No. 124.
Señor Dardon to Mr. Fish.
No. 13 South William Street, New York,
November 22, 1873. (Received Nov. 26.)
The undersigned, minister of Guatemala and Salvador, has the honor to inform the honorable Secretary of State of the United States that the steamer Colon, which arrived in this port on the 17th instant, from Aspinwall, brought two hundred and fifty-eight cases of arms and munitions of war, sent by Don Enrique Palacios, the leader of the filibustering expedition against the republics of Guatemala, Salvador, and Honduras, and consigned to Messrs. Ribon & Muñoz, of this city, to be kept subject to his order. These arms and munitions were removed from on board of the steamer General Sherman when the authorities of the republic of Colombia were about to embargo them at the request of the consul of Guatemala at Aspinwall, and Mr. Palacios, having no other means of preventing them from being embargoed, has sent them to this city, in order to have them ready for a fresh expedition against those republics. As Messrs. Ribon & Muñoz, however, are unwilling to receive this consignment, the articles have been left at the custom-house, subject to the order of the sender, as those gentlemen have informed the undersigned.
Palacios is a citizen of Guatemala, who, a few months since, in conjunction with other Central Americans, organized a filibustering expedition, with the design of subverting public order in Guatemala, Salvador, and Honduras, as the undersigned has had on a previous occasion the honor to inform the honorable Secretary of State. The filibusters, having been defeated by the government of Guatemala, re-embarked on board of the steamer General Sherman, and returned to Aspinwall, for the purpose of procuring means to continue in their illegal enterprise. Palacios, however, not thinking that the arms which he had brought from Central America were safe there, has shipped them to this city, and the undersigned, desiring to prevent these arms and munitions of war, which are now stored in the New York custom-house, from being removed therefrom before it shall have been shown before a competent court that they are a lawful prize, begs the honorable Secretary of State to be pleased to give the necessary orders, to the end that the customhouse of this city may hold the articles aforesaid until the competent authorities shall have rendered a decision.
The undersigned has, &c.,