MAGEE, Her Britannic Majesty’s Vice-Consul to Charles James, April 26, 1874

Mr. Magee to Mr. James.

Dear Sir: It is with most heartfelt thanks that I address you these lines, to thank you for the action yon took in my behalf in my late trouble with Commandante Gonzalez.

On board the steamer Arizona I heard it rumored that you had not exerted yourself as fully as you might have done, but in the critical position in which I was placed the prudence with which you acted, at the same time that you really jeopardized your own liberty, does you great credit.

Had you acted precipitately, as many of the too-justly indignant passengers on the Arizona were desirous that you should have acted, you would have signed my death-warrant.

The protest you entered was stamped under foot by the commandante, an act of outlawry which proved the man’s madness, and made it presumptuous to consider that anything could be gained by asserting the respect due to a foreign power.

Again I have to repeat that I am indebted to your prudence, as well as to your constant and untiring efforts, for my life; a debt of gratitude which I shall never forget. Believe me, &c.,