A.
Mr. Nelson to Mr.
Aspiroz
United States Legation, Mexico, February 24, 1871.
Sir: I deem it my duty to call the attention of
the Mexican government to the inclosed anonymous proclamation, which I
am informed has been profusely circulated in the various towns and
villages of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, immediately after the close of
the late expedition of the forces of the State of Oaxaca against the
rebels of Juchitan.
The denunciatory language therein employed against several citizens of
the United States, and the incitements given to violence and
assassination, would seem to deserve the serious attention of the
government of Mexico.
I have the honor to remain, with great respect, your obedient
servant,
B.
[Translation.]
People of the Isthmus:
You have already witnessed the great losses which we have suffered on
account of four miserable foreigners having defied the legitimate
government of the State of Oaxaca; four wretches Whom we have seen not
long ago clothed in garments so ragged that the lice needed to be
rope-dancers, and were occupied in performing gymnastic exercises.
[Page 628]
You now see the cook of the Louisiana company, John A. Wolf, demanding of
our impoverished nation, with the utmost cynicism and impudence, half a
million and odd dollars.
You now see Francis Dubois, the coachman of Don Thomas H. Wolrich,
demanding also nearly four hundred thousand dollars.
You now see Don Alexander Gibbs accumulating every year a great fortune
by means of our sweat and labor. You see him in this moment, when he has
brought anarchy upon us, selling powder to the rebel chieftains,
actuated, solely by the ignoble interest of making money. You also see
the immense heaps of salt which he has in the salt springs called “of
Juchitan,” but which ought to be called “of Gibbs.” You well know that
for a miserable stipend in money or in intoxicating liquor he robs us of
our labor, making us pile up the salt from which he reaps such
exorbitant profit.
What benefit do we derive from the fact that these springs bear the name
of Juchitan, when no advantage from them falls to our people, but only
to the pocket of Don Alexander, who has bought up our principal chiefs
with a box of wine or a few yards of his contraband cloth? If the
government orders, in accordance with the laws, that the value of these
salt springs be estimated, you will see the people of Juchitan
petitioning that the matter remain in its present state—that is to say,
under the domination of the law of the strong hand, and of whoever may
collect the greatest number of armed imbeciles to use as beasts of
burden. And who form this people? Piñeda and Don Alexander. And will
these jesuitical foreigners aid us to rebuild our houses that have been
burned?
How can Gibbs maintain his innocence if the testimony of his fellow god
fathers Che Pedro Piñeda and his accomplice H. be taken? And which of
the Ches is not an accomplice of the innocent
Gibbs?
People, open your eyes and behold your executioners, who, under the masks
of hypocrites, and actuated by a thirst for money, sink thee in misery!
People, learn who are the real “Binos Gadas,” and make them disappear by
the use of your daggers!
You now see these priests Cecilio Reyes, Vera, and Bonifacio Villalobos,
each of whom has at the lowest calculation, at this time, twenty
children and seven or eight concubines, bedecked and bejeweled with the
money which they extort from us by their machinations and invocations of
Saint Vincent! Why should I mention them names, since you well know
them? What advancement can our town ever make, as long as it suits the
convenience of these monks that we remain in
the most complete ignorance and the grossest prejudices? What future can
we expect in case of the arrival of some other Don Alexander, as ragged
as you well remember this one to have been, to enrich himself at our
expense by the sacrifice of our labor and our prosperity?
Accursed a thousand times be all those who have counseled our poor town
to embark m a revolution in which we have lost even the image of our
patron saint, merely for the vile interest of making us believe that the
troops of the government carried it away!
People, all this cries out for a vengeance proportionate to the magnitude
of our grievances, which we hope yet to wreak upon the real “Binos
Gados.”
SEVERAL NATIVES OF THE ISTHMUS.
Vera
Cruz, January 7,
1871.
