15
ent territory, basing it, not upon conquest, but upon the will of the inhabitants, the proofs of which may be found in unquestionable documents which have been published. Among these publications are those respectively made by Don Manuel Larrainzar and Don Matias Romero, persons well acquainted with the facts concerning Chiapas and Soconusco, since the former is a native of that state and the latter has resided in Soconusco, where he had to abandon his property, which was devastated by Guatemalan invaders. But, without alluding to the contents of the said publications, it will be understood how inaccurate are the attacks made upon the right of Mexico to these regions which form a state of the Union, by simply examining the long and weighty note which Señor Lafragua, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed to the Minister of Guatemala in this capital, under date of October 9, 1875, adjoining to it several documents of a conclusive tenor.
This note, which has been circulated in a printed form, and in which the original rights of Mexico to Soconusco and Chiapas, now placed beyond doubt by a possession of more than thirty and fifty years respectively, are victoriously illustrated and proved; this note, which should have given rise to a serious discussion, has remained up to the present time unanswered, as the Government of Guatemala habitually leaves those which it can not answer.
The brief summary of that extended note will show by itself that the titles of Mexico have not consisted of absorption and conquest, as the Hon. Mr. Blaine has been led to believe by means of calumnies against this republic. The closing words of that document are as follows: "Summing up the argument
