[Inclosure 1.]
Mr. Kelting to
Mr. Clancy.
Bluefields, Nicaragua, April 20, 1899.
Dear Sir: Some time ago I called on General
Estrada to hand to him a denouncement for lands. Colonel Torres
happened to be with him, and after informing himself as to the
nature of the document, and after I had told General Estrada that
George D. Emery wanted to purchase lands outside of those denounced
through the document in reference, Colonel Torres made the remark as
follows:
“As far as the land you want to denounce is concerned, we will see
about it sooner or later, but you can not buy the land you have in
view. The Government will not agree to this transaction. It would be
only to encourage you foreign filibusters in making trouble for the
Government.
“We know perfectly well that all of you have been and will be working
against
[Page 573]
us. You want some
foreign nation to take hold of the Mosquito Reservation. That is
what Mr. Weil went to Washington for, and that is the reason you
have precipitated General Reyes, who was aloyal man, but too weak to
resist the flattering and promises of you foreign intruders, into a
rebellion against the Government and made him get so debased as to
agree with you people to give away either to the United States or to
England this coast, a piece of Nicaragua, his native soil.
“If I were Zelaya I would make everyone of you get out of the country
and would gladly see you ruined. We have the proofs that everyone of
you had a hand in the revolution. We know that Mr. Spellman, who has
always been and is our greatest enemy, has been aiding Reyes in the
way of transporting troops on the Yulu; we
know that he had men come down from the camps to join the rebel
forces, and that he has been supporting Reyes otherwise and whenever
he could.”
Then General Estrada remarked to Colonel Torres that regards the Yulu having been placed at the disposition of
General Reyes he did not believe this to be certain, that I had
called on him while he was under American protection at the United
States consulate and had asked his advice as to whether he thought
it proper to resist General Reyes’s demand for the Yulu or not.
Then Colonel Torres: “Of course these white-faced blonde-haired
foreigners are smart. Mr. Spellman sent to you so as to be on the
right side either way. We may not be quite as white as they are; we
may have to a great extent of the Indian in us, but all the same we
are quite as smart as they are I see through Mr. Spellman’s
shrewdness in this case. He is no fool and I know his tricks, but
that does not alter anything in the fact that he is an enemy of the
Government and that he has been one of the principal conspirators in
1894 and now lately with Reyes the same.”
When departing Colonel Torres’s last words were: “Do not think
because you foreign intruders are white and we, the Nicaraguans, the
legal owners of this coast, are to some extent colored people, you
will govern us. You will be sorry yet for having attempted to run us
out of the country. This you will never sncceedin doing; we will
watch you now.”
These expressions I remember distinctly as having been made by
Torres; some are too vile to be put on paper and not fit to be
translated or quoted.
I am perfectly familiar with the Spanish language.
Yours respectfully,
Sworn to and subscribed in my presence this 24th day of April,
1899.
[
seal.]
M. J. Clancy,
United States Consular
Agent.
