Señor Caminos to Mr. Washburn.
After answering your verbal note of yesterday officially, another note comes to me, and in it you say that other persons not English had left money with you to be taken away, but that the list you sent contained the most of what you had; and you add, that some may have left their property in safes that you could not carry, and that you left them in your house, to be delivered to the owners by your successor and some person [Page 818] appointed by the government, and that you were also going to leave a part of the archives of the legation.
I must say, Mr. Minister, that your manner of treating this matter verbally seems very singular to me, particularly as it is of such importance, and consequently I make the following reply:
1. The English alluded to are those who are in the government service and wish to aid their families abroad by their pay, and it is not meant as a particular favor to the English nation to the slight of other nations friendly to Paraguay.
2. Whatever commission you may have received from persons not mentioned to take away their money, you cannot do it without due obedience to the laws of the country in such cases made and provided.
3. It appears, from cases already decided, that several criminals deposited their robberies of the treasury in your house, when the money does not belong to them, and cannot be taken out of the country legally.
4. My government will not be responsible for effects at your legation after you have left it, particularly as it is in a hired house; nor is there any law to prevent the owner from taking possession of it whenever he pleases; and therefore, if you leave anything there, no matter what it is, it will be considered as abandoned property. It would be entirely different if your successor had arrived; but he has not yet been announced, and when you quit the house no person shall enter it, for then the evacuation of Asuncion will be complete, as you were the only person who refused to leave the city.
I cannot understand your reasons, Mr. Minister, for abandoning a house in a depopulated city, where you were the only inhabitant, and leaving the archives of your legation in it; but as it is not my business to demand your reasons for anything you do, in respect to the great American republic, I offer to receive under seal all the papers of the legation, and to hold them subject to the order of the American government.
Yours, &c.,
Hon. Charles A. Washburn, &c., &c., &c.