CHILI. 



137 



. Italian vessel in Montevideo and for 

 Armstrong guns. As tliis was tin- property of 



md part of ft specific re-.-rve ci 

 .. the Junta obtained an injunction in the 

 ii courts while it was still on the sea. 

 ..l.inet of tin- Provisional (iovernmcnt was 

 completed l>y t lie accession of Augustin Kdwanls 

 lister of Public Works and Manuel Alatta 

 ,.r I-'oreign Affairs. This formed a 

 ii of all the political parties except the 

 ,dists. Minister of Justice Errazuriz 

 many orders for the arrest of persons ac- 

 of having participated in acts of pillage, 

 Bogging or torturing friends of the Junta, in 

 >!aiiiit,' the mails, in the massacre at Los CaHos 

 Aug. tH, in the shooting of Camming!, and 

 iiit rages committed under Balmaceda's 

 rnment. In the elections in October the 

 Liberals and Radicals, united under the name of 

 the Lilicral party, obtained a majority of 21 to 

 !u- Senate and of 56 to 88 in the Chamber 

 of Deputies. The Liberals and Conservatives 

 i he only parties. The new Congress assem- 

 on the last dav of that month. Waldo 

 Sihu was re-elected Vice-president of the Senate 

 and Harms Luco President of the Chamber. 

 The Council of State having been constituted 

 without giving representation to the Conserva- 

 tive party, Minister of the Interior Irrarazaval 

 and Minister of Agriculture Joaquin Walker 

 Martinez offered their resignations. Afterward 

 arrangements were made for the inclusion of 



ir party, in consequence of which they con- 

 ted to retain their portfolios. Conventions 

 both parties nominated Admiral Jorge Montt 

 be the next constitutional President, and he 

 was elected by the electoral college in November. 

 Pending his formal election and inauguration on 

 Dec. 26, he was empowered by Congress to as- 

 sume all the authority of Chief Executive. 



Difficulties with the United States. Dur- 

 ing the civil war the partisans of the Junta con- 

 trived an idea that Patrick Egan, United States 

 minister in Santiago, was hostile to their cause, 

 and that the Government at Washington acted 

 in an unfriendly manner in the " Itata" incident 

 and in withholding the recognition of belligerent 

 rights. Animosity toward the United States has 

 been felt from the time when Chilian miners 

 were driven out of California, and was revived by 

 the attitude of the American Government dur- 

 ing the Peruvian war, when it exerted its influ- 

 ence to prevent the annexation of the nitrate 

 provinces. English influences contributed to 

 the misconstruction of Minister Egan's pacific 

 exertions and correctly neutral conduct. The 

 prejudice against Mr. Lgan and the country that 

 he represented afterward moderated when "it be- 

 came known that throughout the war he had 

 harbored in his house Augustin Edwards and 

 other hunted chiefs of the Opposition. During 

 the period of reconstruction, before the passions 

 of the war had abated and when the authority 

 of law was still in abeyance and public order 

 constantly disturbed, it was remembered that 

 Mr. Kgan's dispatches to his Government belit- 

 tled the rebellion and magnified Balmaccda's 

 strength, and the anti-American feeling was in- 

 tensified through his demand for a safe conduct 

 for the Balmacedist fugitives who found an 

 asylum in the legation, which was refused by 



the Junta, although supported by the Spanish 

 and other niiiii-t- rs m Santiago. Six-rial ani- 

 mosity was entertained toward the American 

 naval officers and sailors, because they were be- 

 lieved to have < imunicated military intelli- 

 gence to Balmaceda's army. The " Baltimore " 

 really performed an important service for Bal- 

 maceda in assisting agents of the American Cable 

 Company to cut the cable at Iquique, closing 

 telegraphic communications with the insurgents 

 and opening a connection with Valparaiso. 



On Oct. 16, when two boats' crews from the 

 " Baltimore " and other American sailors were 

 ashore, an altercation arose between Chilian 

 sailors and some of the " Baltimore's " men in a 

 drinking saloon, and one of the Chilians was 

 knocked down. The Americans were then as- 

 saulted with knives and other weapons, and 

 when they boarded a street car they were pur- 

 sued by a great mob and were dragged from the 

 car. The affair grew into a riot. Chilian sailors 

 and police constables interfered to protect the 

 men from the fury of the armed mob, though 

 certain members of the police guard were said 

 by the sailors and other witnesses to have joined 

 in the attack, and to have used their weapons on 

 the unarmed strangers. 



Charles W. Riggm, boatswain's mate, who was 

 believed to be the man that struck the Chilian, 

 was shot, and died in the arms of Petty Officer 

 Johnson, who thought that the shot was fired by 

 a policeman. More than a hundred armed men 

 fell upon the sailors when they were dragged off 

 the car. George Panter, Patrick McWilliams, 

 and William Turnbull, coal-heavers, David W. 

 Anderson, painter, John Hamilton, carpenter's 

 mate, John W. Talbott arid Francis D. \V illiams, 

 apprentices, and John II. Davidson, landsman, 

 were assaulted with clubs, stones, and knives. 

 Anderson, Turnbull, Panter, Davidson, and 

 Hamilton received dangerous stab wounds in 

 the back. About fifteen were slightly injured. 

 Turnbull subsequently died of his injuries. 

 American sailors not of the party that began the 

 affray were set upon in various parts of the city. 

 The police finally suppressed the riot and ar- 

 rested all who were suspected of having a part 

 in it. The Chilian disturbers easily concealed 

 themselves, only three being arrested at the time. 

 American men-of-war's men, being in uniform 

 and having no place to escape to, were arrested 

 wherever seen, thirty-six in all, and while be- 

 ing taken to jail and after they were there they 

 were subjected to ill treatment. Apprentice 

 Williams said that a mounted policeman placed 

 catgut nippers around his wrists and then 

 spurred his horse, throwing the prisoner down. 

 Quigley, a coal-heaver, while trying to escape 

 from the mob. was struck by a police officer with 

 a sword. Hamilton, dangerously wounded, was 

 dragged to prison, and one of his mates was 

 threatened with a clubbed musket for trying to 

 relieve him. At the prison the sailors were 

 made to sign a paper, and when Rhinehardt, one 

 of the prisoners, asked its meaning, he was told 

 that it was a formal declaration that the signer 

 was not engaged in the trouble. Commander 

 W. S. Schley, of the " Baltimore," ordered an in- 

 vest igation, the results of which he telegraphed 

 to Washington on Oct. 22. On receipt of his 

 report, President Harrison consulted with the 



