CHILI. 



115 



Brim, Keith Johnston, Blackie, Wappaus, Tros- 

 sard, Guevara, Molina, and that of Careon 

 Mastai Ferretti, now Pope Pius IX., as the au- 

 thor of a book of travels in Chili, a Spanish 

 translation of which was published in Santia- 

 go, in 1848. 



The line of sailing-vessels referred to in the 

 | quotation from the Chilian journal was the sub- 

 ject of a bill sanctioned, in June last, by the 

 Argentine Legislature, and the four articles of 

 which were as follows : 



i ABTIOLE I. The Executive is hereby empowered to 

 ; subsidize aline of sailing-vessels between the port 

 of Buenos Ayres and the coast of Patagonia, touch- 

 ing at the settlements on the Chubut Biver, and to 

 the south of Elver Santa Cruz. 



ABT. II. The Executive may grant as much as ten 

 leagues of territory to the company or companies 

 performing the service stipulated in Article I. 



ART. III. The consequent expenses will be borne 

 by the company itself. 



ABT. IV. Let the above be communicated to the 

 Executive. 



The Chilian minister at Buenos Ayres, Sefior 

 Blest Gana, immediately presented a protest to 

 Sr. Pardo, the Argentine Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, declaring that his Government would 

 not allow the law to be carried into execution 

 in the disputed portion of the Patagonian ter- 

 ritory extending southward from the southern 

 banks of the Santa Cruz Eiver. 



The protest called forth a lengthy and elab- 

 orate note, of the more important points of 

 which a translatfon is here given : 



MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ) 

 BUENOS AYRES, June 30, 1875. J 

 To Ms Excellency Senor Blest G-ana. 



SENOR MINISTER : I have the honor to acknowledge 

 receipt of your favor of the 16th inst., containing 

 your protest against the law for a line of vessels 

 from Buenos Ayres to Santa Cruz Eiver, with a land 

 grant in favor of the company. 



The Argentine Government is displeased and sur- 

 prised at the inaccuracy of your Excellency's note, 

 and the unusnal tone in which it is written. And, 

 as your Excellency apprehends that our lawful acts 

 may lead to grave emergencies and danger of a rup- 

 ture, I am directed by the President of the Eepublic 

 to answer your Excellency's note at length, so that 



ed are the charges of the Chilian legation, and who 

 will be the real aggressor in the event of the conflict 

 your Excellency predicts. 



History bears witness to our sincere friendship, 

 since the independence, toward all the other repub- 

 lics of South America, and especially Chili. 



Up to 1872, when this question arose, your Excel- 

 lency's Government did not inform us that Eastern 

 Patagonia was comprised in the dispute, which then 

 turned on the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del 

 Fuego. Quite the contrary, it excluded the said 

 territory, on the basis that the Andes were the east- 

 ern boundary of Chili, as shown in the following 

 documents : 



1. The deed of foundation of Sandy Point colony. 



2. The first article of all Chilian constitutions down 

 to 1872, expressing the limits of Chili. 



3. All laws based on said constitutions, especially 

 that affecting the far south of Chili separated by the 

 Andes from Eastern Patagonia. 



4. The declarations contained -in the messages of 

 Chilian Presidents, the Blue-books of Chilian cabi- 

 net-ministers, the official maps of Chili, and finally 

 the admission of the Chilian envoy, Lastarria, in 



his official note, that Patagonia belonged to us and 

 was not claimed by Chili, which note was never 

 called in question before 1872. 



Your Excellency's statement, therefore, that the 

 Argentine Government has broken a solemn engage- 

 ment of status quo, is unfounded. The treaty you 

 allude to was made in 1872, and. as I have shown, 

 Chili had not claimed Patagonia in the disputed ter- 

 ritory. 



Our acts of jurisdiction on Patagonian coasts are 

 all anterior to 1872. Even the official organ of Chili 

 commented favorably upon our acts, and upon docu- 

 ments produced by us, in 1833, showing our title to 

 Patagonia, on the occasion of the seizure of the Falk- 

 land Islands by a foreign power. We were not, 

 therefore, under any obligation to suspend the exer- 

 cise of our jurisdiction over a territory undisputedly 

 our own. 



Moreover, when the discussion of limits began in 

 May, 1872, it was solemnly agreed by Chili not to 

 impede our jurisdiction on the Atlantic seaboard, 

 and this was in view of our acts of Congress of 1868 

 and 1871, exercising authority on the Patagonian 

 coast as far south as Staten Island. And two months 

 later the Chilian Government agreed not to advance 

 farther than Sandy Point, or to sell the guano in the 

 adjacent islands. 



The paragraphs immediately following re- 

 capitulate, the violation of the status quo, in 

 1856, " not by us, but by Chili ; " successive ag- 

 gressions on the part of Chili at Gallegos and 

 Santa Cruz; the declaration of the Chilian 

 Government that it would neither occupy Pata- 

 gonia, nor allow Argentine jurisdiction to ex- 

 tend south of the Santa Cruz Eiver ; and, lastly, 

 the documentary proofs (already alluded to, as 

 collected by Dr. Quesada) of the justice of the 

 Argentine claim. Senor Pardo then continues : 



"When these proofs appeared to us beyond all ques- 

 tion, we were called upon to show that the documents 

 were not apocryphal ; and we are now ready to show 

 them to your Excellency or to any other Chilian en- 

 voy, as well as numberless other papers proving the 

 constant jurisdiction of this country over Eastern Pat- 

 agonia during the colonial period. 



Your Excellency's Government requires us to 

 abandon a territory which you dispute without any 

 title, and, in language more menacing than becomes 

 the representative of a country so closely bound to 

 us, you say Chili will not permit Argentine laws to 

 be enforced in that part of our republic. 



The Argentine Government, Sr. Minister, is not 

 accustomed, and never will be accustomed, to im- 

 plore the consent of other countries for the fulfill- 

 ment of its laws. ' 



On a former occasion your Excellency put our 

 moderation to a severe trial, in a note which we re- 

 frained from preserving in the archives of this de- 

 partment, and in which, interfering in a manner at 

 once unusual and incomprehensible, in a matter for- 

 eign to the attributes of a diplomatic agent, you de- 

 clared your resolution to retire from Buenos Ayres 

 if the citizen chosen as Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 should enter the cabinet. 



But our moderation has a limit, and now, in obe- 

 dience to the President's directions, 1 1 reject your 

 Excellency's protest, as unfounded in fact and un- 

 friendly in form ; and hereby declare that my Gov- 

 ernment is resolved to carry out the laws of the 

 national Congress in all parts of the Argentine ter- 

 ritory. 



I have the honor to remain, 



PEDEO ANTONIO PAEDO. 



Previous to the occurrence of the incidents 

 which gave rise to this interchange of notes, 

 people began to 'expect that the pending qnes- 



