El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-10
CONQUEST OF MEXICO
Rescue of an American .Englneer
Held by Miners at La paZ.

Rescue of an American .Engineer
Held by Miners at La paz.
Lieutenant F. Hipslow, U. S. N, re-
tired, a cousin of the famous command
err of the Kearsarge, ia at Albemarle,
where he told New YORK Tribune re-
porter a new story about Admiral
George Dewey.
SIN MAY 1875, Admiral Dewey was
commander of the old Narragansett."
said Lieutenant Winslow, land he was
detailed for surveying the Gulf of Ca
lifornia and the shores of the coast OF
the peninsula. 1t was not long after
the Virginius affair at Santiago, and
the feeling toward the Mexicans and
Cubans was none too cordial. The N ar
raRansett reached La Paz, near the
southern end of the peninsula, and we
no sooner got ashore than we heard
that an American mining engineer and
some Englisbmen who owned the
mine were prisoners in their
mining shanties. forty miles back of
La PsZ, in the mountains. The Am
erican had resented an insult, quar-
rel followed and the American killed
two Mexicans. The friends of the
latter swore they'd kill the Yankee
and the Englishmen, too, and the lat
ter were soon obliged to barricade
several days when we dropped anchor.
LAS soon as Commander Dewey
heard of 1t ne was very much interest
ed. The next day he sent messenger
up the Mexican colonel in La Paz, who
had q garrison of 800 soldiers there.
asking him what he was going to do to
give the American trial before he
was shot.
"Oh, he got into the trouble-let
him get OUT" said the Mexican.
Commander Dewey didn't like this
reply, and the more he thought about it
the angrier he got. The nextforenoon
he sent a note to the Mexican colonel
telling him that an American citizens
life was in danger, and that the man
was entitled to fair trial. He told
the colonel that he would allow him
Just twenty-four hours to rescue the
American and protect the Englishmen.
If at the end of that time relief was
not on its way to the little mining
party he would lombard La Paz and
burn it.
when we heard what Dewey had
done we were all frightened.
"'Does he mean it?' we asked one an
other.
''As for myself, 1 was soon satisfied
that he meant every word OF it. | was
in command of the guns. We had only
two old howitzers on the Narragansett,
the larger guns having been left tem-
porarily at the Mare Island navy yard.
"'Get those howitzers ready for to-
morrow morning and inspect all the
small arms and ammunition. said
Dewey to me. Then he called the men
to quarters and estimated that OF the
crew of about 120 we could land ninety
able, armed men as s;orming force.
We drilled the men all that afternoon
and far into the night. That night, on
Commander Dewey's order, we ste am-
ed to q point commanding the princi-
pal streets of La Paz and trained the
howitzers on the town. By next
morning we were all ready to begin a
second war against Mexico.
CAT daybreak a Mexican corporal
came on board with message from his
colonel, saying that the Management
commanders request would be com
piled With. Early that morning we
watched 300 armed Mexican soldiers
start for the mining camp, and we kept
the old howitzers trained on La Paz
till the soldiers returned with the
American engineer. When Dewey re
ported to Washington on the
matter he minimized the i'm
portance of it., aud it was passed
over as q mere Incident. Lieutenants
Harris and Wright were on the Mar
ragausett then, and Harris, at least,
was with the fleet at Manila. 1t is
somewhat singular that at that time.
when we were expecting declaration
of war against Spain on account of the
Virginius affair, Commander Dewey
had his plans all made to sail the Mar
ragansett to MANILA