252 Statistical Hotes on /IDejico. 



When those statements were translated into Spanish and published 

 by Las Novedades, of New York, in its issue of the i8th of January, 1888, 

 they were read by Seiior Don Manuel Montufar, Secretary of the 

 Guatemalan Legation in Washington, who, in the absence of the 

 Minister, Seiior Don Francisco Lainfiesta, was acting as Charg6 

 d' Affaires, and he considered my statements in this connection as a 

 geographical heresy, and as an evidence of the design of Mexico 

 against the several States of Central America. His alarm was so great 

 that he called the attention of the other representatives of the Central 

 American States in Washington to this incident, in order to point out to 

 them the serious dangers which he foresaw for their respective 

 countries on account of my views, which he considered as more than 

 extraordinary. 



Fortunately, one of them, the representative of Costa Rica, Senor 

 Doctor Don Manuel M. de Peralta, had attended the meeting of the 

 Travellers' Club at which I spoke, and, I think, Doctor Don Horacio 

 Guzman, the Nicaraguan Minister, was also present, although I am 

 not sure of this, and both failed to see anything in what I stated in this 

 connection that was not a geographical fact, and that, consequently, it 

 could not be disputed ; and therefore this incident, that threatened to 

 assume certain proportions, died in its very cradle. 



Seiior Montufar showed himself over-sensitive at my remarks when 

 there was not the slightest ground for such feeling. If I had made a 

 geographical mistake in averring that a portion of the territory of 

 Mexico was in Central America, geographically speaking, I would be 

 the only sufferer by my mistake, because I would have been the laugh- 

 ing-stock of everybody, including the school-boy studying geography; 

 and, on the contrary, if I had stated a fact, nobody had reason to 

 complain, and much less to be alarmed. 



My object in now mentioning this incident is to show the extreme 

 sensitiveness of some Guatemalan gentlemen in regard to Mexico, 

 which goes so far that they cannot listen sometimes to indisputable 

 facts without umbrage, and without ascribing it to purposes and designs 

 against their country. Fortunately this incident happened when the 

 long-pending boundary dispute between Mexico and Guatemala had 

 already been settled for several years, as, had it taken place before, 

 when that question was opened, the situation would have been still 

 more embarrassing and unpleasant. 



M. ROMERO. 



WASHINGTON, December 29, 1893. 



