No. 500.
Señor Navarro to Mr. Hay.
New York, September 3, 1880.
Mr. Assistant Secretary: I have had the honor to receive your polite note, in which you do me the favor to inform me that eight individuals, who are suspected of belonging to a party of revolutionists against the Government of Mexico, have been arrested by the forces of the United States and placed under the custody of Captain Rafferty.
This legation has received dispatches from the Mexican consul at Tucson, giving notice that a special messenger had come from the State of Sonora to demand the extradition of the above-mentioned persons, but that the government of the Territory of Arizona does not believe that to be a matter within its jurisdiction, granting that the capture of those criminals may have been executed by Federal authorities.
Upon this occasion, I have the honor to beg your Department to procure the corresponding orders, in order that the extradition demanded may be confirmed in accordance with Article III of the treaty of the 11th of December, of 1861, which cites, among crimes for which the seizures shall be restored, that of taking goods or money, of whatever value, by means of violence or intimidation.
Your Department should ascertain whether the seizures of which we speak may not have some political motive, which might serve them as a pretext to enter the town of Magdalena, exacting of the inhabitants a large sum of money under penalty of hanging those who offer resistance.
My government will accept as a new proof of the sentiments which animate the Government of the United States for the peace and tranquillity of Mexico the action of the American authorities in the capture of those criminals, in order that they may be delivered to the commissioner, [Page 788] who requests their extradition in the name of the government of the State of Sonora, in accordance with Article II of the treaty to which I have referred.
I have, &c.,