SALVADOR GALLEGOS, Chief Clerk in the Department of Foreign Relations to Henry Baxter, March 6, 1871

Mr. Salvador Gallegos to Mr. Henry Baxter

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your excellency’s dispatch of the 13th ultimo, wherein, in view of the misunderstanding existing between this government and that of Honduras, and for the contingency of the invasion of the latter country by the forces of Salvador, you call the attention of my government to the treaty concluded between the United States and Honduras July 4, 1864, and especially to the guaranty, stipulated in article 14, of the neutrality of the line of the railway, stating, at the same time, the confidence which you feel that nothing will be done by this government in contravention of the friendly relations which exist between the United States and Salvador.

The desires of his excellency the President of this republic being in harmony with those of your excellency with regard to the avoidance of any cause of misunderstanding with the Government of the United States, on account of the neutrality to which you allude, he had already determined to respect the stipulated neutrality; but my government has considered, on the other hand, that if that of Honduras does not respect the neutrality agreed upon, making use of the territory of the railway for operations against Salvador, the guaranty of the United States will be converted into a privilege highly prejudicial to this republic, and, in view of this fact, it has required, as a condition, that the government of Honduras shall not violate the same on its part. Unfortunately, my government has received positive information that various vessels have left the port of Amapala, armed and equipped for warlike purposes, so as to capture vessels from the smaller ports of Nicaragua bound to this city: and finally, one of said vessels has committed the manifestly hostile act of seizing and holding as a prisoner of war, at Amapala, Lieutenant José Maria Ballecillos, who was on his way to this republic, likewise maltreating the mate of the vessel on board of which he was. It is, moreover, positively known that the government of Honduras has forbidden the sailing of small vessels between the ports of Amapala and La Union, which act is in direct violation of the afore-mentioned neutrality, according to which no alteration can be made in private relations in the port of Amapala. Events of this character, which may continue to occur in Honduras, with the connivance of that government, and in violation of neutrality, would undoubtedly relieve Salvador from any obligation contracted by it with regard to respecting the guaranty of the United States; wherefore, by order of the President of the republic, I must inform your excellency, as I informed General Torbert, that the government of Salvador positively recognizes the neutrality of the territory of the railway, but it demands an effective reciprocity on the part of the government of Honduras, as I have already stated.

I thus reply to your excellency’s aforesaid dispatch, and in so doing I have the high honor to subscribe myself your very obedient servant.

In the absence of the minister.