Office of the Historian

No. 373.
Mr. Bayard to Viscount das Nogueiras.

Department of State,
Washington, March 3, 1886.

Viscount: I had the honor to receive in due course your note of the 6th ultimo, whereby you are pleased to inform me that, in virtue of a treaty engagement between a representative of the governor of the Portuguese possession of Saõ Thomé and the Kingdom of Dahomey, Portugal has undertaken to exercise a protectorate over the entire sea-coast of Dahomey and to administer Portuguese jurisdiction over Europeans residing in those regions.

In the absence of information as to how this change may affect the interests of any citizens of the United States domiciled or doing legitimate business in that part of Dahomey thus taken under the direct protection of Portugal, I am unable to do more than make a simple acknowledgment of the receipt of your note. I observe, indeed, that your note announces that your Government has pledged itself to respect the legitimate and pre-existent rights of foreign powers to the territories embraced in this protectorate, and that, in consequence, jurisdictional rights as, to the port of Cotomnu are left in abeyance pending the settlement of the claim of France thereto. The United States have no jurisdictional claims of sovereignty in that region which it might invite Portugal to respect, but it is to be assumed that the rights of any American citizens in the protected district will be respected as though they pertained to the Government of the United States. If citizens [Page 773] of the United States, equally with the citizens or subjects of other powers, establish themselves in uncivilized regions and acquire vested interests there in the same way as foreigners of other nationalities through good relationship with the natives, it is not to be supposed that, in the event of any one power (among the several represented by settlers there) assuming control of the country, our citizens will be discriminated against, in residence or trade, as compared with the subjects of the protecting power.

This point is therefore necessarily reserved.

Accept, &c.,

T. F. BAYARD.