Mr. Fish, Secretary of State, to Mr. Roberts, Spanish minister.
Washington , April 7, 1869.
The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note of the 3d instant from Don Mauricio Lopez Roberts, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain, stating that he had been informed by the Cuban authorities, which information was confirmed through other channels, that one of the Peruvian monitors had entered the Cuban port of Naranjo in violation of the promise made by Señor Don Garcia y Garcia, minister plenipotentiary of Peru, before those vessels left the United States.
[734] In reply the undersigned has the honor to state that this Department has no other information on the subject than that contained in Mr. Roberts’s note. I appears, however, on examining the terms of Mr. Garcia’s notes on the occasion of the departure of the monitors, that they do not contain any pledge that those vessels shall not enter a Spanish port under any circumstance, but that they shall not, on their way to Peru, attack the possessions of Spain. Mr. Roberts does not allege that any such attack has been made by the monitor to which he refers; consequently the pledge given by Mr. Garcia cannot be regarded as violated until such attack shall *have taken place. The mere entrance of one of those vessels into a Cuban port cannot justly be regarded as a hostile act. It may have been compelled by stress of weather or other similar cause. Mr. Roberts is aware that the monitors referred to were not intended for sea-going vessels. Indeed, they cannot [Page 724] navigate the ocean unless attended or towed by other steamers or vessels; consequently they cannot remain long at sea without proceeding to some port for the purpose of replenishing their fuel and other supplies.
Until authentic information to the contrary shall have been received, it must be presumed that, if the monitor to which Mr. Roberts refers has in point of fact entered a-Cuban port, that entrance was occasioned by some such necessity as that adverted to.
The undersigned avails of this occasion to offer to Mr. Roberts the assurance of his high consideration.
- HAMILTON FISH.
- Señor Don M. Lopez Roberts.