Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1873
No. 285.
Mr. Nelson
to Mr. Fish.
Mexico, March 4, 1873. (Received March 21.)
Sir: I herewith transmit copies of a very interesting and important correspondence between the Earl Granville, British minister of foreign affairs, and Mr. Lafragua, Mexican minister of foreign affairs, concerning certain incursions which, it is alleged, were recently made by Mexican Indians upon the British territory of Honduras. The British government intimates that, unless Mexico makes prompt reparation, it will be compelled to take measures in own hands to obtain satisfaction for the past and security for the future. The reply of Mr. Lafragua is firm and dignified, and, at the same time, furnishes a conclusive answer to the demand for redress.
I have, &c.,
Earl Granville to Mr. Lafragua.
Mr. Minister: As relations between Great Britain and Mexico are actually suspended, I have the honor to write directly to your excellency, in the hope of arriving at a pacific solution of a question which, probably, is well known to your excellency, and which creates at this moment a very painful sensation throughout England. I think it hardly necessary to say that I allude to the incursions made by Mexican Indians on the British territory of Honduras.
[Page 657]The circumstances of the last incursion are the following:
About 8 o’clock on the morning of the 1st of September last an attack was made on the city of Orange Walk, British Honduras, by a numerous force of Ycaichi Indians, supposed to be at from one hundred and fifty to two hundred men proceeding from Mexican territory and commanded by a man named Marcos Canul, who was said, and he is still believed, to be in the service of the government of Campeche, one of the States of the Mexican confederation.
The attack was a complete surprise, and had it not been for the great bravery of the garrison, the police, and the inhabitants, the whole city would have been sacked, the English population assassinated, and, according to all probability, other towns also attacked.
However that may be, after a desperate struggle, which lasted until 2 o’clock in the afternoon, the Indians retired and took refuge on Mexican territory, but not until they did great injury.
The officer who commanded the troops was severely wounded, two soldiers were killed, and fourteen wounded, eight of them dangerously so; a civilian, named Gonzales, Yutecan by birth, was brutally assassinated, and twenty-five or thirty other persons received injuries more or less serious, from the results of which two have died. Fifteen houses were burned to the ground, comprising in that number that of the mayor substitute, that of the guard of police, and the houses of the officers and all they contained; all the stores were robbed and almost all the private houses forced and plundered.
Besides the real loss of life and property caused in this manner, it is evident that the consequences of incursions of this nature are seriously opposed to the prosperity of the colony of British Honduras.
The said attack was perpetrated by a band of robbers, citizens of Mexico, proceeding from Mexican territory and commanded by a person who is believed to be employed by the government of a Mexican State. The bandits, repulsed, took refuge again beyond the Mexican frontier, and there they were protected against the consequences of their crime. This is not the only incident of this kind; a like inroad took place in 1870, and the colony has no security against a renewal of such attempts from one moment to another.
The government of Her Majesty considers that it has the right to address itself to the Mexican government in order that it may recompense in a convenient manner the losses occasioned by these outrages, and that it may take steps for the punishment of the criminals. It has equally the right to hope that the Mexican government will take proper measures to prevent in future such incursions on British territory.
It would be intolerable to permit a band of robbers to pass the frontiers to rob a British colony and to assassinate many of its inhabitants; that it should retire afterward to Mexican territory, and there, without fear of being punished, that it should be at liberty to prepare new incursions against peaceable inhabitants.
If, as the government of Her Majesty believes, the relations of the facts represented here cannot be controverted in their principal points, and that the government of Her Majesty, trusting in the justice of the statement in this affair, will cause the government of Mexico to attend to it soon, so that it will not be obliged to take measures in its own hands to obtain satisfaction for the past and security for the future.
Mr. Lafragua to Earl Granville.
Mexico, February 12, 1873.
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive the note of your excellency of date of the 2d of December last, in which your excellency has been pleased to observe that, the diplomatic relations between Mexico and Great Britain being actually suspended, your excellency writes to me directly with the hope of obtaining a pacific solution of an affair that causes painful sensations in England.
Your excellency alludes to the inroads made by Mexican Indians on the British territory of Honduras. Your excellency communicates to me that the last incursion took place at about 8 o’clock on the morning of the 1st of September, 1872, on which day the city of Orange Walk was attacked by some one hundred and fifty or two hundred Indians (Yciachi) proceeding from Mexican territory, and commanded by Marcos Canul, who, it is said, was, and he is believed yet to be, in the service of the government or Campeche, one of the States of the Mexican federation.
