Office of the Historian

Señor Cayetano Romero to Mr. Foster.

[Translation.]
Legation of Mexico,
Washington, D. C., January 1, 1893.

My Dear Mr. Foster: Referring to the note which I addressed to you on the 28th of December last in reply to yours of the day before, concerning the organization, on United States territory, of parties of bandits that cross to Mexico with no object but to commit depredations and barbarous assassinations, and particularly the complaint made in it by you that my Government was lending small co-operation to the efforts that this Government was making to repress the disorders on the Texas frontier, I take the liberty of inclosing to you a clipping from the second edition of the New York Times of to-day, which contains a telegram from Monterey, Mexico, which shows in detail the number of Mexican troops stationed on the right bank of the river Bravo, amounting to 2,727 men, and their disposition along the boundary line.

This dispatch corroborates the statement I made to you in the said note, that the Government of Mexico will know how, as becomes it, to care for its extensive frontier and will spare no effort to do so, which seems further confirmed by the facts that have since occurred, as the bandits who used to cross two or three times to the right bank of the Rio Bravo have been forced to return to Texas, not remaining more than some hours on our territory.

I do not know if the Government of the United States has now in Texas the same number of troops as there are now on the right bank of the Rio Bravo. The American newspapers report that the American forces in campaign amount to 600 or 800 men, including three companies of cavalry that came from Fort Riley.

I am, etc.,

C. Romero.

bandits defeated by troops.—during the fight two marshals who were prisoners escaped.

San Antonio, Tex., December 31.

[New York Times, January 1, 1893.]

U. S. Marshal Paul Fricke to-day received a telegram from Deputy Eugene Yglesias Webb, of Webb County, stating that Deputy Pinkham had just wired him that Troop G, Third Cavalry, under command of Second Lieut. Hediken, had followed the trail of the Mexican bandits to a point a few miles below Lopono, Zapata County, where the [Page 435] outlaws crossed the river last evening and made an attack upon a detachment of Mexican troops stationed there.

The engagement was a desperate one and resulted in the bandits being overcome by the Mexican troops. On the evening of the fight Special Deputy Marshals Guerro and Benavides, who were captured by the bandits several days ago, got away. Deputy Guerro is now at Agueleres; Deputy Benavides is with Capt. Francis Hardie, of the Third Cavalry, and is riding one of the Mexican Government’s army horses, which the bandits took in the fight opposite San Ygnacio.

No particulars as to the number killed and wounded in the fight were given in the dispatch.

Monterey, Mexico, December 31.

Gen. Benardo Reyes, governor of the State of Nuevo Leon, and commander of this military zone, states that the Mexican frontier is well protected and that the revolutionists will find it very difficult work to get through the two lines of troops which are now massed upon the border.

The total number of troops in active service on the Mexican frontier is 2,727. They were in detachments, distributed as follows:

Paso del Norte, 6 officers, 74 infantry; Jimenez, 1 officer, 20 infantry; Piedras Negras, 3 officers, 41 infantry of the Twenty-sixth Battalion, and 4 officers, 52 infantry, and 57 cavalry of the Twelfth Regiment; Guerrero, 3 officers, 44 infantry of the Fifth Battalion, 1 officer and 15 infantry of the Sixth Auxiliaries; Hidalgo, 1 superior officer,2 officers, 75 infantry; New Laredo, 5 officers, 99 infantry of the Fifth Battalion, 1 superior officer, 21 infantry, and 318 cavalry of the Thirteenth Regiment; Guerrero, State of Tamaulipas, 1 superior officer, 10 infantry, 104 cavalry; La Guerras, 2 officers, 25 infantry, 25 cavalry of the Fourth Regiment and 10 infantry auxiliaries of Nuevo Leon; Mier, 3 officers, 49 infantry, 49 cavalry of the Fourth Regiment, 3 superior officers, 9 officers, 58 infantry, 64 cavalry, of the Fifth Auxiliaries, superior officers, 24 officers, 410 infantry of the Sixth Battalion, also 15 infantry auxiliaries of Nuevo Leon; Gloria, 16 infantry; Carmargo, 3 officers, 50 infantry of the Sixth Battalion, 2 officers, 25 infantry, 25 cavalry of the Fourth Regiment, 1 superior officer, 24 infantry of Tamaulipas Auxiliaries; San Miguel, 1 superior officer, 4 officers, 65 infantry, 67 cavalry of the Fourth Regiment and 10 infantry of Tamaulipas Auxiliaries; Reynosa del Diaz, 2 superior officers, 10 officers, 89 infantry, 65 cavalry of the Fourth Regiment, 2 officers, 25 infantry of the Fifth Squadron of Battalion; Matamoras, 4 officers. 69 infantry of the Sixth Battalion, 2 superior officers, 82 infantry of the Fifth Squadron of Battalion; 1 superior officer, 2 officers, 18 infantry, 19 cavalry of the Third Auxiliaries, 3 officers, 19 infantry, 20 cavalry of the Fourth Auxiliaries.