Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1892
Mr. Wharton to Mr. Newberry.
Washington, October 12, 1891.
Sir: Referring to Department’s No. 135 of the 6th instant, in relation to the injuries and losses suffered by citizens of the United States at the hands of the Spanish authorities in the Caroline Islands, I have to inclose herewith for your information a copy of a letter of March 18 last, from the Rev. Judson Smith, foreign secretary of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, in which you will find a statement of the expenses which the American board has incurred in its work in those islands.
The work of the missions was begun in 1852. Since then it has gradually increased, and there has been a growing necessity for larger expenditures. It appears that up to the date of the last published report of the board, the total amount expended was $733,843. Of this amount nearly $100,000 has been used in constructing the missionary ships, which in succession have served to connect the mission with the United States, and to furnish it with supplies. The vessel called the Morning Star, which has been constantly mentioned in the recent reports, is the fourth of that name, and cost about $40,000. The amount expended on the mission last year was $39,782.
The letter of Mr. Smith contains other information, which it is unnecessary to recapitulate. What is stated in regard to the expenses and work of the mission will be useful to you in your correspondence with the Spanish Government.
I am, sir, etc.,
Acting Secretary.
Mr. Smith to Mr. Blaine.
Boston, March 18, 1891.
Dear Sir: Recalling our conversation in a recent interview kindly given by you to Dr. Webb and myself relative to matters in Ponape, I desire to submit herewith a written statement of facts mentioned at that time, setting forth the expenses which the American board has incurred in establishing and maintaining work in the Caroline Islands.
[Page 486]The cost is not distributed equally through the several years since 1852, when the mission work began, but has gradually increased as the work has expanded and its necessities have enlarged from year to year. The total amount expended upon this work I find from our published reports to be $738,843. Of this amount nearly $100,000 has been used in constructing the missionary ships which, in succession, have served to connect the mission with our country and with mails and sources of supply. The present Morning Star, the fourth in the series, cost about $40,000, being a larger craft and in several ways more expensive in construction than any of its predecessors. The amount expended upon this mission last year, according to our report, was $39,782. The value of property belonging to the mission is at least $25,000, and if any fair valuation of the land which has been given from time to time by the native chiefs for mission purposes were considered this sum would be considerably increased.
Missionary residences are fixed at three of the higher islands of the group, Ponape being one of these. The easternmost point in the Caroline Islands occupied by our missionaries is Kusaie and the westernmost is Ruk, about 300 miles beyond Ponape. The value of the property on Ponape was greater than that upon either of the other islands, although but little in excess of that on the island of Kusaie.
Recalling the interest with which you listened to the oral statement of these facts, it has seemed well that you should have them in written form at command as you may desire in the correspondence with Spain. Allow me to assure you of the great pleasure I had in the interview two weeks since and to repeat what I then said, expressing the hope that in the correspondence between our Government and Spain an early and satisfactory conclusion may be reached.
I inclose a copy of a communication received recently from Rev. William H. Gulick, one of the missionaries of our board, who is established at San Sebastian in Spain, and who is very well informed in regard to the current of public opinion in Spain. The tone of the public press, as reported by Mr. Gulick, is certainly not very reassuring. But if anything were needed to that end this certainly makes the course of duty and honor for our Government in the present crisis all the more plain.
I am, etc.,
Foreign Secretary American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Spain in the Caroline Islands. By the Rev. Wm. H. Gulick.
The fears that were awakened when, in the year 1887, Spain took possession of the Caroline Islands and founded a military station on the island of Ponape, are being confirmed. Her occupancy is fast taking on the character of a devasting conquest by force of arms. Friends of Spain, who were also friends of the United States and friends of the American missionaries on those islands, had hoped against hope that the lion and the lamb would lie down together peaceably and that the civilization that Spain found on Ponape, the result of Protestant Christianity, would be fostered and protected. There seems to be no longer any ground for such hope.
The events that culminated in the burning by the Spaniards, on the 20th of last September, of all the houses belonging the American board’s missionary station at Oua, on the island of Ponape, have been fully stated. They began in May. The Spaniards insisted on “building on land belonging to the mission and within 6 feet of the mission church,” and which was regarded by the natives as an outrage.
For a week the Spanish press has been ringing with the news of a sanguinary encounter between the Spanish troops and the natives in the latter part of November. This news seems to have been first received in brief dispatches via San Francisco and London, but is first confirmed and amplified by letters from Manila received in Madrid on the 12th of January, and which have just appeared in the Madrid papers. The news was brought to Manila in the merchant steamship Uranus, which was under hire of the government, and which, sailing from Ponape on or about the 26th of November, reached Manila on the 8th of December. The story gathered chiefly from El Liberal and El Globo is in substance as follows:
It would seem that since the events in June matters have been going from bad to worse, and the authorities, preparing for an active campaign against the natives, had called for reënforcements from Manila. On the 14th of November the steamship Uranus reached Ponape with one hundred and forty men, under the command of a Col. Serrano. On the 22d of November active operations began. The attack was made at Metalanim. The landing of the troops was effected with difficulty, in water [Page 487] up to the waist, and the advance on land was no less difficult, through swamps and almost impenetrable thickets and over impassable roads.