After giving many particulars of the attack, and enumerating the injuries caused by the invaders, your excellency insists on declaring that said attack was executed by a [Page 658] band of robbers, Mexican citizens, going from Mexican territory, and commanded by a person who is believed to be in the service of a State of Mexico; and adds that the bandits, when repulsed, took refuge again on the Mexican frontier, shielding themselves thus against the consequences of their crime; that this incident is not the only one, as a like incursion took place in 1870, and consequently the colony has no security that like crimes will not be constantly repeated. With this motive, your excellency declares that the government of Her Britannic Majesty considers itself justifiable in addressing the Mexican government in order that the losses occasioned by these crimes may be fully compensated and measures taken to punish the offenders and to prevent new incursions in future.
After considering that it would be intolerable that a band of robbers should be permitted to cross the frontier, and that after the pillage and assassination committed on a British colony they retire to Mexican territory, where, without fear of being punished, should be at liberty to prepare new incursions upon quiet neighbors, your excellency concludes, saying that, as it is believed by the government of Her Britannic Majesty, the relation of the facts now exposed, which cannot be controverted in their principal points, confident that the justice of the complaint will cause the Mexican government to attend to it promptly, thus avoiding the necessity of the English government taking in its own hands the necessary steps to obtain satisfaction for the past and security for the future.
Of all this I have given an account to the President of the republic, submitting also to him the antecedents which exist in this office relative to depredations committed by the Indians of the Isthmus of Yucatan, as well as in the colony of Belize as in the States of Yucatan and Campeche.
From a strict examination that has been made, it is determined that no responsibility rests with the Mexican government for the acts that prompted the note of your excellency, and which I have the honor to answer.
Your excellency, profoundly versed in international law, very well knows that governments are not responsible for the acts of their subjects only when they do not prevent crime, having it in their power to do so, when they tolerate it, or when they do not punish it. But if the crime is executed without the knowledge of the government, or if it does not succeed in punishing the accused, having availed itself of all the means in its power, the act would be worthy to be lamented as a great misfortune, but it could not cause a national dispute.
In the case of Orange Walk, the complaint cannot be founded on any act of the Mexican government that, directly or indirectly, can be considered as authorization or assent.
Neither can it be considered to countenance or tolerate the acts committed by the savages, because the constant care is well known with which the government of the union and those of Yucatan and Campeche have for many years maintained in the peninsula army corps destined exclusively to suppress and punish the Indians, not only when they invade the towns of those states, but even carrying the war to the territory that they occupy. And if this suppression, in which the republic has a noble and legitimate interest, has not always been complete, there never can be imputed, with justice to the Mexican government, any responsibility which, not only for international considerations but for its own decorum, has always placed, and yet places, in action all the elements in its power to obtain so important an object.
But, although for reasons expressed, the Mexican government is not responsible for the acts of the Indians, as your excellency determines in a very expressive manner, the fact that the robbers were commanded by Marcos Canul, who it is said is a chief that was, and is even believed to be still, in the service of the state of Campeche, it is my duty to inform your excellency that there is no data to prove that this individual has had any public character authorized or recognized by the national government.
In the department of war there is no proof that Canul has received any military grade. In this office is to be found the legal copy of a letter, dated August 20, 1856, directed by various Indian chiefs, among them Canul, to Don Felipe Toledo, partner of the house of Young, Toledo & Company, of Belize. In said letter the Indians complain of many faults committed by the agents of the company against the contract celebrated for the cutting of mahogany, and they threatened Toledo with vengeance. The terms which they use leave no doubt neither of the relations which formally bound them, nor the state of exasperation in which they were when they wrote the letter. And notwithstanding, as we will see afterward, until then the colony of Belize had no cause of complaint.
