member of
the _Baltimore's_ crew, who stood close by and saw the transaction. The
Chilean authorities do not pretend to fix the responsibility of this
shot upon any particular person, but avow their inability to ascertain
who fired it further than that it was fired from a crowd. The character
of the wound as described by one of the surgeons of the _Baltimore_
clearly supports his opinion that it was made by a rifle ball, the
orifice of exit being as much as an inch or an inch and a quarter in
width. When shot the poor fellow was unconscious and in the arms of a
comrade, who was endeavoring to carry him to a neighboring drug store
for treatment. The story of the police that in coming up the street they
passed these men and left them behind them is inconsistent with their
own statement as to the direction of their approach and with their duty
to protect them, and is clearly disproved. In fact Riggin was not behind
but in front of the advancing force, and was not standing in the crowd,
but was unconscious and supported in the arms of Johnson when he was
shot.

The communications of the Chilean Government in relation to this
cruel and disastrous attack upon our men, as will appear from the
correspondence, have not in any degree taken the form of a manly and
satisfactory expression of regret, much less of apology. The event was
of so serious a character that if the injuries suffered by our men had
been wholly the result of an accident in a Chilean port the incident was
grave enough to have called for some public expression of sympathy and
regret from the local authorities. It is not enough to say that the
affair was lamentable, for humanity would require that expression even
if the beating and killing of our men had been justifiable. It is not
enough to say that the incident is regretted, coupled with the statement
that the affair was not of an unusual character in ports where foreign
sailors are accustomed to meet. It is not for a generous and sincere
government to seek for words of small or equivocal meaning in which
to convey to a friendly power an apology for an offense so atrocious
as this. In the case of the assault by a mob in New Orleans upon the
Spanish consulate in 1851, Mr. Webster wrote to the Spanish minister,
Mr. Calderon, that the acts complained of were "a disgraceful and
flagrant breach of duty and propriety," and that his Government "regrets
them as deeply as Minister Calderon or his Government could possib