Paragraph 10 shows that after an outrage on a Mexican merchant the inhabitants pursued and killed several of these robbers, and the inference is plain that similar action might have been had in the other cases had the residents felt disposed. This is probably correct. There is great fear of incurring the enmity of the robbers and the inhabitants will see others robbed with impunity so long as they and their immediate friends are not seriously molested.

As stated in paragraph 9, there have been other crimes lately committed on Americans in that section.

While I was in El Paso the newspapers gave details of the murder of another Californian, E. J. Nickerson, in that section, and while in Chihuahua I was shown correspondence which went to show that another man, also from California, John L. Foster, had been lost for two months. Orders had been given to pay for the removal of the body, when found, to California.

Paragraph 11 is, of course, for the exclusive decision of the Department, and in concluding I will only add a few comments which seem to me to be needed.

The section of country treated of is very difficult to traverse, and the extermination of such outlaws is extremely difficult and hazardous. They are worse than our Apache Indians.

I do not, however, believe that the general government of Mexico, nor the State government of Durango, nor the local authorities have done their full duty.

Prompt, vigorous, and sustained effort to capture or drive out these gangs would have done much to better the state of affairs.

It certainly is not a safe place in which to mine, and unless the state of affairs can be promptly improved, miners had better abandon their property and leave the country. If the Mexican Government can not reasonably protect life and property in that district, it should so publicly proclaim and relieve itself of all responsibility.

I am, etc.,

[Inclosure 6 in No. 8.]

WARNER P. SUTTON.

TESTIMONY OF GEORGE F. BEVERIDGE.

Testimony of George F. Beveridge, sworn to this date, November 25th, 1887, before Thomas B. Connery, chargé d'affaires of the legation of the United States of America, in the City of Mexico, Republic of Mexico.

I, George F. Beveridge, an American citizen, being duly sworn, do upon my oath depose and say:

I have read the memorial and petition of Janet M. Baldwin to Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State of the United States, and am conversant with the facts therein set forth. I was in Ventanas prior to and at the time of the Bernal raid upon that town, which occurred on the 29th of May, 1886. I was employed by W. W. Carroll & Co. (or the American Company, as it is known) from November 27, 1885, up to October 1, 1887, and remained at Ventanas continually up to that time. I am conversant with all the facts a set forth in the memorial and petition of Janet M. Baldwin, and certify that said statement is strictly true, only it understates instead of overstates the facts. No one but the foreigners residing at Ventanas can have any conception of the intense prejudice and hatred of the Mexican inhabitants of Ventanas against foreigners, and particularly against Americans. As all the Mexican miners and others in the employ of W. W. Carroll & Co. were well treated and well paid for their services, the only reason to account for their animosity towards Americans was owing to the desire of the Mexicans to drive them away from their property.

I have also read the testimony of Edward L. N. Gilman and that of John J. Holman, taken to be read in this case, wherein the condition of affairs at Ventanas is fully described and set forth, and I am able to testify positively and upon my own knowledge that all the statements made by Mr. Gilman and Mr. Holman in their said affidavits are true and correct.

I was also, at the time of the Bernal raid, made a prisoner with all the rest of the foreigners, and was placed under guard and compelled to transfer the few arms we had and all the goods he (Bernal) required from the company's store to his followers, whom he designated to receive them.

I was well acquainted with Leon McLeod Baldwin, and can positively assert that he had no personal difficulties whatever with the Mexicans, and that he was brutally and cruelly assassinated by Mexican assassins in hiding. The only reason that can be assigned for the brutal assassination of Mr. Baldwin was simply owing to his being an American, and for the same reason were Mr. Smith and Mr. Blanche murdered-the two Americans referred to in the memorial of Janet M. Baldwin.

Although I was not an eye-witness to the assassination of Mr. Baldwin, I at that time, being superintendent of the San Cayetano mine, one of the mines belonging to W. W. Carroll & Co. (or the American Company, as it was at times called), as soon as it was possible for me to do so after the assassination of Mr. Baldwin I secured the full particulars of the assassination from the head miner, by name of Eustacio Mapulo, of the Valenciana mine, where Mr. Baldwin was assassinated just as he was dismounting from his mule; and the head miner asserted that he was an eye-witness of the unwarranted and unjustifiable firing upon and the wounding to death of Mr. Baldwin by the assassins, Carlos Martinez and Vicente Becerra, who were concealed at the time of the firing. And I positively assert that Eustacio Mapulo personally did make the same statement to me, as is stated in pages 2, 3, and 4 of the memorial and petition of Janet M. Baldwin, addressed to the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State, and sworn to on the 6th day of October, A. D. 1887, before Holland Smith, a commissioner for the Court of Claims of the State of California, in the city and county of San Francisco, California.

I will also positively assert that the above-mentioned miner, Eustacio Mapulo, stated to me that he negotiated between the assassins and Mr. Baldwin, and one of the conditions demanded by the assassins was that Mr. Baldwin should deliver up his pistol, which Mr. Baldwin did previous to his coming out of the tunnel, and the before-mentioned miner informed me that he took the pistol and delivered it to the assassins, Carlos Martinez and Vicente Becerra. Mr. Baldwin, although wounded to death, considered it to be the only chance for his life. As had been promised, surrendered himself entirely unarmed to the above-mentioned assassins and proceeded out of the tunnel to negotiate with the assassins, as had been agreed upon; and the head miner did make the same statement to me, that is to say, the before-mentioned assassins did state to Eustacio Mapulo that they did not want any money from Mr. Baldwin, but it was their intention and that of their friends,' the Mexicans, to make away with the entire Gringos (Americans) one by one in the same way; and to prove that robbery was not their object for committing the assassination, Mr. Baldwin's watch was found on his person after the murder had been committed.

Open threats were made by the Mexicans, prior to the murder of Mr. Smith, that they intended to kill all the Gringos (Americans) residing in and around Ventanas; and although the Federal as well as the State authorities of Mexico were repeatedly appealed to by the Americans for protection, no assistance was rendered, nor were these bad characters arrested and punished.

Referring to that portion of Mr. Holman's testimony relative to the citizens of Durasno killing five of the bad characters, I positively assert that his statement is true; that in no wise were these bad characters killed by the citizens of Durasno for the assassination of Mr. Baldwin, but only for the reason, as stated in Mr. Holman's statement, for interfering and holding as hostages two Mexican citizens of the village of Durasno. Had the Mexican citizens or the authorities of Ventanas desired to even so much as to arrest the assassins of Mr. Baldwin, they had ample time and opportunities to do so, for after the assassination of Mr. Baldwin these assassins rema ned for several days in close proximity to Ventanas, and even sent word to the authorities, who at that time had about thirty-five Federal soldiers in Ventanas, if they (the authorities) wanted them (the outlaws) to come and take them. No attempt was made to do so, which shows beyond doubt (as is well known) that the authorities did not consider that the assassination of an American was sufficient cause for them to pursue, arrest, and bring these bad characters (their own countrymen) to punishment.

I will also positively state that a few days prior to the assassination of Mr. Baldwin it came to our knowledge from reliable information received both by Mr. H. H. Ward, one of the partners of the American Company, and myself, that Esperidon Morales, one of the followers of Bernal, and who had assisted him in his raid on the 29th of May, 1886, against the foreigners at Ventanas, and who also took part in the murdering of Mr. Baldwin and the kidnapping of Mr. Carroll, was openly residing at San Cayetano, where is situated the Eureka mine owned by the American Company, and situated from Ventanas about five miles. Both Mr. Ward and myself sent word to the jefe, or sheriff, of Ventanas and informed him of this fact, and requested him to have this bad character, Esperidon Morales, arrested. The jefe sent about six soldiers over to San Cayetano with an order on the jefe (sheriff) there by the name of Nielo, who had himself only been released from prison for two months for a murder he (Nielo) had perpetrated, to arrest Esperidon Morales and send him to Ventanas. Instead of Nielo doing so, he caused the soldiers to arrest three innocent men (who on their arrival at Ventanas were set at liberty), and then he (Nielo) went privately to Esperidon Morales and informed him that he had an order for his arrest and advised him to leave, which he (Esperidon Morales), feeling perfectly secure from arrest, did not do until 10 o'clock the following morning, and only left then when the sheriff (Nielo) went to him the second time and advised him to change his quarters, otherwise the authorities might possibly send for

him again. Upon this advice, given by the sheriff (Nielo), Esperidon Morales changed his quarters, and in a few days afterwards this same Esperidon Morales, although he was not in the immediate company of Carlos Martinez and Vicente Becerra at the time they assassinated Mr. Baldwin, still he, with others, were in the immediate vicinity and only awaiting the return of the above-mentioned assassins, who had been dispatched to commit their bloody and atrocious deed. I will state here that Domingo Rojes, a Mexican citizen, and one of the few who desired to save the property and lives of the Americans, gave me this information as to the sheriff (Nielo) warning Esperidon Morales to change his quarters, and if called upon, Mr. Rojes informed me, that he would testify to the truthfulness of this information on oath.

I will also positively assert that in Mr. Ward and myself endeavoring to have the lawless character Esperidon Morales arrested, is only one of a dozen similar cases where no attention whatever was paid to our appeals for protection by the authorities, and if by chance one or two of these lawless characters were arrested, they were only confined for a day or two and then set at liberty, to renew again their threats and excite their countrymen against the Americans.