It also appears in this office that, on the 30th of August, 1866, the minister of Her Britannic Majesty, accredited near the so-called imperial government, passed a note complaining that, on the 27th of April of the said year, an armed force of one hundred and twenty-five men belonging to the tribe of Chichuaha Indians, commanded by its chief, Canul, had invaded the English territory and attacked, at a place called Qualor Hill, a party of mahogany cutters. The said minister said therein that Canul exercised authority under the existing government on a part of the national territory. The subsecretary [Page 659] of relations of the said government answered Sir P. Campbell Scarlett in the following terms September 29th of the same year, 1866:
“Mr. Ramirez declares to his excellency, Mr. Scarlett, under date of 17th of October of last year, in answer to a note he addressed to him on the 2d of August preceding, that Mr. Salazar Ilarregui had given no order nor command to the Indian Canul, nor had anything to do with him in any respect, adding that this Indian acted on his own responsibility to revenge wrongs that had been perpetrated on his race on the English frontier. This same Canul being one of those who have warred in the Peninsula of Yucatan, obtaining arms, powder, and ammunition from the establishment of Belize.” And as, since the year 1867, the legitimate government of Mexico has given neither military command nor authority of any kind to Canul to act in any public character, it is clearly evident that Canul can be considered only as the chief of a tribe of savage Indians, in which character he has not only committed hostilities on the inhabitants of Belize, but also upon the people of Yucatan, to whom doubtless he has caused more frequent and grievous injuries than to the former, obliging the Mexican government to maintain constantly on that frontier a bloody and costly war.
In the note of Mr. P. Campbell Scarlett, to which I have referred, the following words attract especial attention, and I recommend them to the consideration of your excellency:
“Before the establishment of the empire, the British subjects were in no manner molested in our possession of Honduras.”
This assertion proves that the government of Mexico has not been remiss in giving the necessary security to the inhabitants of the colony of Belize, notwithstanding that both territories are bounded in that part of the country by lands almost deserted, or inhabited by tribes of barbarous Indians, who have rebelled against the republic, armed with implements of war which have been furnished them by the same who to-day wish to make the Mexican government responsible for crimes to whose easy execution the colony of Belize very actively contributed.
Notwithstanding, as your excellency acknowledges, the relations between Mexico and Great Britain are actually suspended; as the note of your excellency expresses ideas which it were necessary to rectify, it indicates the hope to obtain compensation for the losses suffered in Orange Walk. I must take advantage of this opportunity, granting the suspension of relations, also to answer directly your excellency, making you other observations, and a brief review of facts that have taken place in the peninsula of Yucatan.
During many years, and before the colony of Belize had arrived at its present state of prosperity, the Indians of those frontiers carried on quietly their commerce, and even permitted the speculators in wood to carry on their business perhaps more than was right. The Mexican government, maintaining at different points small garrisons of troops, could, without great sacrifice, preserve order, and make the Indians respect the British possessions as well as the rest of the peninsula. The English colony grew, and with it commerce, which did not content itself any longer with the indispensable necessities to the life of the Indians, such as aguadiente, salt, instruments of agriculture, and clothing. On pretext that the people of the frontier were maintained in a great part by hunting, the colonists commenced to sell and exchange with them for wood and skins a great quantity of arms, as well as powder and ammunition. As soon as those Indians, controlled only by force, could acquire arms and become trained in the use of them, they commenced to rebel and commit depredations against the white race. Rebellions became more frequent, and the Mexican government could not, without great efforts on many occasions, prevent the abuses of those tribes. In these rebellions, often unexpected, the towns of Yucatan have been desolated, and it was natural to suppose the Indians, guided by their inclination to plunder, would not be contented with pillaging the towns of the peninsula only, but turning their arms against those who had provided them, should sometimes make the people of Belize the victims of their depredations.
If your excellency will be pleased to consult the archives of the English legation you will find a long correspondence, in which it will be immediately perceived a great foresight on the part of the Mexican government, which often, and with very just reasons, calls seriously the attention of the government of Her Britannic Majesty toward the traffic in arms and munitions of war that the people of Belize held with the rebel Indians—a commerce which, before the rebellion was when least dangerous, and after, could not be considered but as an efficacious means to make war not only to Mexico but against civilization. The government maintains its right equally to reclaim with the same motives that your excellency does it to day, complaining also that the Indians find protection and refuge on English territory. From the many proofs that I have before me, I will cite some which will serve without doubt to prove the truth of the facts asserted.
In the year 1849 an inquiry was made, occasioned by the capture of an English pilot-boat called Cuatro Hermanos, by which it was proved that merchants of Belize sold munitions of war to the rebel Indians of Yucatan.
[Page 660]On the 17th of October, 1855, an authority of Belize (William Stevenson) answered a communication addressed to him by a Mexican authority about the sale of powder and arms to the rebel Indians, declaring it to be true that Belize merchants sold powder and arms in considerable quantities to the Indians of Yucatan, but not with the intention that the Indians should employ them to make war, but only as any other object of commerce, and as the arms are very common and soon ruined, the consumers have to replace them every year, the same as the powder, which is always of a bad quality, and this commerce being retail, it could not be avoided, nor was it possible for the authorities of Belize to exercise any vigilance on so extensive a frontier.
