a proper time and in a proper manner "to make known to the Paraguayan Government that its proceedings with regard to the United States and Paraguay Navigation Company appeared to be unjust and oppressive and to have been productive of loss to the company; but, before adverting to the subject, he was to endeavor to secure the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty of amity and commerce, concluded on March 4, 1853. He did not succeed in attaining this object, and withdrew mentioning the subject of the claim. (Calvo, Droit International, 5th ed., III. 124-127; Moore. Int. Arbitrations, II. 1489-1492.) In 1871 three American steamships, the Hero, Nutrias, and San Fernando, the property of the Venezuela Steam Transportation Company, a New York corporation, were taken possession of in the waters of Venezuela and employed in war and otherwise by parties which were contending for the control of the Government. One of the ships was afterwards voluntarily released, while the remaining two were delivered over to the commander of the U. S. S. Shawmut, who had been sent out to obtain their restoration. The United States subsequently presented a claim for damages, the adjustment of which was for various causes long delayed. In June, 1890, Congress adopted a joint resolution authorizing the President to take such measures as in his judgment might be necessary promptly to obtain from the Venezuelan Government an indemnity. After the passage of this resolution the claim was brought to an arbitration, which resulted in an award in favor of the United States for $150,000. Moore, Int. Arbitrations, II. 1693. (2) WITHOUT SPECIAL AUTHORITY. § 1093. The U. S. sloop of war Dale, Captain Pearson, visited the island of Johanna in August, 1851, and under threat of bombarding the town obtained $1,000 as a measure of redress for the unlawful imprisonment and detention of Captain Movers, of the American whaling brig Maria, of Nantucket. Mr. Everett, Sec. of State, to Captain Movers, Dec. 17, 1852, 41 MS. As enclosing a despatch of the United States consul at Tahiti, of March 13, In 1852 a controversy broke out between the authorities of Greytown, or San Juan del Norte, and the Accessory Transit Company, an organization composed of citizens of the United States, who held a charter from Nicaragua, as to the occupation by the company of a piece of land on the north side of the harbor, known as Punta Arenas, over which jurisdiction was claimed by the municipality. Greytown was regarded by the United States as being within the limits of Nicaragua. It was understood to claim independence under a charter from the Mosquito king; but the United States never recognized the Mosquito king nor the independence of the town, though American naval officers were instructed to respect the police regulations of any de facto authorities there, and not to molest such authorities unless they should attempt to disturb the rights of American citizens. On February 8, 1853, the city council passed a resolution notifying the company to remove its entire establishment within a certain number of days, as the land was said to be needed for public uses. The buildings were not removed, and they were subsequently demolished by the Greytown authorities. In consequence of the dispute as to jurisdiction over Punta Arenas the difficulties between the municipality and the Accessory Transit Company continued. Early in May, 1853, some men, who were then or had previously been employed by the company, ran off with some of its property in a boat to Greytown. They were pursued by employees of the company, who, while attempting to arrest the fugitives, were compelled by the municipal police to desist, and one of them was afterwards arrested at Punta Arenas on the charge of assault and battery, but he was subsequently discharged on bond. Disputes also existed as to the payment of dues and port charges by the company's steamers. In May, 1854, an attempt was made by the Greytown authorities to arrest at Punta Arenas a captain. of one of the company's steamers, who was charged with having murdered a native boatman. Mr. Borland, American minister to Central America, who happened to be on board the steamer, assisted the captain in resisting arrest. Mr. Borland's action produced great excitement, and later in the day, while he was on a visit to the American consul at Greytown, an attempt was made to arrest him. A crowd of persons went to the consul's house for that purpose. The mayor, however, hastened to assure Mr. Borland that the proceedings had been taken without his order or authority; but while the conversation was going on some one from the crowd threw a broken bottle at Mr. Borland, slightly wounding him in the face. The person who threw the missile was not recognized. Soon afterwards the crowd dispersed. In June, 1853, Captain Hollins, of the U. S. S. Cyane, was sent to Greytown to obtain redress for the damages suffered by the Accessory Transit Company and an apology for the indignities to Mr. Borland. The instructions of Mr. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy, to Captain Hollins bore date June 10, 1854. They refer to the two incidents of the stealing of the company's property and the indignity to Mr. Borland, and declared it to be desirable that the people of Greytown -hould be taught that the United States will not tolerate these out rages, and that they have the power and the determination to check them. It is, however, very much to be hoped that you can effect the purposes of your visit without a resort to violence and destruction of property and loss of life. The presence of your vessel will, no doubt, work much good. The Department reposes much in your prudence and good sense." When Captain Hollins arrived at Greytown he found that the American consul had already demanded, on behalf of the United States, an indemnity for the Accessory Transit Company. On July 12, 1854, Captain Hollins, at nine o'clock in the morning, issued a proclamation announcing that, if the demands for satisfaction presented by the consul were not forthwith complied with, he would, at nine o'clock on the following morning, bombard the town. The demands embraced the immediate payment of $24,000 as an indemnity for injuries to the Accessory Transit Company and for outrages perpetrated on the persons of American citizens, and an apology for the indignity to Mr. Borland, together with satisfactory assurances of future good behavior. These demands were not complied with, and at daylight on the morning of the 13th of July Captain Hollins sent a steamer to the town to take away such persons as desired to go. At nine o'clock the batteries of the Cyane were opened on the town with shot and shell for three-quarters of an hour. After an intermission of the same length they were opened again for half an hour, and this was followed by an intermission of three hours, after which the firing was renewed for twenty minutes, and then the bombardment ceased. The object of the several intervals in the bombardment was to afford an opportunity to the people of the town to treat and arrange matters. No advantage was taken of it, and at four o'clock in the afternoon a force was sent ashore to complete the destruction of the town by fire. No lives were lost. "The execution," said Captain Hollins, in his report of the incident, "done by our shot and shell amounted to the almost total destruction of the buildings; but it was thought best to make the punishment of such a character as to inculcate a lesson never to be forgotten by those who have for so long a time set at defiance all warnings, and satisfy the whole world that the United States have the power and determination to enforce that reparation and respect due to them as a Government in whatever quarter the outrages may be committed.” 46 Br. & For. State Papers, 859, 866-872, 875, 877, 878 et seq; 47 id. 10191038; S. Ex. Doc. 9, 35 Cong. 1 sess. "I could not doubt that the case demanded the interposition of this Government. Justice required that reparation should be made for so many and such gross wrongs, and that a course of insolence and plunder, tending directly to the insecurity of the lives of numerous travelers and of the rich treasure belonging to our citizens passing over this transit way, should be peremptorily arrested. Whatever it might be in other respects, the community in question, in power to do mischief, was not despicable. It was well provided with ordnance, small arms, and ammunition, and might easily seize on the unarmed boats, freighted with millions of property, which passed almost daily within its reach. It did not profess to belong to any regular government, and had, in fact, no recognized dependence on or connection with anyone to which the United States or their injured citizens might apply for redress or which could be held responsible in any way for the outrages committed. Not standing before the world. in the attitude of an organized political society, being neither competent to exercise the rights nor to discharge the obligations of a government, it was, in fact, a marauding establishment too dangerous to be disregarded and too guilty to pass unpunished, and yet incapable of being treated in any other way than as a piratical resort of outlaws or a camp of savages depredating on emigrant trains or caravans and the frontier settlements of civilized states. "When the Cyane was ordered to Central America, it was confidently hoped and expected that no occasion would arise for 'a resort to violence and destruction of property and loss of life:' Instructions to that effect were given to her commander; and no extreme act would have been requisite had not the people themselves, by their extraordinary conduct in the affair, frustrated all the possible mild measures for obtaining satisfaction. A withdrawal from the place, the object of his visit entirely defeated, would under the circumstances in which the commander of the Cyane found himself have been absolute abandonment of all claim of our citizens for indemnification and submissive acquiescence in national indignity. It would have encouraged in these lawless men a spirit of insolence and rapine most dangerous to the lives and property of our citizens at Punta Arenas, and probably emboldened them to grasp at the treasures and valuable merchandise continually passing over the Nicaragua route. It certainly would have been most satisfactory to me if the objects of the Cyane's mission could have been consummated without any act of public force, but the arrogant contumacy of the offenders rendered it impossible to avoid the alternative either to break up their establishment or to leave them impressed with the idea that they might persevere with impunity in a career of insolence and plunder. This transaction has been the subject of complaint on the part of Some foreign powers, and has been characterized with more of harshnes than of justice. If comparisons were to be instituted, it would not be difficult to present repeated instances in the history of states standing in the very front of modern civilization where communities far less offending and more defenseless than Greytown have been chastised with much greater severity, and where not cities only have been laid in ruins, but human life has been recklessly sacrificed and the blood of the innocent made profusely to mingle with that of the guilty." President Pierce, annual message, Dec. 4, 1854, Richardson's Messages, V. 282. In June, 1863, the Pembroke, a small American steamer, laden with merchandise from Yokohama to Nagasaki, in attempting to pass through the Straits of Shimonoseki was fired upon by the shore batteries and by an armed brig belonging to the Prince of Nagato. She was not struck, but she abandoned her voyage and retraced her way to Nagasaki. The American minister demanded redress for the insult to the American flag, and by his direction Commander McDougall, of the U. S. S. Wyoming, proceeded in July to retaliate upon the hostile daimio. He found at Shimonoseki three vessels belonging to the Prince, lying at anchor near the shore. He attacked them, and, after a sharp conflict with them and the shore batteries, sank a brig and blew up a steamer, by which action some forty persons were said to have been killed. The loss of the Wyoming was five killed and six wounded. A French steamer and a Dutch corvette had also been fired upon at the straits by the hostile daimio. The American minister presented to the Japanese Government a claim on account of the Pembroke for $10,000 for loss of time and freight and the abandonment of her voyage. The claim was promptly paid. Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Pruyn, min. to Japan, No. 50, Oct. 3, 1863, Dip. Cor. 1863, II. 1060, acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Pruyn's despatches Nos. 48 and 49, July 24, and No. 50, July 25, 1863, printed in the same volume. By the act of February 22, 1883, the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to distribute a certain sum among the officers and crew of the Wyoming, “for extraordinary, valuable, and specially meritorious and perilous services in the destruction of hostile vessels in the Straits of Shimonoseki," July 16, 1863. (22 Stat. 421.) As to the Monitor claim, and the refusal of the United States further to press it, see For. Rel. 1888, II. 1068, 1069. As to the opening of the Straits of Shimonoseki, Japan, by the allied fleets, in 1864, see supra, § 849. In September, 1864, the treaty powers made a hostile demonstration against the Prince of Nagato, destroyed the batteries of Chosu, commanding the Straits of Shimonoseki, and compelled an unconditional surrender. The Tycoon was then required to express his disapproval of the course of his adversary, the rebellious Prince of Nagato, and to provide for the payment of the expenses of the expedi tion, or else to open more of his ports to commerce. Accordingly a treaty was concluded October 22, 1864, by representatives of the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands on the |