Mr. Day to Mr. Cambon.
Excellency: With reference to your inquiries in relation to the Spanish subject, Mr. Jiminez Zapatero, who is reported in Madrid to be held in the United States as a spy, I have the honor to inform you that I am advised by the Navy Department that a prisoner captured on the Panama, and supposed to be the person to whom your excellency’s inquiries refer, has been sent north on the U. S. S. Cincinnati and is now at Fort Monroe. It appears that when the Panama was captured he had in his possession a lot of coast charts, which he threw overboard; that he had in his trunk epaulets and a sword, and that he admitted having been some years ago an officer in the Spanish navy. The evidence, therefore, indicated that he was a military person; and he was sent to Fort Monroe merely as a prisoner of war, and not as a spy. Orders were given to furnish him with accommodations and to treat him according to the rank that he should claim. On his arrival at Fort Monroe he gave the name of F. J. Jiminez, but refused to make any further statement. In consequence he is now held as a private.
Accept, etc.,