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Inclosure 1 in No. 3.
Señor Canete y Moral to Sir J. Bowring.
Consulate-General of Spain in China,
Macao, January 5, 1857.
(Translation)
Most Excellent Sir,
SINCE the arrival at this city of the first intelligence of the horrid crime perpetrated by the Chinese on the 30th ultimo on board the English steamer "Thistle" in the Canton river, I have endeavoured to verify, as completely as possible, if there were amongst the number of persons so barbarously and treacherously assassinated the Spanish subject Don Francesco Diaz de Sobre Casas, Vice-Consul of Her Catholic Majesty for this city, and a Spanish servant whom he had with him, named José Martinez; but up to this hour I have not been able to obtain any real or positive proof, although, unfortunately, I do possess a variety of dates and circumstances which incline me to believe and think that Señor Diaz de Sobre Casas and his servant were victims of the perfidious treachery of the Chinese.
In this uncertainty I am most anxious to know the truth, in order that I may perform the sacred duties imposed on me by my position; and, the crime having been perpetrated on a vessel under the English flag, as I am satisfied that your Excellency will have directed an inquiry into all the circumstances attending this catastrophe, I have the honour to address to your Excellency a request for the communication of all the information and details that you may have obtained on the subject, in order that I may proceed with a full knowledge of what took place in so important and delicate an affair.
With this object, I renew, &c.
God preserve, &c.
(Signed) NICASIO CANETE Y MORAL.
Inclosure 2 in No. 3.
Sir J. Bowring to Señor Canete y Moral.
Hong Kong, January 6, 1857.
Sir,
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your despatch of yesterday. As there is reason to believe that no European escaped the massacre on board the "Thistle," the information we have is very imperfect, and such alone as could be gathered from the frightened Chinese who escaped.
I send you copy of the communication I have received from the British Vice-Consul at Whampoa on the subject.
The acts of incendiarism and assassination which have marked the progress of these Chinese hostilities, involving, as they do, in general danger and destruction, the persons and property of all strangers in China and its waters, demand the indignant intervention of all civilized nations for their repression and punishment; and I doubt not you will see the propriety of your calling the early attention of the Captain-General of the Philippines to the perils with which the subjects of Her Most Catholic Majesty, in common with all foreigners, are menaced in the existing crisis of affairs.
I have, & c.
(Signed) JOHN BOWRING.