The 21st of July, 1868, the governor of Belize, John Gardner, issued a decree prohibiting the sale of arms and other objects of war for three months, counting from that date, and under pain of fine of one hundred dollars and imprisonment, or hard labor for six months, from which it is seen that before the date of that decree, that the sale of arms was not only tolerated but authorized, and could be continued from the 21st of October, 1866.
But the most ample proof is that contained in the document, which is a legally authorized copy, which I have the honor to send you. Your excellency will see, that on February 22, 1867, the secretary of the government of Belize publishes a note, offering money for the arrest of Francisco Meneses and others, who had stolen forty arrobas of powder that were sent to Santa Cruz, that is, to the headquarters of the Indians then at war against the Mexican government, who were pillaging the towns of the peninsula and assassinating the inhabitants of the States of the confederation.
The explanation given by the authorities of Belize, far from removing from themselves the charges made by the Mexican government, have served rather to strengthen the complaints established, and to show the little disposition there was to prevent the Indians providing themselves with the means that later must necessarily be prejudicial to the colonists, if it be considered that the arms were put in the hands of men who are out of the pale of civilization, and consequently ferocious and implacable enemies.
Now, agreeably to the rights of nations, the responsibility of governments cease when they have put into practice all the elements in their power to prevent evils and punish crimes; because international obligations cannot extend further than that. Of the practical application of this principle, a thousand examples are presented in both ancient and modern nations, more especially those who, like England, possess colonies where they have to struggle against uncivilized people, who, like the United States of America, maintain a constant war with savages; and as Mexico, who finds it necessary to defend herself daily against invasions of savage tribes which threaten her immense frontier.
But the responsibility exists in all its strength when the citizens, and more so when the authorities, lend aid to the criminals. And this is the case in which the people and government of Belize find themselves in respect to Mexico. They cannot be ignorant of the object with which the Indians buy arms and other articles of war, as this is a fact that passes every day under their eyes; and notwithstanding they sell them these things, being witnesses of the innumerable evils that are perpetrated in the peninsula of Yucatan by the savages. In consequence, it is an undeniable fact that the colonists of Belize have fomented the war, contributing thus to the ruin of families, the death of peaceable citizens, and the devastation of a rich Mexican territory.
There is even more, Mr. Minister. The kind of war that the Indians make aggravate the charges in an extraordinary manner. This war does not sustain any principle, nor has for its object the usurpation of a territory to ultimately utilize it; it sustains vandalism and tends to satisfy the most ignoble passions. This war does not attack the rights of nations, but universal justice; it does not violate a treaty, but morality; it does not oppose a people, but all humanity.
The result of what has been said, that the damages caused by the Indians to the English colony are due not to the negligence of the government of Mexico, which has constantly suppressed the revolts and called the serious attention of that of Great Britain toward the incalculable injuries resulting from the traffic of arms in an exceptionable country, even to the authorities of Great Britain in that territory, who, indifferent to the misfortunes of others, they have not wished to foresee, and perhaps cannot at present prevent—this is the inexcusable result of the aid that they lent to what at first was, perhaps, in the colonists only an unworthy action of gain, and which, in the course of time, has been converted into elements of ruin.
Confining myself to the essential points of your excellency’s note, I must declare to you, by order of the President of the republic, that the government of Mexico is, as it always has been, disposed to dictate such measures as may be necessary, and to put in action all the resources possible, to repress the criminals and prevent depredations. In regard to the compensation for losses sustained, the government does not doubt that your excellency could no less than acknowledge that it would be unjust to require it, treating not of the abuse by authorities, but of faults and crimes committed by a horde of savages, dangerous for both sides, and, in reality, enemies to both.
[Page 661]This consideration requires more strength, if it is considered that, after a careful examination of facts, the Mexican government would have more right to ask indemnity, as the English colonists have given the Indians the most efficacious means to make against the peninsula of Yucatan a war of extermination, and cause in consequence innumerable evils to all the republic.
And in regard to the indication that your excellency makes respecting the probability that the government of Great Britain should take in its own hands the necessary measures to obtain satisfaction for the past and security for the future, the government of Mexico, in view of the reasons already given, confides in the honor of the government of Her Britannic Majesty to do it justice, avoiding the violation of Mexican territory and all other acts contrary to rights of admitted usages among nations, inasmuch as the republic has complied loyally with its duty.
I have, &c.,
His Excellency The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain.