No. 270.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Cayetano
Romero.
Washington, December 4, 1884.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 21st ultimo, in which you take exception to an expression in my note of the 16th of October last, and say that the Government of Mexico has not relinquished jurisdiction over “certain islands” in the Rio Grande, but over “Morteritos” simply.
The original claim of Mexico, as you well know, was to the possession of Morteritos and Sabinitos islands, so-called, numbered respectively 12 and 13, in the Rio Grande. An examination of the charts showed that these two names never had any existence in fact, but that they had been improperly applied to Beaver Islands, twin islands in that river, which had been awarded to the United States by the commission of 1848. The expression “certain islands” had reference to the original claim. The examination, it is true, further establishes that an island, Sabinos, belonged to Mexico, but this was neither numbered 12 nor 13 on the charts, and from its location it seems improbable that it should have been confounded with Sabinitos. Sabinos was, consequently, never in dispute.
I need not assure you that the United States has no wish to claim anything beyond that which properly belongs to it, and that the phrase “certain islands,” while used in the sense I have explained, may be understood as without prejudice to any possible rights attaching to Mexico. If such cases exist, the recently signed treaty of November 12, 1884, for a more definite determination of our common boundary line, will, when completed by ratification, exchange, and proclamation, afford bases for a final adjustment of the question involved.
Accept, &c.,