Suttee, Jr to Julius A. Skilton, January 27, 1875

Mr. Sulter to Mr. Skilton.

Dear Sir: After writing to you to-day, I received a telegram from Colonel Foster requesting me to write to him by mail, and you will please communicate to him the contents of my letter to you. Mr. Hutchinson is perfectly safe on board the “Ida Lilly” for the present.

The district judge, Mr. Bonilla, tells me that already last night he had arrested the parish priest, but that the captain of the matricula, Barreto, threatened him openly that if the judge did not set the priest at liberty at once the entire matricula would rise, armed with machetes, and attack the soldiers. He then, seeing the necessity to submit, set him at liberty. The federal garrison amounts to sixty men only. One of the officers, a Protestant, is badly wounded. Several of the wounded will have to succumb; they are pronounced by the surgeons to be beyond recovery.

As far as I am concerned, I shall have to abscond to-night and abandon the consulate, as I do not consider it prudent to expose the lives of some men who, in case of necessity, would protect me.

A company of national guards has been called to arms; but I am quite convinced that should anything happen they would turn with the Indians and rabble against the federal forces.

At present nobody is sure of his life here. The federal government will have to act very energetically to suppress this rising, and punish most severely the instigators and perpetrators of the cowardly massacre of last night. Should anything new occur before to-morrow, I shall address you again.

Your obedient servant,