Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-08-24
DEWEY DARED MEXICO.
HIS Rescue OF an American Engineer
Held by Layless Miners
Mt La Pas.


Lieut.. Il. Winslow, U. S. n, retired,
cousin of the famous commander of
the kearsarge, tells new story about
Admiral George Dewey
SIN May, 1875, Admiral Dewey was
commander of the old Narragansett,"
said Lieut.. Winslow, ''and he was de.
tailed to surveying the Gulf of Califor.
MIA 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 Gu
bans was none too cordial. The Nara
gansett reachedLa Paz, near the south
ern end of the peninsula, and we no
sooner got ashore than we heard that
an American mining engineer and some
Eng lishmen who owned the mines were
prisoners in the mining shanties, 40
miles back of La Paz in the noun
tains. The American had resented an
insult, a quarrel followed, and the
American killed two Mexicans. The
friends of the latter swore they'd kill
the Yankee and the Englishmen, too.
and the latter were soon obliged to bar
ricade themselves. This siege had been
on for several days when we dropped
anchor.
''As soon as Commander Dewey heard
of it he was very much interested. The
next day he sent messenger to the
Mexican colonel in La Paz, who had a
garrison Of 600 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 next forenoon
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 a fair trial. He told the
colonel that he would allow him just
"A hours to rescue the American and
protect the Englishmen. If at the end
of that time relief was not on it's 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, was soon satisfied
that he meant every word of it. I was
in command of the guns. We had only
two old howitzers on the Narragansett,
the larger guns having been left tenn
porarily at the Mare island navy yard.
"'Get those howitzers ready for to-
morrow morning and inspect all the
small arms and ammunition said Dew
ey to me. Then he called the men to
quarters and estimated that of the
crew of about 100 men we could land 90
able, armed men as storming force.
We drilled the men all that afternoon
and far into the night. That night, on
Commander Dewey's order, we steamed
to a point commanding the principal
streets of La Paz and trained the how.
tiers on the town. By next morning
we were all ready to begin a second
war against Mexico.
cat daybreak Mexican corporal
came on board with message from his
colonel, saying that the Narragansett
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 Ameri-
can engineer. When Dewey reported
to Washington on the matter he mini.
mized the Importance of it, and it was
passed over as a mere incident. Lieuts
Harris and Wright were on the Mar
ragansett then, and Harris, at least, was
with the fleet at Manila. It 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
laid to sail the Narragansett to Manila"
IN. Y. Tribune.