ey
met them. Other officers of the ship and Captain Jenkins, of the
merchant ship _Keweenaw_, corroborate Captain Schley as to the general
sobriety and good behavior of our men. The Sisters of Charity at the
hospital to which our wounded men were taken when inquired of stated
that they were sober when received. If the situation had been otherwise,
we must believe that the Chilean police authorities would have made
arrests. About 6 p.m. the assault began, and it is remarkable that the
investigation by the judge of crimes, though so protracted, does not
enable him to give any more satisfactory account of its origin than is
found in the statement that it began between drunken sailors. Repeatedly
in the correspondence it is asserted that it was impossible to learn
the precise cause of the riot. The minister of foreign affairs, Matta,
in his telegram to Mr. Montt under date December 31, states that the
quarrel began between two sailors in a tavern and was continued in the
street, persons who were passing joining in it.

The testimony of Talbot, an apprentice, who was with Riggin, is that
the outbreak in which they were involved began by a Chilean sailor's
spitting in the face of Talbot, which was resented by a knockdown. It
appears that Riggin and Talbot were at the time unaccompanied by others
of their shipmates. These two men were immediately beset by a crowd of
Chilean citizens and sailors, through which they broke their way to a
street car, and entered it for safety. They were pursued, driven from
the car, and Riggin was so seriously beaten that he fell in the street
apparently dead. There is nothing in the report of the Chilean
investigation made to us that seriously impeaches this testimony. It
appears from Chilean sources that almost instantly, with a suddenness
that strongly implies meditation and preparation, a mob, stated by the
police authorities at one time to number 2,000 and at another 1,000,
was engaged in the assault upon our sailors, who are represented as
resisting "with stones, clubs, and bright arms." The report of the
_intendente_ of October 30 states that the fight began at 6 p.m. in
three streets, which are named; that information was received at the
_intendencia_ at 6.15, and that the police arrived on the scene at 6.30,
a full half hour after the assault began. At that time he says that a
mob of 2,000 men had collected, and that for several squares there was
the appearance of a "real battlefield."