[From the Mercury.—Translation.]
Not in vain do nations become reconciled and love one another. Not in vain do peoples give generous hospitality to people of good heart and elevated soul. There are solemn occasions in which the hand of God makes evident these noble bonds of fraternity, and one of these occasions have we witnessed, upon the scorching steps of the Compaña, arrive for our brothers the citizens of the free and magnanimous Union of the north on the horrible night of the 8th of December, 1863.
But a few years since the name of North American was for us only a source of suspicion, of antipathy, or threat. But when the question of filibusterism, which had its den among the slaveocracy of the south, and which met only opprobrium and reprobation in the free States of the north, was made clear, the reaction of justice began to be felt in our people. And when we saw this entire nation of the north rise as one man for the purpose of putting down the audacity of the defenders of William Walker and of the sacrificers of John Brown, that reaction was converted into sincere sympathy, which has been strengthened by the victories as well as by the reverses of the Union.
This conduct of ours has met the most cordial reciprocity on the part of the North Americans resident among us. Their representative, the worthy, courteous, and popular Thomas H. Nelson, has been the first to place himself in the midst of the Chilian people, participating in all their national festivities and public demonstrations, making us hear his eloquence not only in the official despatches addressed by him to this government, but in all the discourses delivered by him at our popular banquets. The conduct of Mr. Meiggs, especially towards the working and needy classes, is too well known to require us to refer to it here as an eulogium, as is that which, following his example, has been manifested by his subordinates. Let us only recall that to the enthusiasm of one of them is due the erection of the expiatory monument to Manuel Rodrigues in the valley of Til-til, and the sumptuous popular feast with which it was inaugurated.
But the cordiality of the Americans and Chilians was not only to manifest itself in draining joyous libations at the festive board. The hour of the catastrophe arrived and they were among the earliest to hasten to offer the generous aid of their strength and unselfishness.
Among the first to arrive at the doors of the Compaña, already a prey to the flames were Mr. Nelson himself and the consul of the United States at Valparaiso, Mr. Silvey, who, residing in the immediate vicinity of the church, worked in person from the beginning, exposing their own lives in order to save some victims. The same was done by Messrs. Meiggs, Keith, and some ex-employés of the Valparaiso railroad, who at that hour were met together in the house of the former, two-thirds of a mile from the scene of the catastrophe. We ourselves met Messrs. Meiggs and Keith on that terrible night, with grief upon their countenances, their clothing torn and soaked with water, and with voices so hoarse they could hardly speak; and having asked the former if he thought any had perished within the church, he replied, in a voice which froze our blood, thousands. Alas! he was one of the few, the only one perhaps, who had not been mistaken in that hour of terrible confusion. We are assured that Mr. Meiggs caused himself to be wet through on purpose, so as to enter into the midst of the flames. This is not humanity only, it is heroism.
We are happy that these sentiments are not the expressions of individual appreciation alone. The two public documents which we publish below, and which the minister of the (foreign) department has authorized us to give to the [Page 172] press, place in high relief all that we have said upon the confraternity of the two nations.
May these eloquent documents and these weak lines bear to the citizens of the Union, not only in Chili, but in the entire universe, the expression of the profound gratitude due them for their noble conduct from the Chilenos.