No. 338.
Mr. Bassett to Mr. Fish.
Port au Prince, October 12, 1875. (Received October 29.)
Sir: On the morning of the 5th instant I had the honor to telegraph to you, via Colon, in these words, namely:
Hayti, October 5.
Hamilton Fish,
State
Department, Washington:
Refugeesamicably embarked and soldiers withdrawn from around my premises yesterday.
bassett.
Presuming that you duly received this welcome information, I desire now to outline to you proceedings which resulted in relief from the embarrassment growing out of the presence of two refugees under our flag here.
After having received your No. 238 of the 7th of September ultimo, I called, the afternoon of the 28th, upon the minister of foreign affairs, and informally conveyed to htm the last two sentences of that dispatch in which it is stated that you had determined to apply to the Navy Department to order a man-of-war to Port au Prince with a view to protecting me from insult, and that you much desired that the embarrassing question of the refugees might be adjusted upon the arrival of that vessel. I then went on to talk to him, in an informal and friendly sense, of the great desirability of terminating the trying difficulty at once. The minister seemed cordially to accept my arguments and views. And I was afterward authentically informed that he dispatched a courier the same evening to His Excellency President Domingue, who was then at Miragoane, to convey to the latter an outline of my friendly arguments in favor of embarking the refugees without delay, and inconsequence His Excellency thereafter immediately returned to the capital [Page 735] without fulfilling his contemplated visits in I learned that on his return the President hkd said that when E had lately called upon him, it seemed to him as if I had usually refrained from speaking to him freely about the case of the refugees. Accordingly when 1 went to the palace on the 2d instant, I said to him, alluding to the case:
“You may have remarked, President, that I have never, as a rule, introduced any matters of business in my conversation with you. A sense of delicate consideration for you personally and for your high official position had led me always to defer to your preference in this regard. I addressed myself in these affairs to your secretary of state.” “I thank you,” said he, “for your motives in this line of conduct; but really you and I so well understand each other that I can see no good reason why we should not talk over this affair of Boisrond Canal.”
I then repeated my friendly arguments in favor of the immediate termination of the embarrassing case of the Messieurs Canal. He said, in reply, “Well, you are probably right. I will see what I can do. I will call together my cabinet at once.”
Somewhat to my surprise, about 8 o’clock that evening the general in command of the forces around my premises, Seid Thélémaque, a most respectable and honorable man, sent for me to come to his headquarters. On arriving there I found the ministers of foreign affairs and of war in waiting for me, both in full dress. “Well, gentlemen,” said I, “I am glad to see you; what is your pleasure?” The minister of war quickly responded, his colleague assenting:
We have come to announce to you formally that the government has decided to embark Boisrond Canal and his brother. Their embarkation now depends upon you.
I responded that the announcement gave me great pleasure, and that I should be glad to conform to the government’s wishes as to the details of the embarkation. It was finally agreed that I should talk over this point with the minister of foreign affairs the following day, which was Sunday, between 11 and 2 o’clock. I found him alone that day at noon. He said the President was much pleased at my disposition to defer to the government’s wishes as to the details of the embarkation, and that His Excellency wished to see me. We therefore went together to the palace, where I met the President and all his ministers. We talked the matter over freely, and finally agreed that the general of the place and of the police should come with a guard of four men each to my house at 4 o’clock the next morning to accompany me and the refugees to the wharf. The interview was pleasant and agreeable in every way, no allusion whatever being made to the unpleasant part, and on separating, His Excellency warmly shook my hand saying that our old friendship was, in his view, fully re-established. I bowed in response and retired. I did not forget, however, that I was the only witness present at the interview on my side of the affair, and I therefore, about sundown, wrote a note in French to the minister to draw from him a writing about the embarkation, saying that according to agreement I had made all my arrangements for the embarkation at 4 o’clock the next morning, and asking him if the government had made its own arrangements in that sense. His answer was entirely satisfactory, and we were upon the point of retiring for the night at my house, when General Thélémaque again sent for me. It was about ten o’clock. On reaching his headquarters, I found the generals of the place and of the police there with their guards ready to proceed to town with the refugees. There had been so much feeling here about these latter-named persons that I was slow to accept their proposals to embark them at any other hour than the one fixed upon with the President and his ministers. But General Thélémaque showed me the favorable orders which he had received on the subject, and I finally said that I would embark the refugees at once, provided that time [Page 736] were given me to invite my colleague the French chargé d’affaires, who lives in my locality, to accompany me. This was agreed to, and a little after midnight the guards, on my invitation, entered my yard, the refugees, my secretary, the French chargé d’affaires, and myself, all mounted horses in waiting for us, and at the gate we were joined by the commanders of the line around my premises, so that we were altogether a sort of cavalcade of about twenty-two persons. In the stillness of the midnight we rode about three miles to the city, hardly a word being spoken or a person met on the route. Arrived at the wharf, we found a boat in readiness, and I went on board the American brigantine “Varnum H. Hill,” with the refugees, who * * * * * embraced me, and then allowed us to retire, scarcely a word having been exchanged. During the night all the guards were withdrawn from my vicinity, and we had quiet at our house for the first time in exactly five months. The next morning I learned that several persons were intending to visit the Messieurs Canal on board the vessel, and I thereupon passed word to the master through the consignee, Oliver Cutts, to allow no one to communicate with them from the shore, and to move out of the harbor as soon as possible, which he accordingly did, the vessel being all ready for sea.
The city was full of exclamations of satisfaction at the intelligence of the safe departure of the refugees, and many prominent persons called at my office to express to me both their felicitations at the removal of the immediate cause of irritation, and their conviction that all parties must alike be satisfied and rejoiced over it. A note of congratulation from our consular agent at Jacmel says that it “is a satisfactory termination of this difficult matter. Many parties here approve of your firmness in this delicate affair.”
So much feeling had been shown by the government about this case, that it was natural for it to seek some means to justify its action before the country. Accordingly in the official journal of the 9th instant is inserted a decree (inclosure A) signed by all the cabinet, and commuting the sentence of death against the Messieurs Canal to that of perpetual banishment.
I owe it to truth to say that in my opinion the embarrassment would never have been thus happily terminated if it had not been for the strong ground taken in the Department’s notes to Mr. Preston, and for the announcement in those notes and in the American journals of the determition to send a national vessel to this port. * * * *
I am, &c.,