fered to bring about a peaceful adjustment, and the interposition
of Mr. Egan to mitigate severities and to shelter adherents of the
Congressional party was effective and frequent. The charge against
Admiral Brown is too base to gain credence with anyone who knows his
high personal and professional character.
Recurring to the evidence of our sailors, I think it is shown that there
were several distinct assaults, and so nearly simultaneous as to show
that they did not spread from one point. A press summary of the report
of the fiscal shows that the evidence of the Chilean officials and
others was in conflict as to the place of origin, several places being
named by different witnesses as the locality where the first outbreak
occurred. This if correctly reported shows that there were several
distinct outbreaks, and so nearly at the same time as to cause this
confusion. The La Patria, in the same issue from which I have already
quoted, after describing the killing of Riggin and the fight which from
that point extended to the Mole, says:
At the same time in other streets of the port the Yankee sailors fought
fiercely with the people of the town, who believed to see in them
incarnate enemies of the Chilean navy.
The testimony of Captain Jenkins, of the American merchant ship
_Keweenaw_, which had gone to Valparaiso for repairs, and who was a
witness of some part of the assault upon the crew of the _Baltimore_, is
strongly corroborative of the testimony of our own sailors when he says
that he saw Chilean sentries drive back a seaman seeking shelter upon
a mob that was pursuing him. The officers and men of Captain Jenkins's
ship furnish the most conclusive testimony as to the indignities which
were practiced toward Americans in Valparaiso. When American sailors,
even of merchant ships, can only secure their safety by denying their
nationality, it must be time to readjust our relations with a government
that permits such demonstrations.
As to the participation of the police, the evidence of our sailors shows
that our men were struck and beaten by police officers before and after
arrest, and that one at least was dragged with a lasso about his neck by
a mounted policeman. That the death of Riggin was the result of a rifle
shot fired by a policeman or soldier on duty is shown directly by the
testimony of Johnson, in whose arms he was at the time, and by the
evidence of Charles Langen, an American sailor, not then a
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