From other reliable information received from a Mexican boy who saw the assassins, it was well known to the Mexicans that these assassins were in concealment near the Valenciana mine, of which Mr. Baldwin was superintendent, and were there for the purpose of assassinating him; and I positively assert that had the slightest assistance been given by the authorities towards protecting the lives and property of the foreigners at Ventanas, the many outrages culminating in the murdering and assassination of Americans would never have occurred.

Even after the assassination of Mr. Baldwin and the killing of the five assassins by the Durasno people, the prejudice and hatred against the foreigners at Ventanas (which was openly spoken of, and many threats made against their lives) was so intense, all of us being warned that we would be made away with in the same manner a Mr. Baldwin was, that I considered it was no longer safe for me to remain there, so I resigned a lucrative position and made my way out to Durango. Finding no American consul at that place I proceeded to the City of Mexico, and laid the facts as herein stated before the American minister.

GEO. F. BEVERIDGE.

[Inclosure 7 in No. 8.]

BRIEF OF H. N. CLEMENT.

[In the Department of State of the United States of America. In the matter of the claim of Janet M. Baldwin for indemnity against the Government of Mexico. Historic brief relative to the inducements offered to foreigners by the Mexican Government subsequent to the independence of 1822 to settle within the territory of the Republic.]

I. UNDER THE DOMINION OF SPAIN.

The Government of Spain pursued a most illiberal policy relative to the settlement of foreigners within the territory occupied by her American colonies; jealously excluding them from all knowledge of the country, and preventing them as far as possible from holding commerce with the inhabitants thereof. A few references to the laws of the

Indies will show that such was the policy pursued.

The following are translated extracts from these laws:

Law 7, Title 27, Book 9, Recopilacion de Indias, by Philip III, 1614:

"We order and command that in no part or in any part of our West Indian Islands, and tierra firme of the Northern and Southern Oceans, shall any character of trade be permitted with foreigners, although it should be in the way of ransom, or any commerce whatever under a penalty of death, and confiscation of the property of those who violate this, our law, of whatever state or condition they may be.”

Law 9, same title and book, Philip III, 1602:

In consideration of the evils resulting from foreigners going to the Indies, to reside in the ports and other places, it being found that our Catholic faith is not secure, and it being important to see that no errors may be sown among the Indians and other ignorant persons, we command the viceroys, audiencias, and governors, and charge the archbishops and bishops that they aid in cleansing the land of these people, and that they cause them to be expelled from the Indies."

(The operation of these laws was suspended by the Mexican decrees of October 7th, 1823.)

This jealous policy with respect to foreigners was continued by the Spanish Government down to the date of the Mexican independence, the governors of the provinces of

New Spain being from time to time admonished to "keep a vigilant eye upon the restless sons of the Northern Republic."

II. UNDER THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO.

In the early part of the present century the Hispano-American colonies, stimulated by the example of the Anglo-American colonies, commenced their efforts to free themselves from the stern bondage in which for three hundred years they had been held by the Spanish Government, and succeeded in establishing a free and independent government. In 1822 the independence of the Republic of Mexico was acknowledged by the Government of the United States, and to this day there may be found hung upon the walls in some of the hotels in the City of Mexico the portrait of our American statesman, Henry Clay, under which there is printed the resolution offered by him in the Congress of the United States for the recognition of the independence of the United States of Mexico.

The government of the Mexican Republic was modeled somewhat after that of this Republic, the prosperity of which presented to the intelligent Mexican statesman an example which he was ambitious to see imitated by his own country; hence, the jealous and selfish policy pursued by Spain towards her American colonies was at once abolished, and a more liberal policy substituted therefor.

Desirous that the natural resources of the country should be developed by enterprising industry, and that the young Republic might be looked upon with pride by her elder sister of the North, and not held in contempt by other nations of the earth, the Mexican Republic, from the date of her independence down to the present time, has enacted laws and published to the world decrees, inviting foreigners to become inhabitants of Mexican soil, and offering extraordinary inducements for them to do so, giving them in the mean time every assurance of protection in person and property.

This statement may be partially verified by reference to a work entitled "Hall's Mexican Laws," recently published by A. L. Bancroft & Co., of San Francisco, which purports to be, and is a translation and compilation of the laws of Mexico, especially those relating to the acquisition, ownership, and transmission of property by foreigners in that Republic. (See sections 493, 494, 521, 522, 671, 680, 681, 683, 707, and 713.)

