Alexander S. Asboth to Rear-Admiral S. W. Godon, U. S. N, February 7, 1867

Mr. Asboth to Admiral Godon

Sir: In obedience to instructions received from our government, I have addressed yesterday an official note to Señor Dr. Don Rufino de Elizalde, the Argentine minister for foreign affairs, relative to the good offices offered by the United States government towards the termination of the war which is waging between Paraguay on the one side, and Brazil with the Argentine Republic and Uruguay on the other, and as the government of the United States has no diplomatic representative near the government of the Uruguay republic, I beg herewith to enclose a duplicate of the note alluded to, with the request that you may be pleased to hand it to the Uruguay minister for foreign affairs, for the information and friendly consideration of the government of the Uruguay republic, a republic whose interests are regarded by the people and government of the United States with the same sisterly affection as those of the Argentine Confederation.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Daily memoranda of political events in the River Plate.

February 1, 1867.—Baron Porto Alegre arrived in Montevideo the day before yesterday, on his way to the seat of war, to resume command of the 2d army corps at Curuzu. It is stated that Marshal Osorio finds great difficulty to raise his army of reserve, and cannot muster more than 600 men. Baron Tamandaré has been promoted to the rank of admiral, which does not appear to indicate that ho has fallen into disgrace for not taking Humaita.

Colonel Arredondo with 1,200 men of the line from the Argentine army at Tuyuti arrived in Rosario on the 28th ultimo, and left on the 30th ultimo by railway for Trayle Muerto, from whence he will try to join General Paunero.

Señor Bilbao, one of the writers in La Republica, (morning paper,) withdraws from the press, saying in a letter to the editor that he cannot answer the calumnies of the Nacion Argentina without incurring the risk of being arrested. The political prisoners confined on board the guard-ship are expatriated to Babia Blanca, Patgores, or Europe, according to their choice.

February 2.—The government of Montevideo promulgates three decrees. The first relates to all retired officers of the Blanco party, depriving them of any claim for pay if they fail to appear in ten days. The second orders the arrest of parties spreading alarming intelligence. The third calls on the national guards to give up their arms.

February 3.—Anniversary of the battle of Caseros (1852,) in which Urquiza triumphed over Rosas. Urquiza celebrates the day by holding a great race meeting at which are invited all the Entre Rios officers and some from Comintes; the meeting is to last 15 days, and although its apparent object is amusement, people suspect that it has essentially a political meaning, and that Urquiza is aiming at something.

February 4—Peru and Chili having protested against a violation of neutrality by Brazil and Uuruguay in permitting Spanish men-of-war to obtain all kinds of provisions and supplies in Rio and Montevideo, threaten that they will be compelled to enter those ports and burn all Spanish men-of war if neutrality is not more strictly observed. The Brazil government in a not very polite note has answered that it considers the protest unfounded, and that it will not in the least be influenced by the threat of the Peruvian and Chilian governments. This seems the precursor of a proximate rupture.

February 5.—Felipe Saa, a federal leader, at the head of one thousand men, attempted to cut off General Paunero’s retreat fron San Luis to Rio Cuarto, in the province of Cordova, but was defeated and his men dispersed.

Some political arrests have been made in Montevideo, and the prisoners sent to Rat island. The Spanish fleet, after taking in large supplies of fresh provisions, sailed from Montevideo on the 2d instant, in supposed quest of the Peruvian and Chilian iron-clads. Admiral Mendez Nunez was resolved to fight them anywhere and at all hazards.

The Entre Rios opposition papers, “El Porvenir,” “El Ecode,” “Entre Rios,” “El Pueblo de Gualeguaychu,” and “El Parana,” have been suppressed by order of the provincial government at the request of the national government.

February 6.—Father Duarte, the Paraguayan priest, who was made prisoner of war nearly two years ago and paroled, was re-arrested to-day and sent on board the guard-ship.

February 7.—Marquis de Caxias has established his headquarters among the pestilential marshes at Tuyuti, determined to make another attack. The iron-clad gun and mortar boats are moored at Curuzu. The hospital at Guardia de Cerrito is quite full. The American transport Julia came down with 700 invalids. The river is high and continues to rise; at Itapiru schooners and other river craft are at anchor where two months since it was bare ground.

February 8.—It is pretended that an attempt at an insurrectionary movement in this city was frustrated last night. The chief of police discovered a meeting of suspicious individuals in a house in the suburbs, finding also a store of arms and ammunition deposited in the same house, with several copies of a printed revolutionary manifesto, calling upon the people of Buenos Ayres to upset both the national and provincial governments; all the persons present at the said meeting, about twenty in number, were arrested. To-day numerous additional arrests have taken place.

News not of an official character has come that the Brazilian fleet had begun to fire again on Curupaity on the 3d instant, and that two of the Brazilian iron-clads had suffered greatly from the fire of the Paraguayans, one of them, the “Herval,” losing her commander, who was killed by a round shot.