of vessels, which we have not, was indispensable, in order to be constantly lending protection to the coastwise traffic, and preventing contraband of war and of clothes and tobacco, which is carried on through Vinaroz, Benicarló, San Carlos de la Rápita, Ampolla, Atmella, and other places on the coast.

The San Antonio is at Alicante; a small transport of 600 tons and 90 horse-power, built to carry the mail to Fernando Póo and now turned into a cruiser, to the discredit of our honor before foreigners, who see that we make use of such vessels for purposes of war; although it is true that we have the tow-boats of Ferrol firing upon Zaranz and other points of the Cantabrian coast.

At Carthagena, a naval station, there is on service the mystic Isabelita, which is a transport much smaller than many of the launches carried now-a-days by iron-plated vessels. To place this little boat in the squadron of our forces in the Mediterranean

is somewhat ridiculous.

The Liniers, at Almeria, we presume is destined for the prevention of smuggling, although also of little use for this purpose, as it is a small side-wheel steamer, with two cannon, and of 147 horse-power; slow, twenty-eight years in service, and with very old engines. We can say the same of the Alerta, which is at Malaga, of less power and more years than the former, with two cannon, and very slow. The Vulcano is at Cadiz, a side-wheel steamer, built in 1846, of 200 horse-power and six cannon, destined, we believe, to the prevention of smuggling; for as a vessel of war she is worthless. If from the south we pass to the north, we observe that all the means of vigilance of which we have been able to dispose, for a coast so extensive and of such special conditions as the Cantabrian, are reduced to the schooners Consuelo and Prosperidad, of two cannon each, the first with engine of 200 and the second of 80 horse-power; the Leon, with side-wheels, of 230 horse-power, engines very old, and of little speed; and the gun-boats Gaditano and Ferrolano, and some other little steamboat armed for war. These are all the vessels which have to guard an extensive hostile coast, by which the Carlists have received so much help for a year past.

Neither the iron-clad frigates which we count, nor the magnificent ones of wood which we possess, can be employed at the north for what we need there. The Blanca was for a few days between Santander and Portugalete, and was obliged to go to Ferrol to save herself from shipwreck. Another class of vessels is needed for such cruisers, but unfortunately we lack them, after having spent in the increase of the navy fabulous hundreds of millions, (rs. vn.) The same happens to us in Cuba and the Philippine Islands, notwithstanding the sadly-celebrated gunboats which were built in the United States, and are to be found almost useless at the arsenal of Ha

vana.

No. 61.]

No. 576.

Mr. Fish to Mr. Cushing.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 27, 1874. SIR: I acknowledge the receipt of your interesting dispatch of the 30th ultimo, No. 66, in relation to the possibility of European interven tion in the affairs of Spain. It confirms accounts which have reached this country of atrocities in warfare which seem incredible in the nineteenth century, which are without excuse or palliation, and a continuance of which would be degrading to human nature.

I am, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.

No. 86.]

No. 577.

Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Madrid, August 27, 1874. (Received September 16.)

SIR: The recent conscription in Spain is now substantially completed, and, according to current calculations, will yield an additional force of at

least 60,000 men for the army. It will also yield to the treasury at least 300,000,000 of reals ($15,000,000) on amounts paid for exemption. Contrary to expectation, the levy was effected in Madrid without the least violation of public order. Occasional disturbances occurred in some of the provincial cities and country populations, but mostly of a very trifling character, and none of very serious nature, except at Granada, where the Internationalists seized on the occasion to make a transient manifestation.

The Carlists exerted themselves to interrupt the conscription in districts of the country open to their incursions, but without producing any serious effect.

Since my last reference to this subject the only very important military occurrence has been the capture by the Carlists of the town and fortress of Seo de Urgel, on the Catalonian frontier of France. By this capture the Carlists will have obtained possession of a considerable amount of guns, munitions of war, and other military supplies; and also of a very advantageous military position in Upper Catalonia.

In Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia, as well as in Navarre, the Carlists continue to range the country at will in all directions, attacking occasionally some of the secondary cities, which, with all the large ones, maintain adhesion to the government. Of such attacks the most serious is that now being made for the second time on Puigcerdà.

