No. 367.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Mexico, October 5, 1878.
(Received October 22.)
No. 799.]Sir: I am to-day in receipt of your dispatch No.
514, of the 20th ultimo, in regard to the raids committed by Areola and his
band of Kimenes, and giving the views of our government on the state of
affairs on that frontier; and I have to report that I have lost no time in
submitting the same to the Mexican Government in a note of this date
addressed to the acting minister of foreign affairs, in which I embodied the
exact language of your dispatch.
On yesterday I also gave to the acting minister the contents of your dispatch
No. 510, of the 14th ultimo, concerning the doings of Areola’s band in Texas
in August last.
In the same note I also referred to the complaints which I made to the
minister of foreign affairs and President Diaz six weeks ago in regard to
this same Areola, and to the protection and encouragement shown him by the
frontier authorities.
You will find this matter alluded to in my dispatch No. 767, of August 24
last, in giving an account of my interview with the President and Mr. Mata
on frontier affairs. I have not been advised that any measures were adopted
concerning Areola, or that my complaint had any effect.
I am, &c.,
[Page 623]
[Inclosure in No. 799.]
Mr. Foster to Mr.
Avila.
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, October 4,
1878.
Sir: The Department of War of the United States
has received information from the commanding general of the Department
of Texas that a raiding party, numbering some thirty men, led by a
Mexican named Areola, has appeared lately between Fort Duncan and El
Jardin, Tex., threatening the destruction of the property of Americans
in that region. On the 8th of August last Areola visited the ranch of
Mr. José Maria Cardenas, which he threatened to burn, together with the
neighboring ranch belonging to one Martinez, and left, announcing his
intention to return and execute his menaces.
I have been instructed to bring this circumstance to the attention of the
Mexican Government, and to inquire of your honor whether the doings of
Areola are known to the authorities, and what means, if any, have been
or will be taken to prevent such lawless measures on the soil of a
friendly neighboring state.
In executing, as I have above, the instructions of the Secretary of
State, I desire to add, that in a conference which I had at the foreign
office with the late minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Mata, on the 22d
of August last, in regard to the continued raids being made by Mexicans
and Indians info Texas, representing to him the critical condition of
affairs on that frontier in consequence thereof, and the urgent
necessity that the Mexican Government should at once adopt some measures
to repress and punish them, I read to him an unofficial letter from
General Ord to me, dated July 25 last, in which special complaint was
made of this same person, Areola, giving information of his residence,
character, and conduct, and stating that while his extradition or
punishment had been demanded, he had, instead, been assigned to military
command by the authorities, and that the same spirit of contempt and
indifference for the just demands of the Government of the United States
was manifested in other instances by the Mexican authorities on the
frontier of Coahuila. And on the next day, to wit, the 23d of August
last, the same subject was discussed in an interview which, at Mr.
Mata’s request, the President was pleased to grant me.
Up to the present date I have not been advised that any measure has been
adopted by the Mexican Government to prevent the raids of Areola and his
band, or punish them for their lawless acts. The inquiry which I have
been instructed to make of your honor, as given above, appears the more
pertinent in view of the information which I communicated on the 22d of
August last.
I remain, &c.,
