492 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-III 



strous of these creatures who have found their breeding- 

 bed in Central American politics. He seems to have mur 

 dered, as far as possible, not only all who opposed him, 

 but all who, he thought, might oppose him, and even 

 members of their families. 



It was not at all surprising that Baez, clear-sighted and 

 experienced as he was, saw an advantage to his country 

 in annexation to the United States. He probably ex 

 pected that it would be, at first, a Territory of which he, as 

 the foremost man in the island, would become governor, 

 and that later it would come into the Union as a State 

 which he would be quite likely to represent in the United 

 States Senate. At a later period, when I saw him in New 

 York, on his way to visit the President at Washington, 

 my favorable opinion of him was confirmed. He was 

 quiet, dignified, manly, showing himself, in his conversa 

 tion and conduct, a self-respecting man of the world, ac 

 customed to manage large affairs and to deal with strong 

 men. 



The same desire to annex the island to the United States 

 was evident among the clergy. This at first surprised me, 

 for some of them were exceedingly fanatical, and one 

 of them, who was especially civil to us, had endeavored, a 

 few months before our arrival, to prevent the proper 

 burial of a charming American lady, the wife of the 

 American geologist of the government, under the old 

 Spanish view that, not being a Catholic, she should be 

 buried outside the cemetery upon the commons, like a dog. 

 But the desire for peace and for a reasonable develop 

 ment of the country, even under a government considered 

 heretical, was everywhere evident. 



It became my duty to discuss the question of church 

 property with the papal nuncio and vicar apostolic. He 

 was an archbishop who had been sent over to take tem 

 porary charge of ecclesiastical matters ; of course a most 

 earnest Roman Catholic, but thoroughly devoted to the 

 annexation of the island to the United States, and the 

 reason for his opinion was soon evident. Throughout the 