Similar attacks on other places have been repelled by the inhabitants and the forces of the government.

In most cases where the Carlists make such incursions or attacks they do not act for the purpose of retaining possession of the places assailed; but, in the first instance, in order to make forcible levies of provisions and money, and, in the second place, to burn, waste, and destroy.

In all quarters, wherever they have opportunity, they take special pains to burn and destroy the civil registers and archives of the little villages and hamlets subject to their inroads.

From an early period in the civil war they have exhibited a singular hatred of railroads, which, at the outset, they destroyed without any strategic purpose, and in the mere spirit of devastation. Thus it was that, at an early day, they blew up the bridges and tunnels on that portion of the Northern Railway, so called, which extends from Miranda de Ebro, by Vitoria, Alsásna, Toloso, and San Sebastian, to Irún; that is to say, lying almost entirely in their own country of Alava and Guipizcoa.

At that period, also, they interrupted, from time to time, but capricionsly and without system, the railroads in Catalonia and Valencia.

Thus it was that at the time of my coming to Spain traveling by railroad from Irún to Miranda de Ebro was impossible; and it was subject to frequent interruption in Catalonia, Navarre, and Valencia.

But the Carlists have recently entered more systematically upon the enterprise of destroying railroads, in the purpose of cutting off communication between Madrid and all the great northern, northeastern, and eastern provinces of Spain.

Thus, at the present time, the railroad from Miranda de Ebro to Irún no longer exists; that from Tafalla to Pamplona, and from Pamplona to Alsásna, has ceased to be practicable. The same may be said of the railways from Valencia to Tarragona, from Lérida to Barcelona, from Barcelona to Zaragoza, and from Barcelona to France.

And the same, also, of the road from Valencia to Játiva, and even beyond that in the direction of Madrid; for, by means of their strength in the Maestrazgo, the Carlists are able to cut this road when they please

at its junction with the road from Alicante to Madrid. Thus it happens that the governor of Barcelona, having occasion just now to come to Madrid, was constrained to proceed by water to Alicante, and then was stopped by the blowing up of a bridge at La Encina, on the road to Madrid. Books from Washington for this legation now have to go by rail from Paris to Marseilles and thence by water to Alicante.

Recently many miles of the railroad connecting Madrid with Zarogoza, namely, the space between Arcos and Medinaceli, has been broken up by the Carlists, and they have made more than one movement against that portion of the Northern Railroad which leads from Madrid to Santander, and constitutes the only means of approximate communication with France.

Meanwhile the bulk of the army, under command of General Zavala, continues to be passive, no important movement in that direction hav ing occurred since the engagement between General Moriones and the Carlists, at Oteiza, and the victualing of Vitoria by General Zavala. And, at the same time, detachments of Carlists seem to cross the Ebro when they please, to make incursions into Old Castile, for the purpose of ravage and plunder, as in the case of a recent attack on the considerable town of Calahorra.

It may be that General Zavala is preparing for some great military movement, and it is suggested that he is awaiting the advance of General Pavia through Aragon. However this may be, certain it is that the contrast between the universal activity of the Carlists and the apparent inaction of the forces of the government tends to diffuse a general feeling of discouragement, not in Madrid only, but in other parts of Spain. I have, &c.,

C. CUSHING.

No. 98.]

No. 578.

Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Madrid, September 16, 1874. (Received October 5.)

SIR: The following is the text of a telegram which I had the honor to send to you at 11 o'clock this day:

FISH, Secretary, Washington

Minister of state authorizes assurance that story of contemplated transfer of Puerto Rico to Germany is utterly destitute of truth, either in fact or intention.

MADRID September 16.

CUSHING.