When the troops met the main body of the natives they were found strongly lodged behind a triple line of intrenchments. The first was of stone nearly 5 feet high and flanked by a deep ditch; then a space covered with bushes, in which were concealed snares and thorns and broken glass, to pass over which caused cruel wounds to the feet, and legs of the soldiers; and, lastly, a palisade strongly built of trunks of trees and bamboos and another ditch. “All this we took,” says the chronicler of El Globo, “all fell into our hand, by a skillful flank movement not expected by the Methodist Yankees, who undoubtedly directed the defense;” but it cost the lives of eighty men, and some of the papers insist that in the different columns operating against the natives during these three or four days not less than three hundred of the government troops lost their lives.
To account for such disaster it is explained that these “savages are not savages in matters of war. They have good arms—Winchester and Remington and English rifles—and they know how to intrench themselves well, and they are ably directed.” It is also explained that no one who has not visited those tropical islands can form any idea of the natural obstacles with which the troops have to contend in a campaign against the natives. “The ground held by the natives is veritably impassable. Compared with it the mango swamps and the jungles of Cuba are open ground and highroads. Impenetrable thickets, concealing rocks and precipices, in which, besides fighting with an invisible enemy, one must struggle with unscalable cliffs, with the densest undergrowth and with bogs and swamp. Over such ground our soldiers had to march in Indian file, holding one to the other as a support from stumbling and falling. Under such circumstances regular attack and defense are impossible, and the natives have double advantage.”
The Spanish press is greatly excited over the news, and there is much bitterness of feeling at the thought of good Spanish blood being shed by those “savages,” and the demand is made that it should be promptly avenged.
La Epoca, an influential Madrid newspaper, in an article quoted approvingly by El Globo, Señor Castelar’s paper, says:
“The Spanish public, for the most part, thinks that the work commenced by Spain in the Caroline Islands is that of colonization; that is to say, pacific, without danger, and simply making the land productive and civilizing the inhabitants. This is a mistake. That work will come in time, but for the present we have to conquer.
“This was what Spain found it necessary to do in Santo Domingo, and later in Cuba, and what we are now engaged in with Jolo and Mindanao. France has had to fight with and to conquer Tonquin, and is doing now the same in Senegal and on both banks of the Niger. Italy tried to colonize Abyssinia, but after terrible disaster at Dongali, has had to conquer the natives by force of arms. England and Germany are in continual warfare with the aborigines, with varying success, in their African possessions. * * *
“We do not, therefore, shut our eyes to any of the difficulties in the way of state colonzation of distant countries where there exists a hostile population, and one that is skillful in the use of firearms. Notwithstanding all the difficulties, we do not think that there is reason for vacillation, and still less for retreat. The enterprise does not exceed the forces of the nation.”
To this El Globo adds:
“The allusion to Santo Domingo is opportune, and it well behooves us to think vigorously upon the case. * * * Is it true that our strength and resources are such as to permit us to embark upon such an enterprise? If so, we repeat what has before been said in these columns: Instead of sending frequent and feeble reënforcements, let us send an army of three or four thousand men. Let us make the sacrifice and finish the work at a single stroke.
“Listening to the voice of patriotism, let us not stop to ask what profit there may be to us in a sovereignty gained and exercised at such great cost. Nor will we stop to throw the responsibility on this or that political party; but in view of the attitude of the Methodists [sic], before expelling them we must demand from the Government at Washington such indemnity as is reported they are claiming of us.
“After we shall have subdued the Kanakas and made them feel our power, there will be time to study in cool blood the mercantile and strategical importance of those islands and to decide what is best to do with them. Meanwhile we strenuously oppose the fatal system of sending repeated but insufficient reinforcements, which only serve the purpose of slaughtering Spanish soldiers and of spending enormous sums of money.”
This from El Globo, which was so just and moderate on the occasion of the insurrection of 1887, is ominous indeed. And it is especially painful that El Globo and El Liberal, the leading republican papers, as well as El Imparcial and La Epoca, monarchical, join in bitter complaint of the American missionaries as the cause of all the trouble.
[Page 488]El Imparcial says: “It is not to be doubted that the American missionaries have, without cause, been the promoters of the trouble, and have taken part in all the disturbances.”
El Globo says: “It is reported that interested parties in the United States are beginning to excite public opinion against us, with a view to demanding of Spain indemnity for the events of Ponape. We do not believe that the North American Republic will give heed to the claims of certain missionaries who are more traffickers than propagandists.” And later: “As though our difficulties in Ponape were not enough already, it is officially announced that the Spanish legation in Washington has received the demand on the part of the American Government for indemnity for alleged injuries received by the Protestant missionaries on Ponape. We do well to say that these injuries are only alleged, and that the missionaries well deserve our vengeance for exciting the natives against us.”
El Liberal says: “It is well that we should understand what is happening in the United States, so that the Spanish Government may take such measures as may be necessary to protect our interests in the Caroline Islands against the influence of the North American residents in Ponape and against the seeds of discord the American missionaries are there trying to sow.”
San Sebastian, Spain.