496 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
answer was given to the intimation respecting the restoration of 
the consul. 
On the next day Mr. BayHes answered this note. He denied 
the necessity of delay for further explanations, inasmuch as Ver- 
net had admitted, under his own signature, in the public news- 
papers of the city, that he had captured American vessels, and 
the Harriet was then detained in the port by virtue of a process 
from a tribunal under the jurisdiction of the government. " The 
aggravations with which the injuries on the persons and property 
of American citizens were accompanied, could not affect the 
principle assumed by the government of the United States, but 
were only important in ascertaining the measure and magnitude 
of those injuries," inasmuch as that government not only denied 
the right to Vernet, but the right of the Argentine Republic to 
inflict them. " His excellency has been pleased to say (he con- 
tinued) that the public rights, which, by ihe common law of nations, 
belong to the Argentine Republic, as a sovereign and independent 
state, he will not pretend to sacrifice ; to this he could only say, 
that the government which he represented had neither the inten- 
tion or the disposition to bring into question any of the rights of the 
Argentine Republic, but they wished distinctly to know from the 
government whether it claimed any right or authority to detain, 
or capture, or in any way to molest, interrupt, or impede the ves 
sels or the citizens of the United States, while engaged in fish- 
ing in the waters, or on the shores of the Falkland Islands, and 
the other places already mentioned." 
To this note a reply was made on the tenth of July, stating 
the determination of the governor "not to surrender questions 
which had immediate connexion, in order to anticipate an answer, 
which appeared to be the desire of the charge" — " and not to 
venture his judgment in any case." 
It would seem that the government, although they had probably 
determined on their course, were puzzled as to the mode of pro- 
ceeding, and the nature of the questions, not knowing exactly 
whether they should consider them as public or private questions. 
They "were anxious for a delay, and probably supposed that they 
might mystify the negotiation by blending the questions, and 
evading a direct answer to his plain and direct inquiries. The 
