Sutter, Jr to Foster, February 3, 1875

Mr. Sutter to Mr. Foster.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of January 27th ultimo. I presume that Mr. Skilton has communicated to you the contents of my letters to him of January 27 and 1st instant, Nos. 3, 4, 5.

Rev. M. N. Hutchinson left Acapulco on the evening of the 1st instant, per steamer “Montana” for San Francisco, in good health. His servant and his horse I have still here.

When I received your communication yesterday I had already paid my respects to the governor, General Alverez. This morning I addressed to him a communication, of which please find inclosed copy, (inclosure 1,) and delivered the same to him personally, before his departure for Coyuga. He requested me to assure you that he would do all in his power to bring the guilty parties to light, and would take measures to prevent a repetition of the massacre, and that in a few days he would return to Acapulco. He expressed already yesterday a hope to be able to discover the instigator (meaning probably the Catholic priest) of the crime, saying that the people, without any instigation, never would have committed so atrocious a murder. At the same time the governor had a fair opportunity yesterday afternoon to judge of the excitement existing among the population. A demonstration was made publicly by a band of, say, eighty women and about the same number of men, who, having assembled at and marched from the church-door, went to accost him while he was taking a walk with some friends, and asked him not to deprive them of the priest, and to banish or exterminate all the Protestants.

The governor spoke to the people, who then quietly disbanded: but, in my opinion, this demonstration means as much as the rough words the foreman of the Matricula of the port, on the night of the massacre, addressed to the district judge, Mr. Bonilla; that is, that they would rise armed to attack the federal troops should he dare touch the priest.

The State militia is not to be relied on; the parish priest has, in fact, more power than the governor, who would render himself very unpopular should he actively interfere.

These opinions of course cannot be expressed here with safety. The district judge, whom I visited to-day and handed the communication already mentioned, partakes of and concurs in them, however; but candidly confesses that he can do absolutely nothing if the supreme government does not station here a battalion of federal troops, for which he says he has asked already. Nothing to inculpate any person has been elucidated, and I fear ever will be discovered.

Threats against the Freemasons have also been uttered already; still it would be impossible to prove it.

A United States vessel of war should remain stationed here for some time. In case of a rising, the office of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, where everybody knows there is a good supply of money, and the bazar, the mercantile establishment of Mr. A. Dempwolff, who, among his stock of about $40,000, has rifles, guns, pistols, knives, powder, lead, &c., would be attacked very quick, together with the United States consulate, and the large German importing house of Oetling, Gericke & Co., and our lives just then might be in danger.

As far as the legal technicalities of the case are concerned, it appears that Mr. Procopio Diaz, the chief of the Protestants hero, probably for the reason of his being the secretary of the prefect of the district, carelessly neglected to give to the prefect due notice in writing of the establishment of the Protestant place of worship. All what Mr. Hutchinson says on the subject I have communicated to the district judge, and in all the proceedings so far, the place of the massacre has been called “el templo protestante,” whereby virtually the right to the name is acknowledged, and the existence of the congregation granted.

In closures numbers 2 and 3 are the letters of Mr. Hutchinson on the subject.

It is now frequently said, in extenuation of the massacre, that the Protestants have often insulted the Catholics and the priest personally. I doubt it, and as far as Mr. Hutchinson is concerned, I deny it in toto.

The antecedents of the priest are well known. He always has been, and is now, one of the most fanatical, pure-blooded Indian priests, who already in 1859 was found at the head of a revolution in Costa Chica, and when taken prisoner by General Don Juan Alvarez, sent to the fort of Acapulco, and sentenced to be shot. At the intercession of the people, however, General Alvarez pardoned him with the condition that he must leave the country. I was then in the office of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and procured him a free cabin-passage to San Francisco, whence he returned during the empire. You will perceive that I know Mr. Justo Pastor Nava well.

Another incident which shows the situation of Acapulco is this: last Sunday two of the aggressors wounded were given up by the surgeons, and expressed a desire to receive the sacraments of the Catholic Church, which naturally was granted to them, but the authorities feared that, should the priest be seen entering the prison, people might believe he had been arrested and might rise at once against the garrison, consequently, as a measure of prevention, the wounded men had to be carried to the church, and after the ceremony back to the prison again. One has since died, the other one is still lingering; he says he was merely a spectator, looking on.

Should anything important take place I shall not fail to advice you of it, either by telegraph or by mail, as the case may require it, and remain,

Your obedient servant,