Mr. Smythe to Mr. Gresham.
Port au Prince, Haiti, March 8, 1894.
(Received March 19.)
Sir: Yesterday morning the steam yacht Natalie was brought into this port under convoy of the two Haitian cruisers Capois la Mort and the Dessalines. In the afternoon I received a communication from the foreign office requesting that a representative of this legation accompany the foreign secretary and other members on board the vessel to witness the investigation of the engineer and another of the crew of the yacht who, as I learn, have been retained in the service of the Haitian Government. They detailed the course of the vessel from Port Jefferson, N. Y., thence to Delaware, where coal was taken, thence to Norfolk for coal, and from thence to Savannah, Ga., where the yacht lay for three weeks.
Nearly at the end of this period the captain, Salini, gave all hands leave to go on shore for three days and when they returned it was found that a number of heavy cases had been shipped and which proved to be munitions of war. Some of these were thrown overboard when the vessel went ashore on one of the Bahama reefs. The yacht anchored in the harbor of Fortune Island, and almost immediately afterward one of the Haitian war ships dropped anchor outside. It seems then that the captain of the Natalie began negotiations for the sale of the vessel to the Haitian Government, which sale was concluded on the date mentioned in the agreement, a copy of which I herewith transmit. The parties interrogated professed to know much more than they told, but withheld it for a suitable “consideration,” and the inference was that the testimony withheld would implicate American citizens “presumably in New York.” Admiral Killeck, of the Haitian navy, brought me the protocol of agreement and asked that it be vised or indorsed at the consulate-general. Inasmuch as there appears to have been no American citizen concerned in the transaction I declined to make any indorsement other than that of its presentation with the request. I can not see that the fact of the vessel carrying the flag of the United States will give me any right to appear officially in the matter, since all the circumstances point to the conclusion that the flag was opened in violation of our laws for the purpose of levying war on a power with which we are at peace, and have treaty relations.
An inventory yesterday disclosed that there were on board two guns of recent make and good caliber, several boxes of ammunition, and several cases of rifles, all of American manufacture.
[Page 341]I write this dispatch hurriedly in order to mail by the Spanish steamer now in port. It you deem any special instructions necessary please send by first mail (or if urgent by cable).
I have, etc.,
P. S.—Since writing this dispatch I learn that Salini, who sold the boat to Farrington, has papers showing him to be an American citizen, and that H. H. Farrington is consular agent of the United States at Albert Town, Bahama Islands.
Very respectfully, etc.,