No. 385.
Mr. Gibbs
to Mr. Evarts.
Lima, Peru, March 25, 1879. (Received April 15.)
Sir: In my dispatch, No. 320, of 19th instant, I referred to a steamer Loa, sister ship of the Itata, belonging to the same company.
The Loa arrived on the morning of the 23d at Callao, from Valparaiso and intermediate points, entering under the Chilian flag.
According to the papers of this city the Loa left Valparaiso under the American flag, and at Arica, a Peruvian port, changed flag and crew-list, and on arrival at Callao presented a document (“pasavante”) or sea letter, made by the Chilian consul-general at Callao, dated the 16th instant.
The Opinion Nacional, of this city, of the 24th instant, in its correspondence from Callao, states that under the American flag the Loa carried seventy artillerists from Valparaiso to the Bolivian port Antofa-gasta, now occupied by Chilian forces. If this is true, it is compromising the neutrality of the flag in a serious manner. The agent of the British steamers on this coast, after consulting Her Britannic Majesty’s minister at this capital, prohibited their vessels from transporting troops or munitions of war.
I have, &c.,