As yet I have received no formal reply from Mr. Silvela, but in an interview
with him yesterday he informed me that the matter should receive speedy
attention, but that his government naturally wished to hear the
counter-statement of the. commanders of the Spanish guardacostas, and also to make inquiry as to the fairness of the
damages claimed, before proceeding to a settlement; that the illness of the
minister of ultramar (whose department they especially concerned) had
prevented his bringing them before the cabinet, which, however, he expected
to be able to do at a council which sits this morning.
In a previous interview, I informed Mr. Silvela, in accordance with your
directions, that, should he so desire, I would furnish him with a copy of
your instruction on the subject. He replied that he should be pleased to
receive it, and I accordingly supplied him with a copy.
[Inclosure in No. 47.]
Mr. Lowell to Mr.
Silvela.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, December 7,
1877.
Excellency: I have received instructions to
call your excellency’s immediate and earnest attention to the three
cases of what I am sure your excellency will agree with me in
considering wanton and unwarrantable outrages inflicted by Spanish
guard-boats upon three American whaling schooners while engaged in the
peaceful and legitimate exercise of their calling in the neighborhood of
the island of Cuba.
Nothing can be further from the intention of the President, sincerely
desirous of maintaining and confirming the friendly relations between
the United States and Spain, than to attribute to His Catholic Majesty’s
Government any connivance in such lawless (I might well say belligerent)
proceedings, or the most qualified approval of them. His excellency
Señor Mantilla, who so worthily represents the interests of Spain at
Washington, when the matter was brought to his knowledge at once gave
the most ample assurances that the Government of His Catholic Majesty
heartily disapproved and disavowed, and was ready to make instant
compensation for, the violent proceedings to which I am directed to call
your excellency’s attention.
I am instructed to communicate to your excellency the satisfaction of the
President at these friendly assurances, but at the same time to express
his serious anxiety as to the effect of such outrages upon the public
opinion of a nation especially sensitive to the sacredness of its flag,
to the protection which it should afford, and to the international
rights which it covers. It is not without reason, then, that he looks
upon repeated occurrences of this kind as of peculiar gravity in their
bearing upon those friendly relations between the United States and
Spain which are equally for the interest of both countries.
Unhappily, no disavowal on the part of His Catholic Majesty’s Government,
however acceptable in itself, can altogether efface the painful
impression made upon the public mind by such arbitrary and unlawful
proceedings on the part of subordinate officials in the service of
Spain, and it is not now tor the first time that the culpable
indifference of such officials in the island of Cuba to the orders of
the imperial government has been made the subject of remonstrance.
I now proceed to lay before your excellency, in brief detail, the cases
in question:
Toward the end of May last the schooner Ellen Rizpah, of Newburyport,
Mass.,
[Page 776]
engaged in the pursuit
of whales, at a distance of 20 miles from the shores of Cuba, was
brought to by a blank cartridge from a Spanish guarda-costa. On the Ellen Rizpah hoisting her colors, the
guard-boat, having first reloaded her gun with ball, drew up under her
stern within short range, and ordered her captain to come on board. This
order he was forced to obey, and he was kept prisoner on board the guarda-costa for four days, exposed in wet
clothing to all the inclemencies of the weather, and roughly denied
permission, which he repeatedly asked, to have clothes and food sent him
from his own vessel. His offer to show his papers was rejected. At the
end of the four days a Spanish steamer arrived, his papers were
examined, and he was rudely ordered to go about his business. When he
attempted to do this, and was preparing for the capture of some whales
then in sight, he was again chased by another armed boat for a distance
of 20 miles, but, owing to the sailing qualities of his schooner,
fortunately escaped a second detention and further outrage. By this
violence he was deterred from returning to his fishing ground and his
voyage broken up, at a loss to the owners estimated at $5,000.
Scarcely had the surprise occasioned by the treatment of the Ellen Rizpah
had time to subside when another act of the same high-handed character,
and if possible worse in its details, Was laid before the Secretary of
State at Washington. The whaling schooner Rising Sun, of Provincetown,
Mass., arrived off the South Keys on the 23d of May last. This is a well
known resort for whalers, and two boats from the schooner, one in charge
of the captain and the other of the mate, started in pursuit of some
whales which they had sighted in the offing. While thus visibly engaged
in their legitimate calling, a Spanish guarda-costa hove in sight and at once fired a blank cartridge
in the direction of the captain’s boat, followed immediately by two
solid shot. Captain Taylor steered for his vessel, leaving his mate to
secure a whale which they had just struck. The guarda-costa now bore down, and when within easy range
discharged three volleys of small-arms at his boat. The boat-steerer of
Captain Taylor, a Portuguese, knew enough Spanish to understand what was
said by those on board the guarda-costa, who
declared that they would take the Rising Sun and sink her.
Captain Taylor was then ordered on board the cruiser, and complying found
her, though a very small vessel, manned by a crew of twelve, none of
them in uniform. Here he was informed that his schooner would be
detained until the arrival of a gunboat, which would search her and
examine his papers. The American captain was detained an hour and a
half, and then only released on condition that the mate should take his
place as hostage. The mate was detained five days without change of
clothing, though he had come on board in his wet whaling suit. No one
from his own vessel was allowed to visit him.
At the end of five days a gunboat arrived. One of her officers came on
board the Rising Sun, examined her papers, and mustered her crew aft to
answer to their names. On Captain Taylor’s asking why he was thus
detained, he was answered in English “that there were a good many scamps
in the world, and we don’t know whom to trust.” During all these
proceedings the American flag was flying on the Rising Sun. In
consequence of this seizure and detention the voyage of the Rising Sun
was broken up, her loss thereby being estimated at $6,000. The mate,
whose health has been seriously and permanently injured by the hardships
and exposure to which he was subjected, claims what, under the
circumstances, seems the reasonable reparation of $2,500.
The third case, for I am pained to say there is a third, is that of the
whaling schooner Edward Lee, also of Provincetown, Mass. Scarcely
arrived on the same cruising ground, this vessel was chased by a.
Spanish gunboat, and fired at first with solid shot, then with grape,
and at last with shell, one of the latter bursting within a few yards of
her. A fair wind and fast sailing fortunately carried the Edward Lee
beyond cannon-shot. The owners of the Edward Lee think themselves
entitled to a compensation of $6,000.
The Government at Washington, having caused these cases to be examined
into with care, is satisfied that the respective claims for damages are
equitable and reasonable.
These violent proceedings seem to me, as doubtless they will seem to your
excellency, the more inexplicable because the character of the vessels
and the nature of their occupation must have been perfectly apparent to
any one so familiar with the sea as the commander even of a guarda-costa must be supposed to be. A vessel
engaged in whaling announces her character to more senses than one, Her
boats, her kettles, her barrels, and the very condition of her decks are
in themselves ample evidence of the nature of her occupation.
I cannot too often repeat to your excellency that lamentable occurrences
such as these are the raw material out of which the emissaries and
allies of the Cuban insurgents in the United States manufacture sympathy
for their criminal undertakings, and your excellency is too familiar
with the unscrupulousness of party spirit not to be aware that the
opposition will insist upon and exaggerate them in order to cast upon a
government which does not emphatically resent them the odium of
pusilanimity and want of patriotism. The necessity of in some way
appeasing an artificially irritated public
[Page 777]
sentiment has within recent memory led to
consequences as calamitous as they were contrary to the intentions and
expectations of those who, from motives purely selfish, had roused
passions which they could not calm.
I am instructed to emphasize strongly the President’s hope that immediate
and efficient measures will be taken by the Government of His Catholic
Majesty to prevent a repetition by subordinates, who have hitherto
seemed to be practically irresponsible, of excesses which, more than any
others, must tend to embarrass the United States in their sincere
efforts to maintain the friendly attitude in which they have thus far
stood, and desire always to stand, toward Spain.
Permit me in conclusion to express my earnest hope that your excellency,
sensible, as I am sure you will be, of the entire justice of these
claims and desirous as you have always shown yourself to allay the well
founded solicitude of a friendly government, will take immediate steps
toward making good the cordial assurances of his excellency Señor
Mantilla.
I gladly avail, &c.,
