Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to inform you, referring to our previous correspondence on the subject, that I duly reported to my Government our conversation of the 28th of June last, in the course of [Page 423] which, and in view of the way in which you understood the offers made by the Mexican Government to indemnify, by way of equity, Mrs. Baldwin for the death of her husband, who was murdered by bandits in the State of Durango, Mexico, and as an act of personal deference to you, I inquired of you whether the U. S. Government would be satisfied if the indemnity of $20,000 in gold, to which reference has been made, should be paid in one installment of $3,000, payable at the time of concluding the arrangement on the subject, and the remaining $17,000 in monthly installments of $1,000 each, and you were pleased to tell me that you would accept that way of making the payment.

I have to-day received a dispatch from Mr. Mariscal, secretary of foreign relations of the United States of Mexico, dated City of Mexico, August 13, 1894, a copy of which I herewith inclose, whereby he informs me that my Government has accepted that arrangement, and that, without waiting for me to propose it to you in writing, he has carried it out himself, having sent that very day to the U. S. minister in Mexico a draft, numbered 63119, of the National Bank of Mexico on Messrs. Müller, Schall & Co., of New York, to the order of the treasurer general of the federation, and indorsed by that officer to your order, for the sum of $3,000 in gold, being the amount of the first installment. I presume that Mr. Gray has advised you of the receipt of this draft.

Be pleased to accept, etc.,

M. Romero.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]

Mr. Mariscal to Mr. Romero.

No. 94.]

With a view to the settlement of the large and much-debated claim presented against the Government of Mexico by the widow of Leon McLeod Baldwin, an American citizen, and supported by the U. S. Government, on account of the aforesaid foreigner’s having been murdered by a party of bandits led by Heracho Bernal, Mr. Gresham, Secretary of State of the United States, proposed, through you, that a moderate indemnity should be granted to the claimant by Mexico, as a matter of simple equity, this act not to imply a recognition that in the case in question the Mexican Government was, strictly speaking, responsible, so that the proposed arrangement could not be cited as a precedent in future cases of a similar nature.

The President thought proper to accede to the wishes of the U. S. Government, which were reiterated with special insistence by the Secretary of State; and, after a long correspondence, held with the view of fixing the amount of the indemnity, you, still mediating in this case, proposed as an equitable arrangement, subject to the approval of the Government of Mexico, the payment of $20,000 in gold, $3,000 of which were to be paid to the U. S. minister in Mexico at the time when the arrangement should be approved and the remaining $17,000 in seventeen monthly installments of $1,000 each.

Although the consideration of the high premium of gold over our ordinary silver money occasioned some delay in the settlement of this matter, the President, in view of the reiterated solicitations addressed to him by you, has decided that the arrangement referred to shall be accepted; and, in order to effect this, he has instructed the treasurer-general of the federation to send to this department a number of bills [Page 424] of exchange on New York, made payable to the order of the Secretary of State of the United States, as follows: One for $3,000 in gold, immediately; and for the remaining $17,000, seventeen bills of exchange, payable in the same coin, in the months following, reckoned from the date of the first bill of exchange.

Accordingly, I to-day send to the minister of the United States of America the first and second of exchange of a bill drawn by the National Bank of Mexico, numbered 63119, on Messrs. Müller, Schall & Co., of New York, payable to the treasurer-general of the federation, and indorsed to the order of the Hon. W. Q. Gresham, Secretary of State of the United States of America, for the sum of $3,000 in gold, being the amount of the first installment, as provided by the aforesaid arrangement.

Be pleased to communicate this information to the Secretary of State, Mr. Gresham, by sending him a copy of this dispatch.

Mariscal.