Mr. Washburn to Señor Benitez.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 20th instant, in which you advise me that the Portuguese subject José Maria Leite Pereira had disappeared from his ordinary residence by evasion of the police orders, and you request me to inform you if, as the police had reported, he was in this legation, and how long he had been here; and you add that I am also to inform you in what quality and with what motive he remains in this legation.
You also request me, at the same time, that I will send you a list of all the persons that, without belonging to the legation, are sheltered by it.
You will permit me to observe that all these questions pertain to the internal affairs of this legation, and that therefore I am under no obligation, except as a matter of courtesy, to return any answers to them. Nevertheless I shall give you the desired information, so far as I have it, though the note of your honor calls for it in terms so peremptory as would justify me in withholding it.
The individual mentioned by you, Don José Maria Leite Pereira, whom I had always known as the acting consul of the King of Portugal, and so recognized him on various official occasions, came to this legation, accompanied by his wife, on the 16th instant. They have remained here ever since in the quality of guests of Mrs. Washburn and myself. Of his motives in coming here I am not further informed than that they are founded on the representation of Mr. Cuberville, at present in charge of the French consulate, after his return from his late visit to San Fernando.
I give, as requested by you, a list of the persons not belonging to the legation, but whom I have nevertheless received within its premises, some as guests and some in other capacities. In my note of the 24th of February, which was not sent but as an accompaniment of that of the [Page 727] 4th of April, I gave a list of the persons belonging to the legation. None of these are included in the present list, which is as follows:
Mr. and Mrs. Eden, Mrs. Thomas (widow) and three children, Mrs. Cutler (widow) and two children, Mr. and Mrs. Watts and four children, Mr. Newton and four children, Mr. Miles, English; Don Antonio de las Carreras, and Don Francisco Rodriguez Larreta, Oriental; John A. Duffield and Thomas Carter, Americans; José Maria Leite Pereira and wife, Portuguese; Adolph Brose, German.
I take this occasion to tender to your honor assurances of distinguished consideration.
His Honor Gumesutdo Benitez, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs.