No. 357.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. McLane.
Washington, January 13, 1888.
Sir: By a dispatch dated November 10, 1887, from Mr. Pratt, United States consul at Zanzibar, I have been informed that a new treaty was under negotiation between the French Government and the King of Johanna, one of the Comoro islands, situated in the northern entrance to the Mozambique Channel. And a statement has subsequently appeared in the public prints that France has taken possession of that island.
I have, therefore, to instruct you with a view to the protection of the rights of certain American citizens there resident, to obtain, if possible, from the French foreign office an exact statement of the relations now subsisting between the two governments, and copies of any treaties France may have concluded with the King of Johanna.
I am, etc.,