The collapse of the Government of Balmaceda brought about a condition which is unfortunately too familiar in the history of the Central and South American States.  With the overthrow of the Balmaceda Government he and many of his councilors and officers became at once fugitives for their lives, and appealed to the commanding officers of the foreign naval vessels in the harbor of Valparaiso and to the resident foreign ministers at Santiago for asylum.  This asylum was freely given, according to my information, by the naval vessels of several foreign powers and by several of the legations at Santiago.  The American minister as well as his colleagues, acting upon the impulse of humanity, extended asylum to political refugees whose lives were in peril.  I have not been willing to direct the surrender of such of these persons as are still in the American legation without suitable conditions.

It is believed that the Government of Chile is not in a position, in view of the precedents with which it has been connected, to broadly deny the right of asylum, and the correspondence has not thus far presented any such denial.  The treatment of our minister for a time was such as to call for a decided protest, and it was very gratifying to observe that unfriendly measures, which were undoubtedly the result of the prevailing excitement, were at once rescinded or suitably relaxed.

On the 16th of October an event occurred in Valparaiso so serious and tragic in its circumstances and results as to very justly excite the indignation of our people and to call for prompt and decided action on the part of this Government.  A considerable number of the sailors of the United States steamship Baltimore, then in the harbor at Valparaiso, being upon shore leave and unarmed, were assaulted by armed men nearly simultaneously in different localities in the city.  One petty officer was killed outright and seven or eight seamen were seriously wounded, one of whom has since died.  So savage and brutal was the assault that several of our sailors received more than two and one as many as eighteen stab wounds.  An investigation of the affair was promptly made by a board of officers of the Baltimore, and their report shows that these assaults were unprovoked, that our men were conducting themselves in a peaceable and orderly manner, and that some of the police of the city took part in the assault and used their weapons with fatal effect, while a few others, with some well-disposed citizens, endeavored to protect our men.  Thirty-six of our sailors were arrested, and some of them while being taken to prison were cruelly beaten and maltreated.  The fact that they were all discharged, no criminal charge being lodged against any one of them, shows very clearly that they were innocent of any breach of the peace.