Mr. Egan to Mr. Blaine.
Santiago, September 7, 1891. (Received November 13.)
Sir: After the battle of Placillas a number of the Government supporters, including Don Claudio Vicuña, Don Domingo Godoy, Don Julio Bañados Espinosa, Admiral Viel, and a number of others, in order to save their lives, which certainly would have been sacrificed, took refuge on board the German and United States ships of war. The French ships, on account of lying far out in the bay did not receive any, and the English ships refused to take on board some of the refugees who went alongside. There has been much agitation on the part of the new authorities respecting those refugees, and I have been approached, informally, to find whether those on the Baltimore and San Francisco would be delivered up to the authorities, on guaranties being given that their lives would be secure, to which I replied, also informally, that the Government of the United States has never consented, and can not consent, to surrender from on board one of its ships a refugee charged only with a political offense. The German minister, Baron [Page 162] von Gutschmid, on the other hand, intimated his willingness to consent “to the surrender of those on hoard the German ships, getting guaranties for the safety of their lives; but the German admiral has refused, on any condition, to surrender them, and I learn that the German Government has fully approved his action in the matter. The Baltimore sailed on the 4th instant for Mollendo, in Peru, to land there all of those who took refuge on her and on the San Francisco, and the German admiral will send all of those on board of his ships to the same port.
From Don Domingo Godoy and Don Julio Bañados Espinosa, both ex-ministers of state, who went away on the Baltimore, I have received letters requesting me on behalf of all of the refugees on board to convey to the Government of the United States, to Rear-Admiral Brown, and to the officers of the San Francisco and Baltimore their eternal gratitude for the noble, generous, and fraternal hospitality extended to them during their stay on board of those ships. Don Julio Bañados Espinosa writes:
The life which I preserve for my children and for my country I owe to the chiefs of the North American squadron. Through you, as representative of that Republic, the most free, the most humanitarian, the greatest on earth, I give thanks from the bottom of my grateful heart. During life I shall bear testimony that I owe my salvation to the Navy of the United States, a navy which reflects in its brilliant sword the glories of heroism and the virtue of generosity which characterize valor and nobility.
I have, etc.,