Soyeshima Tane-omi to De Long, July 30, 1872

Soyeshima Tane-omi to Mr. De Long.

Sir: In replying to your letter of August 31, 1872, I am not to be understood as admitting that this government is under any obligations to receive any communication from you in behalf of the government of Peru. I am, however, anxious that Señor Heriero, the captain of the Maria Luz, should not fail to obtain any information to which he is entitled by reason of his incapacity to address this department in his own person. I answer you, therefore, as his representative and for his information, but not for the information of the Peruvian government, as follows: Having been informed by Her Britannic Majesty’s chargé d’affaires that cruelties had been committed on board the bark Maria Luz, in the harbor of Yokohama, I requested the Kanagawa kencho to investigate the facts.

The Chinese witnesses brought on shore from the Maria Luz are not, by any direction of this department, held in custody. They remain on shore of their own free will, and are watched by proper officers so that they may be forthcoming if called upon to answer to any action against them founded upon the alleged contracts which were produced before the Kencho. The resolution of the Kencho to refuse to return these people against their free will to the Maria Luz has been fully approved.

I decline for the present to enter into any argument in justification of the action of the Kencho or of the foreign office. I content myself with saying that I know of no law, custom, or precedent which requires this government, or any other government, to force any person to return to a ship against his will unless he be a fugitive, criminal, or a deserting seaman. While the comity of nations may require the restoration of a criminal, it does not require the restoration of a seaman who violated his contracts and deserts from his vessel unless there is an express treaty providing for such restoration.

With respect, &c.,