BAILEY, United States Consul to Henrique de Castro, Colonial Secretary , Macao, May 30, 1871

Sir: On my return from Canton, after an absence of several days, I find your letter of the 26th instant awaiting my arrival.

I may confess in the beginning of this letter that I can scarcely write with equanimity concerning the subject of this correspondence, the Dolores Ugarte, and the terrible termination to which she has come—an end I so earnestly besought his excellency to guard against. I certainly cannot consent to gloze her career by the subterfuges of changing her name and flag; and I exceedingly regret that his excellency feels called upon to extenuate her acts by the citation of these facts in her defense. She has sullied the flags of three nations to her base purposes; with each exigency changing her colors to hide her crimes. I assume that his excellency has acted from the best of motives, but I must regard it as very unfortunate that such shallow acts were allowed to cover her guilt and give her new license to go forth and commit unparalleled horrors in the face of the world.

In full view of what has happened, I doubt not his excellency deplores the events connected with this great catastrophe. His excellency expresses a regret that I should have referred to the slave trade treaties as applicable to the coolie trade of Macao. I did so advisedly. The treaties for the suppression of the slave trade are not merely for the protection of the negro, but are for all mankind. Although I have not examined the subject as fully as I would like, I cannot but agree with the chief justice of this colony, that the dealing in coolies, as was proved on the cross-examination of the witnesses on behalf of the prosecution in the Kwok-a-sing case, and the published statements of the survivors of the Dolores Ugarte, is as thorough a slave trade as was ever known in the world.

You will observe that the evidence on which this opinion is founded, which his excellency discredits, is the evidence of the seamen, as well as of coolies giving testimony under coercion, in the case of the Nouvelle Penelope, and that such evidence was intended to exhibit the treatment of the coolies in the most favorable light; that the statements in the case of the Dolores Ugarte have a singular agreement as to kidnapping, fraud and force, used by the men-dealers in the initiatory steps in the interior of the provinces, in the barracoons at Macao, the embarkation on the vessel, the iron gratings closed over the victims of the traffic on board the ship, and the cannon and arms to keep them in subjection during the passage to Callao.

But further discussion is futile. The object of my communications with the colonial government of Macao being to prevent the Dolores Ugarte from loading coolies, and my remonstrance having failed, there is no further necessity, on my part, for a correspondence on a subject that has passed, by the logic of inexorable events, to a higher and more potent forum. I have nothing left me to do but to submit the whole matter to my Government for such action as it may think proper in the premises.

It has now become a high international question; and that liberal diplomacy which so signally distinguishes this age above all others will doubtless settle it in the best interests of humanity.

With renewed sentiments of high consideration and regard, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant,