810 



UNITED STATES. 



than the amount specially appropriated for 

 medical attendance. 



Captain H. "W. Howgate, of the Signal-Service 

 Bureau at Washington, was arrested, near the 

 beginning of the year, on a charge of embez- 

 zling funds of the United States in his keeping 

 as disbursing officer of the Bureau. After be- 

 ing in jail for two months in consequence of 

 his inability to procure bail, he was allowed to 

 visit his family in charge of a bailiff by special 

 leave of Judge Wylie. While at his house he 

 managed to elude the bailiff and made his 

 escape. This occurred on the 13th of April, 

 and all effort to rearrest the accused officer, 

 or to discover his whereabout, was unavailing 

 during the year. 



The foreign relations of the Government of 

 the United States have been entirely undis- 

 turbed. The special mission of Mr. William 



TIMOTHY O. HOWE, POSTMASTER-GENERAL. 

 [Born in Livermore, Maine, February 24, 1816 ; admitted to 

 the bar in 1839 ; member of the Legislature of Maine in 

 1842 ; Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin 

 from 1850 to 1855 ; was elected three times to the United 

 States Senate, and served from 1S61 to 1879; was ap- 

 pointed by President Garfleld a commissioner to the In- 

 ternational Monetary Conference at Paris in 1881. His 

 nomination as a member of his Cabinet by President Ar- 

 thur was confirmed by the Senate January 5, 1882.] 



H. Trescot to Peru, mentioned in the " An- 

 nual Cyclopaedia" for 1881 (see PERTT, CHILI, 

 AND THE UNITED STATES in that volume), led 

 to no practical result. Early in February Mr. 

 Trescot was instructed by the Secretary of 

 State that the United States only proposed to 

 give counsel and aid to Chili in any negotia- 

 tions which that country might desire to make ; 

 that Chili must herself determine whether or 

 not she would accept such aid, but that in no 

 event would the United States take part in 

 negotiations based upon the surrender of Ta- 

 rapaca and a further indemnity of $20,000,- 

 000, as such a demand was considered exor- 

 bitant. Shortly after, on the 22d of February, 



Mr. Frelinghuysen instructed Mr. Trescot that 

 the United States would assent to a liberal war 

 indemnity, but that consent was not to be given 

 to the cession of Tarapaca without first com- 

 municating with the department; that should 

 Chili persist in her demand for such cession, 

 the creditors of Peru might possibly maintain 

 that the revenue of Tarapaca had been already 

 hypothecated, and that the President desired 

 to urge moderation on the part of Chili. 



Under date of February 24th Mr. Trescot sent 

 a dispatch in which be said : 



You may assure the President that I have urged 

 upon the Government of Chili the wisdom of modera- 

 tion in the terms which it demanded. But Chili is 

 determined to have Arica and Tacna, as well as the 

 territory south of the Quebrada de Camarones [Tara- 

 paca]. The indemnity of twenty millions, with this 

 region of country as a pledge, was only an indirect 

 mode of securing the country itself. Peru has not, 

 that I can see, any capacity of resistance in herself, 

 and Chili will not yield to any merely friendly persua- 

 sion. The communication to the Government of Chili 

 of the resolution of the Government of the United 

 States, that it will not take part in any negotiation 

 based upon the considerations proposed, and the reply 

 of the Government of Chili, that it is not prepared to 

 modify these conditions, practically close the mission. 



On the 4th of March Mr. Trescot telegraphed 

 that the publication of his instructions and 

 confidential communications had rendered a 

 modification of the terms offered by Chili 

 impossible, and he thought his presence in 

 "Washington with information would be more 

 useful than remaining at Santiago, where he 

 then was. On the same date he communicated 

 details of his conferences with Balmaceda, the 

 Chilian Minister of State, and the protocol to 

 which they had agreed on the llth of February. 

 The protocol which was agreed to by Messrs. 

 Trescot and Balmaceda in their conferences at 

 Santiago contained the following : 



Chili declares that, as a work of mutual friendship 

 and confidence, she would accept, if they should be 

 offered, the good offices of the United States, in the 

 contest with Peru, provided that the United States, 

 in the exercise of its good offices, accepts the conditions 

 of peace which Chih would be disposed to concede to 

 the enemy, and with the understanding that, if the 

 United States should not obtain the consent of Peru 

 to the conditions of peace, which serve as the basis of 

 its good offices, in that case the action of the United 

 States between the belligerents should terminate. 



The terms on which, according to the pro- 

 tocol, Chili would make peace, are as follow : 



1. Cession to Chili of all the territory of Peru situ- 

 ated to the south of the Quebrada de Camarones. 



2. Occupation of the region of Tacna and Arica for 

 ten years, Peru being obliged to pay 20,000,000 pesos 

 at the expiration of that time. If, at the expiration 

 of that time, Peru should not pay to Chili the 20,000,- 

 000 pesos, the region of Tacna and Arica should re- 

 main pro facto ceded to and incorporated in the terri- 

 tories of 'the Eepublic of Chili. If Arica returns to 

 the power of Peru, it shall remain forever unfortified. 



3. Chili shall occupy the Islands of Lobos so long as 

 there shall be guano upon them, and both the net 

 product of the guano taken from them and that from 

 the mines discovered and being worked in Tarapac& 

 shall be equally divided between Chili and the credit- 

 ors of Peru. 



On his return to Washington Mr. Trescot 