But Mr. Hall's work aims to present simply the laws of Mexico in force at the present time. Its scope was not sufficiently broad to enable me to refer the Department with exactness to the original sources of information or to show the historical correctness of the statements above named. I have therefore, for the purpose of showing that there has been a continuous series of invitations extended to foreigners to go to Mexico, and inducements held out to them to go, and promises of protection made to them if they would go, taken the pains to secure translations, in their chronological order, of original decrees, proclamations, and laws bearing upon the subject under consideration, through Mr. R. C Hopkins, of this city, who has for over forty years been intimately acquainted with the political, legislative, and judicial history of Mexico, and who is otherwise eminently qualified for the work by his long connection with the United States surveyor-general's office in this city as keeper of Spanish archives, as well as by reason of his having visited Mexico over forty times, either as the accredited agent of this Government or as the representative of important private interests.

The official publication or repository of the laws of Mexico is called "Legislacion Mexicana, ó séa Coleccion Completa de las Leyes, Decretos y Circulares, que se han expedido desde la Consumacion de la Independencia."

(Mexican legislation, or rather a complete collection of the laws, decrees, and circulars which have been issued since the consummation of the independence.)

In this collection of laws, decrees, and circulars are found the following relative to foreigners:

On the 7th of October, 1823, the laws of the Indies relative to foreigners, title 27, book 9, already quoted, were suspended.

On the 18th of August, 1824, was passed the law of colonization.

Article 1 of this law declares that the Mexican nation offers to the foreigners who may come to establish themselves in the territory of the Republic security in their persons and in their properties, provided they subject themselves to the laws of the country."

Decree of the 6th of September, 1833: "Foreigners to be protected in their persons and property."

The most important decrees found in the collection above cited relative to foreigners are those issued by General Lopez de Santa Aña, who was wont to style himself the "Napoleon of the West," and that of the citizen Don Benito Juarez, than whom a wiser or more unselfish patriot never filled the Presidential chair of Mexico, although his veins were not coursed by the blood of the hidalgos of Spain.

Decree of March 11th, 1842.

On the 11th of March, 1842, President Santa Ana issued a decree of which the following is a portion:

Antonio Lopez de Santa Aña, general of division, well deserving of the country, and Provisional President of the Mexican Republic, to all the inhabitants thereof, know ye, that after mature reflection and a most careful examination relative to the advantages that will result to the Republic by permitting foreigners to acquire property therein, having heard the opinion of the council of representatives, which has made the most scrupulous examination of the matter, the expression of various departmental juntas, as well as the opinions of many illustrious persons, and the pro and con of the press, in view of their various legal projects which have been presented, and being convinced that a frank policy and an interest well understood demand that no further delay be permitted in making such concessions as may tend to the prosperity and development of the Republic by the increase of population, by the extension and division of property, which necessarily increases the national wealth; taking also into consideration the fact that by these measures the security of the nation will be more and more assured since the foreigners, who are owners of property, being interested in the common prosperity, will be so many defenders of the national rights; considering also the encouragement which will be received by agriculture, commerce, and other industries, which are the fountains of public wealth; and lastly, that the opinion generally manifested is in favor of this concession, I have thought proper in the exercise of the authority conferred on me by the seventh of the bases, adopted in Tacubaya, and sworn to by the representatives of the department, to decree as follows:

ART. 1 The foreigners established and residing in the Republic can acquire and possess country and town property by purchase, adjudication, denouncement, or by any other title whatever established by law.

ART. 2. They can also acquire in ownership mines of gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, and stone coal of which they may have been the discoverers in accordance with the laws and ordinances relative thereto.

ART. 3. No foreigner can acquire more than two country properties in the same department without permission from the Supreme Government.

ART. 7. Foreigners who may acquire country or town property or mines, and the foreigners who may be employed in the same as servants, operatives, or day laborers shall not be obliged to ren er military service unless it be of a police character, but they shall be subject to militia tax.

On the 30th of January, 1854, General Santa Aña declared the foregoing decree of the 14th of March, 1842, to be still in force.

Decree of October, 1842.

Foreigners who are members of companies, discoverers of mines, or denouncers of such as are abandoned, although they should absent themselves from the Republic, shall not thereby lose their right to the same, no matter what may be the motive and length of such absence.

Decree of June 16th, 1856.

The President declares that vessels bringin¡ immigrants for colonies in the State of Vera Cruz are not subject to pay tonnage duty.

Decree of May 10th, 1856.

Decree of President Ygnacio Comonfort for the establishment of four colonies between Jalapa and Vera Cruz; lands to be granted and no taxes to be paid thereon for three years.

Foreigners who petition for land for cultivation shall be entitled by this act alone to be considered Mexican citizens.

Decree of June 11th, 1857.

Forced loans having been exacted from foreigners, thereby placing the Government in an unpleasant position with respect to neighboring friendly nations, such loans can not be exacted.

Decree of November 15th, 1858.

His excellency the President having received notice of the fact that some authorities and military chiefs, overstepping the limits of the powers with which they are invested, have committed acts of violence not only against Mexican citizens, but also against the