No. 218.
Señor Arosomena to Mr. Evarts.
Washington, June 10, 1880.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your excellency’s communication of the 5th instant in reply to mine of the 19th ultimo, the object of which was to express my confidence that the Kearsarge and Adams would be withdrawn from the ports of Bocas del Toro and of Golfo [Page 342] Dulce, without prejudice to the arrangements for the establishment of coaling stations that might be made with the government at Bogotá by the Hon. Mr. Dichman, and as a means of facilitating those arrangements by calming the agitation which the presence and the operations of those war vessels in Colombian ports had created among the people, which agitation had naturally found an echo in official circles.
Your excellency, in informing me with regard to the subject of my aforesaid note, repeated that the object of the war vessels in question was wholly innocent and peaceful, and based upon the friendly relations which happily exist between the United States of America and the United States of Colombia, and recognized that I had so considered it, notwithstanding the reasons of a different order which gave rise to my communications in reference to the matter, all of which was very gratifying to me.
Your excellency stated, nevertheless, with regret, that, according to official advices received by you, the Executive of the State of Panama, in pursuance, as it seems, of orders from the national Government of Colombia, had addressed the American consuls at Panama and Colon (Aspinwall), to the end that the aforesaid vessels of war of the United States, the Adams and the Kearsarge, should not only suspend the sounding operations in which they were engaged, but that the former should leave the port of Golfito inasmuch as it was a port not open to commerce. Although your excellency did not wish to complain in a querulous spirit, you nevertheless thought, and so repeatedly stated, that that step on the part of the authorities of Panama was by no means friendly, and at best only explicable in view of the agitation caused by a misunderstanding of the purpose with which the United States vessels had visited the aforesaid Colombian ports.
Your excellency hoped that the action of the said authorities would be disavowed by the Federal Government of Colombia, or that it would be explained in such a manner as to deprive it of the aspect of harshness which it presented, which was so opposed to the sincere friendship professed by the American Government for that of Colombia, which friendship your excellency hoped to see reciprocated by the latter, and expressed confidence that the note to which you were then replying would be found truly to represent the spirit of sincere amity and thoughtful consideration felt by the Colombian Government toward that of the United States.
Your excellency stated your purpose of asking such an explanation at Bogotá through the Hon. Mr. Dichman, and expressed the hope that I shared the painful impression made upon the Government at Washington by the action of the President of Panama, as well as the desire that that impression might speedily be made to disappear, and that the relations between the two governments might be restored to the same degree of cordiality that had previously existed.
As to the object of my last communication, your excellency informed me that the aforementioned war vessels, having finished their innocent task, which was to ascertain the feasibility of establishing coaling stations in the ports in question, the Adams had left the waters of Colombia, and had reached Punta Arenas before the execution of the measure adopted by the President of Panama, and that the Kearsarge had received, likewise previously, orders to return to the United States, for which reason it was probably out of Colombian jurisdiction at the date of my communication.
I hasten to inform your excellency that I have received no advices, either official or private, of the step taken by the President of Panama [Page 343] in relation to the vessels of war in question, and that I know only what has been published in reference to the matter by the press of Panama and New York. I remember to have read in some newspaper that the said President had received a telegram from the national government containing orders to act in the manner announced to your excellency, and it immediately occurred to me that it was possible, both by reason of the usual brevity of that style of correspondence and of the imperfection of telegraphy in Colombia, that some mistake had occurred, at least, in the expression of the intention of the Colombian Government.
I sincerely hope that such may prove to be the case, and that your excellency will be fully satisfied with the explanations which I doubt not you will receive in reference to the matter from the Hon. Mr. Dichman, among which will probably be the standing constitutional provision of that country that no foreign vessel of war shall be stationed in its ports without the express permission of the Executive.
For my own part, I do not hesitate to give the assurance that my government desires nothing so much as to maintain the relations of sincere and genuine friendship which have connected the two countries, which relations are destined daily to increase in importance, and the interruption of which, even for a short time, would be much to be regretted.
I do not hesitate to say that your excellency is not mistaken in thinking that I share the pain caused your government by the intimation given to its consuls at Panama and Colon (Aspin wall) which, if it really did emanate from the national Goverment of Colombia, must have been misinterpreted and erroneously communicated by its agents, for I am firmly convinced that that government is actuated by the same friendly spirit that your excellency recognizes in my notes, which are a mere reflex of its disposition toward the Government of the United States of America.
In conclusion, I would express my gratification that the cause of these little questions has been removed by the withdrawal of the Adams and the Kearsarge, and my hope that even the vestiges which they may have left will soon disappear, so that the field maybe open to much more useful discussions, to which matters of common interest will inevitably give rise between the governments which your excellency and I represent.
I reiterate, &c.,