was understood that the errand of Mr. St. John and the fleet was the settlement of the issue with the Salnave party at the Cape, and it was expected that the outcome of the affair would be the bombardment of the town by the fleet. It was seriously feared by all intelligent parties here that such an event would, by disturbing the amour propre of the Haytians, put in peril the interests, and even the lives, of all foreigners in the island. When, therefore, the De Soto arrived here, and Captain Walker had reported to me what he had seen and heard at the Cape, I said to him that, “much as we needed his presence here in the excitement growing out of the Bulldog affair and the revolt in Jamaica, I could not doubt that he ought to return to the Cape, and, if possible, avert a resort by the British fleet to extreme measures, since by so doing he would more effectually protect not only Americans but all foreigners there than he could by remaining here.” To facilitate his mission I gave him a letter of introduction to Mr. St. John, in which I expressed to Mr. St. John the belief that Captain Walker could promote that pacific solution of the unhappy controversy which I was certain he must, as I certainly did, regard as desirable. Captain Walker accordingly sailed from here without delay, and reached Cape Haytien early the next morning (November 7th.) As soon as his anchor had taken the ground he called on Captain Macguire, of the Galatea, and was by him introduced to Mr. St. John, to whom he presented my letter. A conversation, altogether general, followed, and Captain Walker, finding that neither his opinion as to matters at issue nor his aid was required, returned to his own vessel. During this day neither Mr. St. John nor the commander of the fleet communicated with parties ashore. The committee of public safety, however, learned in some way that Mr. St. John was on the Galatea, and in the evening wrote to say to him that they had heard of his arrival and were surprised that they had not seen him ashore. They would be glad to see him and would try to make his visit agreeable, &c., &c. This communication was sent to Mr. St. John through Captain Walker. Meantime, at 2 p. m. of the same day, Captain Walker had received from Captain Macguire a formal notice (B in file) that in retaliation for the violation of the British consulate, and the shooting of the refugees who were taken therefrom, the defences of the town would probably be attacked by the fleet the next day.
When, therefore, Captain Walker received from the committee the letter spoken of above, which he was to send to Mr. St. John, he reported to the messenger [Page 507] of the committee the notice which he had received from Captain Macguire. This was the first intimation received by the committee as to the errand of the fleet or as to the purposes of its commander.
It should be said here that on receiving Captain Macguire’s notice, Captain Walker wrote to Captain M. (see C in file) reminding him that the attack on the consulate had been provoked, first, by the interference of the Bulldog in the Jamaica packet affair, which the committee regarded as very unjust, and, second, by the attack of the Bulldog on the town, and that the committee had notified Captain Wake that the refugees would be shot if he attacked the city, and accordingly his order to the Bulldog to fire was in effect an order to shoot the refugees. Captain Macguire made no reply to this communication.
At 8 o’clock the next morning Mr. St. John sent to the committee of public safety a notice that he had come to get proper redress for the wrong recently done to the British consulate, but that he would not treat with the committee. The committee must therefore go on board some vessel in the harbor and leave for any place out of the country which they might choose, after which he would confer with any persons whom the people might name as their representatives. The committee replied that, “to give proof of their good will and to render homage to the British flag, which had always been respected in the city, they would embark on the United States steamer De Soto and there await the issue of his (Mr. St. John’s) conference.”
But about noon, and before this answer of the committee could reach him, Mr. St. John sent to the committee an ultimatum (see D in file) in which, after referring to his previous note, in which he required that the committee should go on board any vessel, he now required that they “should come on board the Galatea and be conveyed by her as passengers to any neighboring country, as, for instance, Monte Christo. When this was done he would enter into negotiations regarding future British intercourse with whatever authorities might be chosen by the people. In the event of the non-acceptance, by 10 o’clock p. m. of that day, of these last terms, Captain Macguire would be left to take such active steps as he should consider fit.
The terms were not accepted, and at nine o’clock the next morning the fleet attacked the defences of the town on one side, while President Geffrard made an assault on the other.
By night the works were all destroyed, and the government troops had entered the town. General Salnave’s troops then fired the town in many places and scattered for safety. Some fifteen or twenty prominent persons, among whom were General Salnave, and Mr. De Lonne, the president of the Committee of Public Safety, took refuge on the De Soto.
The next morning Captain Walker got up his anchor and went to Monte Christo, in the Dominican territory, some thirty miles from Cape Haytien. Here he sent a boat ashore and notified the authorities that he had on board certain parties from Cape Haytien, who would like to land. The officer in command of the port replied, that all except General Salnave and Mr De Lonne might land. The excepted persons must not come on shore, as he had instructions to that effect from the general commanding the arrondissement. Captain Walker then put General Salnave and Mr. De Lonne on board an English schooner lying in the harbor, after which he returned to Cape Haytien.
Regretting that my narrative of events which may yet have an important bearing on political relations in the West Indies has necessarily been so long,
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.