Permit me to add a brief explanatory commentary. My dispatch No. 83, written soon after the arrival here of telegraphic repetition of the statement contained in the "Freeman's Journal" of the intended cession of Puerto Rico to Germany by Spain, referred briefly to this subject, reporting contradiction of the rumor on the basis of unofficial information. But on the arrival here this week of newspapers containing the detailed statement, with extracts of pretended diplo matic communications on the subject, it seemed to me that you would approve my going so far as to obtain direct, official, and authoritative contradiction of the statement. I accordingly called on the minister of state yesterday and presented the subject to him in such terms as to invite him to make such explanations if he might see fit. Mr. Ulloa re

sponded promptly and positively that not only was the whole story false in substance and in detail, but that to the contrary of so many newspaper stories, which have in them an atom of fact upon which to raise a great structure of falsehood, the present statement did not possess even that exceptional atom of fact, but was in its entirety destitute even of a shadow or pretense of foundation. He added that the alleged letter of Admiral Polo de Bernabé having just come to his knowledge, he had caused Admiral Polo to be notified thereof, in order that the latter might in his own person expose the falsehood and the fabrication.

I have, &c.,

No. 579.

C. CUSHING.

No. 104.]

Mr. Cushing to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Madrid, September 22, 1874. (Received October 17.)

SIR: I inclose herewith original and translation of a communication addressed by Admiral Polo de Bernabé to the newspaper published in this city entitled "El Gobierno," in which he emphatically declares the forgery and falsehood of the correspondence on the subject of Puerto Rico attributed to him by the "Freeman's Journal," of New York.

I have, &c.,

[Inclosure.]

[Translated from "El Gobierno."]

C. CUSHING.

Rear Admiral Polo has addressed the following communication to "El Gobierno: "

Messrs. Editors of "El Gobierno :"

VALENCIA, September 17, 1874.

DEAR SIRS: In this city, where I am casually, I have received some slips from the American newspapers, the "New York Herald" of the 18th and 21st of August last, in which I have read with surprise and disgust, that the periodical, also of New York, the "Freeman's Journal,” has had the audacity to suppose the existence of some dispatches from the minister of state, addressed to me in the beginning of April last, in regard to the cession of Puerto Rico to the German Empire in exchange for assistance in combating Carlism.

The Freeman's Journal," not contented with this absurd invention, inserts, moreover, the dispatches which it supposes I addressed in reply to the minister of state.

Notwithstanding that such inventions merit only contempt, and notwithstanding my repugnance to condescend to contradict calumnious falsehoods, I wish to state, over my signature, that the existence of all the dispatches which the Freeman's Journal has had the audacity to invent is a downright falsehood, as is also that I resigned the office of minister plenipotentiary of Spain, at Washington, since my recall from that post responded to reclamation of my services for the navy from the minister of marine.

All that the "Freeman's Journal" has published on the subject referred to is a tissue of absurd and despicable calumnies; and it will be so judged by all who know the national sentiment of Spain, and the zeal of the Spanish government for the honor of the country.

I beg you to be pleased to insert these lines in your estimable journal, and anticipating my thanks to you therefor, I offer myself as your attentive servant, Q. B. S. M. The rear-admiral,

JOSE POLO DE BERNABE.

No. 76.]

No. 580.

Mr. Cadwalader to Mr. Cushing.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, October 7, 1874.

SIR: With reference to your dispatch No. 98, of the 16th ultimo, relative to the alleged transfer of Puerto Rico to Germany, I have to state that your action in regard to the matter, as therein set forth, is ap proved.

The Department has never placed any faith in the rumors regarding the alleged transfer.

SIR: Your dispatch No. 104, of the 22d ultimo, inclosing a printed copy and translation of a communication addressed by Admiral Polo de Bernabé to "El Gobierno," (a newspaper published in Madrid,) in which he pronounces the correspondence on the subject of Puerto Rico, attributed to him by the "Freeman's Journal," a forgery, has been received. The letter of Admiral Polo had already appeared in the public prints in this country, and will finally dispel any possible question on this subject. The publication in the "Freeman's Journal " has attained a notoriety hardly justified, considering its source and foundation. I am, &c.,

JOHN L. CADWALADER,

No. 582.

Acting Secretary.

Admiral Polo de Bernabé to Mr. Fish.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF SPAIN IN THE UNITED STATES,

Washington, February 19, 1874. (Received February 19.)

The undersigned, minister plenipotentiary of Spain, has the honor herewith to transmit to the honorable Secretary of State of the United States a translation of the memorandum which the executive power of the Spanish republic addresses to foreign powers.

The undersigued avails himself, &c

JOSÉ POLO DE BERNABÉ.