writing in a language they
did not understand and by the representation that it was a mere
declaration that they had taken no part in the disturbance. Lieutenant
McCrea, who acted as interpreter, says in his evidence that when our
sailors were examined before the court the subject of the conduct of the
police was so carefully avoided that he reported the fact to Captain
Schley on his return, to the vessel.

The evidences of the existence of animosity toward our sailors in
the minds of the sailors of the Chilean navy and of the populace of
Valparaiso are so abundant and various as to leave no doubt in the mind
of anyone who will examine the papers submitted. It manifested itself
in threatening and insulting gestures toward our men as they passed
the Chilean men-of-war in their boats and in the derisive and abusive
epithets with which they greeted every appearance of an American sailor
on the evening of the riot. Captain Schley reports that boats from the
Chilean war ships several times went out of their course to cross the
bows of his boats, compelling them to back water. He complained of the
discourtesy, and it was corrected. That this feeling was shared by men
of higher rank is shown by an incident related by Surgeon Stitt, of
the _Baltimore_. After the battle of Placilla he, with other medical
officers of the war vessels in the harbor, was giving voluntary
assistance to the wounded in the hospitals. The son of a Chilean army
officer of high rank was under his care, and when the father discovered
it he flew into a passion and said he would rather have his son die than
have Americans touch him, and at once had him removed from the ward.
This feeling is not well concealed in the dispatches of the foreign
office, and had quite open expression in the disrespectful treatment of
the American legation. The Chilean boatmen in the bay refused, even for
large offers of money, to return our sailors, who crowded the Mole,
to their ship when they were endeavoring to escape from the city on
the night of the assault. The market boats of the _Baltimore_ were
threatened, and even quite recently the gig of Commander Evans, of
the _Yorktown_, was stoned while waiting for him at the Mole.

The evidence of our sailors clearly shows that the attack was expected
by the Chilean people, that threats had been made against our men, and
that in one case, somewhat early in the afternoon, the keeper of one
house into which some of our men had gone