No. 334.
Mr. Watson
to Mr. Fish.
Sir: A dispatch has been transmitted to Her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs by Her Majesty’s chargé d’affaires in Central America, giving an account of the circumstances attending a barbarous outrage which was perpetrated at San José of Guatemala, on the 24th of April last, by order of the then commandante of that place, by name Gonzalez, on the person of the British vice-consul, Mr. John Magee.
In the statement by Mr. Magee, accompanying the dispatch above alluded to, testimony is borne to the loyal conduct toward his colleague of Mr. Edwin James, the United States consular agent at San José, who presented himself before the commandante, and delivered to him an official protest against his outrageous proceeding, thereby incurring the threat from Gonzalez of personal violence toward himself. He, notwithstanding this, stood by his colleague throughout this very painful affair, and was the means of Mr. Magee’s life being saved, at the peril of his own. Her Majesty’s government have learned with much satisfaction the active exertions which were made by Mr. James on this occasion, and I have been instructed by the Earl of Derby to request the Government of the United States to convey to Mr. James the thanks of the Queen, and of Her Majesty’s government, for his conduct. I have the honor further to state to you, sir, that Her Majesty’s government have also learned with much satisfaction the support and co-operation rendered by the United States representative in Guatemala to Her Majesty’s chargé d’affaires on the occasion in question.
I have, &c.,