Department
of State,
Washington, November 4,
1890.
No. 141.]
The Department is informed that our recently appointed consul at Ponape will
shortly proceed to his post. It is trusted that his efforts to promote
good-will and to further peaceful relations of the American missionaries and
the natives toward the Spanish authorities will receive the cordial support
of the latter; and that the instructions of the home government to the
governor of the Caroline Islands will tend to the same end. As this letter
shows, the missionary organization has the interest of law and order very
nearly at heart.
[Inclosure in No. 141.]
Mr. Smith to Mr.
Blaine.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions,
Congregational House, I
Somerset street, Boston, November 1, 1890.
Dear Sir: In view of the intelligence just
received from our missionaries in the Caroline Islands, and especially
from those at Ponape, the residence of the Spanish governor for these
islands, I take this opportunity to report the same to you, and to ask
such attention as the merits of the case seem to demand.
The letter which has reached me was written by one of the young women who
is at present residing at Ponape, and describes an outbreak on the part
of the natives against the Spaniards provoked as it seems by the conduct
of the Spaniards. It seems that the Spanish authorities had made the
attempt to erect buildings of their own very closely bordering on the
premises occupied by our missionaries, and had Located a building
intended for the Catholic priests within 6 feet of the door of the
native church which had grown up there under the care of our
missionaries. These things seem to have aroused the suspicion of the
natives and to have been the occasion, though not, I suppose, the cause,
of the outbreak. The cause is doubtless to be found in the memory of the
grievous wrongs inflicted upon the natives some three years ago. Our
missionaries upon learning the feelings of the natives did their utmost
to hold them in check, to persuade them to give over their intention,
and after the fighting began it was by their efforts alone that several
of the priests and soldiers were rescued from imminent death and kept in
hiding in our own mission houses until they could be gotten safely
away.
Our missionaries have done their utmost to urge the natives to give over
their opposition and submit themselves loyally to the Spanish
authorities, but so far their efforts seem to have been in vain. Mr.
Doane, the veteran missionary, who three years ago was so successful in
persuading the natives to lay down their arms and quietly accept the
conditions offered by the Spaniards, died some four months ago, and
there is no one left who has the same power of persuasion over the
natives which he possessed. We are informed that the Spanish governor
has sent word to Manila for help, and that the probability is that when
a man-of-war returns summary vengeance will be inflicted upon the
natives; and there is no little hazard that the property of our
missionaries and even their lives may suffer in consequence of these
things. It is a great pity that the consul appointed by our Government
for Ponape is not now on the spot. He is needed as he never has been
before and may not soon be again. If anything can be done even to hasten
his arrival and to provide him with the needed authority and means of
guarding American interests there, I am sure it will be your purpose and
pleasure to see that it is done.
I can but feel that the lives of our missionaries are in great peril, and
the valuable work which has been carried on in that island for more than
a generation is in great danger of being wholly destroyed. Permit me to
suggest that there may be some [Page 436]
advantage in direct communication with the Government at Madrid; that it
may he understood there that our Government at Washington has its eye
upon these distant points, and the interests of its subjects there; and
thus an added guaranty to a just and righteous settlement be
secured.
Anticipating action prompt and efficient according to the wont of our
State Department,
I am, etc.,
Judson Smith,
Foreign Secretary American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions.
