ly
do;" that "these acts have caused the President great pain, and he
thinks a proper acknowledgment is due to Her Majesty's Government."
He invited the Spanish consul to return to his post, guaranteeing
protection, and offered to salute the Spanish flag if the consul should
come in a Spanish vessel. Such a treatment by the Government of Chile of
this assault would have been more creditable to the Chilean authorities,
and much less can hardly be satisfactory to a government that values its
dignity and honor.

In our note of October 23 last, which appears in the correspondence,
after receiving the report of the board of officers appointed by Captain
Schley to investigate the affair, the Chilean Government was advised of
the aspect which it then assumed and called upon for any facts in its
possession that might tend to modify the unfavorable impressions which
our report had created. It is very clear from the correspondence that
before the receipt of this note the examination was regarded by the
police authorities as practically closed. It was, however, reopened and
protracted through a period of nearly three months. We might justly have
complained of this unreasonable delay; but in view of the fact that the
Government of Chile was still provisional, and with a disposition to be
forbearing and hopeful of a friendly termination, I have awaited the
report, which has but recently been made.

On the 21st instant I caused to be communicated to the Government of
Chile by the American minister at Santiago the conclusions of this
Government after a full consideration of all the evidence and of every
suggestion affecting this matter, and to these conclusions I adhere.
They were stated as follows:

First. That the assault is not relieved of the aspect which the early
information of the event gave to it, viz, that of an attack upon the
uniform of the United States Navy having its origin and motive in a
feeling of hostility to this Government, and not in any act of the
sailors or of any of them.

Second. That the public authorities of Valparaiso flagrantly failed in
their duty to protect our men, and that some of the police and of the
Chilean soldiers and sailors were themselves guilty of unprovoked
assaults upon our sailors before and after arrest. He [the President]
thinks the preponderance of the evidence and the inherent probabilities
lead to the conclusion that Riggin was killed by the police or soldiers