No. 934.
Mr. Bayard to Viscount das
Nogueiras.
Washington, January 18, 1888.
Viscount: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 10th instant, by which in obedience to instructions you communicate information that the Government of his Majesty the King of Portugal, having become satisfied that the obstacles placed by the King of Dahomey in the way of proper execution of the treaty of 1885 between Portugal and Dahomey, by which Portugal assumed the protectorate of the coast of Dahomey, warrant decisive action on its part, and not wishing to employ force, and still less to share the responsibility of the human sacrifices which continue there in defiance of the treaty, has felt obliged to renounce the protectorate and the rights thereto appertaining, a decision which relieves it from the responsibilities resulting from the exercise of the protectorate.
Accept, Viscount, etc.,