The record-union., 1891-05-11
AGENT BURT TALKS.
He Does Not Think the Robert and
Minnie Did Wrong.

He Does Not Think the Robert and
Minnie Did Wrong.
Los ANGELES, May 10.-The schooner
Robert and Minnie is safely tied up to
the wharf at San Pedro, with an United
States Marshal in charge. George A.
Burt, supercargo and agent of the
Chilean insurgents, and pilot Dill of San
Diego, who took the Itata out to sea, are
under arrest, and under charge of Mar
Shal Gard in this city.
Burt was interviewed at length to-
night. He insists that he has violated no
law, and seems to be confident that he
viii be released. He stated that the Mar
shall was acting in good faith in arresting
him, but that the Government would find
itself mistaken and would have to pay
him forlthe trouble and ammo vance it had
put him to. He had not evaded a single
maritime law, nor lad he violated those
relating TO neutral powers. He had done
nothing to be afraid of, and was perfectly
willing to abide by the consequences of
his acts. The Government, he said
should have got after Hartly and Gra-
ham Of lion, New York, manufact-
uring exporters of arms shipped on the
schooner, and not after him.
When pressed to speak of his voyage in
the schooner Robert and Minnie, Burt
said that there was nothing mysterious
about her at all. The arms had been
shipped by rail from the East, and loaded
in the vessel at the Oakland mole in broad
daylight. There had been no attempt at
concealment, he said, because there was
no necessity for it. She left at 6 o'clock
in the morning, and not at A. M, as re-
ported, with crew consisting of himself,
Captain O'Earrell, a cook and four sea-
men, and was towed by the Vigilant
down the coast until off Catalina Island.
When she left the mole there were 200
cases of arms piled upon her deck aft to
make her easier, and these were not
slowed away until after she left the
Heads. When boarded by the customs
officer at Catalina, the vessels manifest
was shown and several other papers. He
at first said that there was something sus-
picious about the vessel, and left man
on board, but after telegraphing to Wash
ington subsequently took him off again.
The vessel then cruised about for sew
eral days, but Burt finally got tired wait
ing, and as he could gain no information
as to the whereabouts If the steamer he
was expecting, he determined to put in at
San Diego. on arriving at the mouth eff
the harbor, however, he sighted the
steamer lying in the stream within, and
at once put about, and soon afterward re-
ceived communication from her.
Soon after tug with Marshal Gard on
board approached and steamed within
one hundred yards of her, but did not
hail her, much to the surprise of Burt
and the crew of the schooner. On Thurs
day morning they discharged their cargo,
and after taking. pilot Dill on board sailed
to San Pedro, where they arrived yester-
day afternoon.
Burt refused to say where the schooner
discharged her cargo, but did not deny
that the arms had been placed on one of
the small islands in the San Clemente
group. He evidently knew both Captain
MauZeum and Silva, but states positively
that he had not been on board the Itata.
Burt expressed himself as confident
that the 1tata could not possibly have
been detained by the force at the command
OF the United States Marshal, as her crew
would most certainly have resisted any
attempt to board her. He also expressed
surprise that Marshal Gard did not seize
the schooner when he went out to her in
the tug, if she was to have been seized at
all.
Burt has telegraphed the facts as to his
arrest to Senator Trumbull, engaged at
torneys and will fight the case, but ap-
pears to be expecting advices from WASH
ington ordering his release.