Mr. Wharton to Mr. Egan.
Washington, October 23, 1891.
Immediately upon receipt of information of the assaults made, on the 16th instant, in the streets of Valparaiso, upon a number of American sailors belonging to the United States man-of-war Baltimore, now in that harbor, the commander of that vessel, Capt. W. S. Schley, was directed to cause an immediate and thorough inquiry to be made into the origin and incidents of that tragic affair and communicate the results simultaneously to this Government and to you. His report, under date of yesterday, has just been transmitted to this Department by the Secretary of the Navy, who advises me that a copy of the report was forwarded by Capt. Schley to you.
You will observe that the board of officers selected by Capt. Schley [Page 197] to investigate this affair report that our sailors were unarmed and gave no provocation 5 that the assaults upon them were by armed men, greatly superior in numbers, and, as we must conclude, animated in their bloody work by hostility to these men as sailors of the United States. You will also notice that the character of some of the wounds indicate that the public police, or some of them, took part in the attack, and will also observe that other American sailors were, without any apparent fault, arrested and for some time held by the authorities. The friendly efforts of a few of the public officers to give succor to our men furnish the only redeeming incident of this affair. This cruel work, so injurious to the United States, took place on the 16th instant, and yet no expression of regret or of a purpose to make searching inquiry, with a view to the institution of proper proceedings for the punishment of the guilty parties, has been, so far as I am advised, offered to this Government.
You will at once bring to the attention of the Government of Chile the facts as reported to you by Capt. Schley, and will inquire whether there are any qualifying facts in the possession of that Government or any explanation to be offered of an event that has very deeply pained the people of the United States, not only by reason of the resulting death of one of our sailors and the pitiless wounding of others, but even more as an apparent expression of an unfriendliness toward this Government which might put in peril the maintenance of amicable relations between the two countries. If the facts are as reported by Capt. Schley, this Government can not doubt that the Government of Chile will offer prompt and full reparation. You will furnish the foreign office a full paraphrase of this dispatch and report promptly to this Government.