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Europe and America and the Indies: Lampton
There came help, after the captain was shot with his crew, from an unexpected quarter, and the incident is the one gleam of white light in this dark chapter. The British steamer Niobe, Captain Sir Lampton Lorraine, ran in at full speed from Jamaica, starting in such a hurry she left some of her crew ashore, and the captain was landed in Cuba before his ship was anchored, and demanded that the massacre should be stopped. He claimed to represent the United States as well as England, it is said; and he even threatened to bombard the city. His vigor caused a suspension of the sentences still remaining to be executed, and the lives of the prisoners not already put to death were saved. On his way home Sir Lampton Lorraine stopped at New York, where he was honored with an invitation to hold a reception, which he declined, and by way of saying to him, "You're a brick," a silver brick from Nevada was presented him bearing this inscription, "Blood is thicker than water. Santiago de Cuba, November, 1873, to Sir Lampton Lorraine, from the Comstock Mines, Virginia City, Nevada, U.S.A." For some reason not clear, the House of the American Congress laid a resolution of thanks to Sir Lampton on the table.
January, 1874, President Grant sent a special message about the Virginius case to Congress, nothing that the ship was correctly cleared and had a right to fly the American flag, and that no "state of war existed." The Spaniards contended the Virginius was not entitled to the character given by her papers. By an arrangement, which General Grant said was "moderate and just," the vessel and survivers were surrendered to the United States and this was "calculated to cement the good relations which so long subsisted between Spain and the United States." The ship with the American flag flying was delivered at Bahia Honda, but she was unseaworthy and, struck by a storm on the way to New York, was sunk off Cape Fear. Her surviving passengers were given up to the United States at Santiago de Cuba, December 1, 1873. There was a vast amount of feeling in the United States about the Virginius massacre, but the trouble was the technical rights of the Spaniards prevented any practical measures being taken to call them to account for the shocking barbarity of the wholesale executions; but the painful circumstances have been well remembered. It was the undoubted filibuster record of the steamer that caused the marked coolness of the message of President Grant. Captain Fry wrote a farewell letter to his wife the night before his execution. "Wherever," says the Baltimorean, in first publishing this letter, "this story of the Virginius outrage shall go, the story of this letter will go to. It is a letter that many an eye will weep to read, and that any man at such an extremity might envy the power to write."
ON BOARD THE SPANISH MAN-OF-WAR, La Tornado, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Nov. 6, '73. DEAR, DEAR DITA:-- When I left you I had no idea that we should never meet again in this world, but it seems strange to me that I should to-night, and on Annie's birthday, be calmly seated, on a beautiful moonlight night, in a most beautiful bay in Cuba, to take my last leave of you my own dear, sweet wife! and with the thought of your own bitter anguish, my only regret at leaving. I have been tried to-day, and the president of the court martial asked the favor of embracing me at parting, and clasped me to his heart. I have shaken hands with each of my judges, and the secretary of the court and interpreter have promised me, as a special favor, to attend my execution, which will, I am told, be within a few hours after my sentence is pronounced. I am told my death will be painless; in short I have had a very cheerful and pleasant chat about my funeral, to which I shall go a few hours from now, how soon I cannot say yet. It is curious to see how I make friends. Poor Bambetta pronounced me a gentleman, and he was the brightest and bravest creature I ever saw.
The priest who gave me communion on board this morning put a double scapular around my neck and a medal which he intends to wear himself. A young Spanish officer brought me a bright new silk badge with the Blessed Virgin stamped upon it, to wear to my execution for him, and a handsome cross in some fair lady's handiwork. They are to be kept as relics of me. He embraced me affectionately in his room with tears in his eyes.
Dear Sweetheart, you will be able to bear it for my sake, for I will be with you if God permits. Although I know my hours are short and few, I am not sad. I feel I shall always be with you right soon, dear Dita, and you will not be afraid of me. Pray for me and I will pray with you. There is to be a fearful sacrifice of life from the Virginius, and as I think, a needless one, as the poor people are unconscious of crime, and even of their fate up to now. I hope God will forgive me if I am to blame for it.
If you write to President Grant, he will probably order my pay, due when I resigned, paid to you after my death. People will be kinder to you now, dear Dita, at least I hope so. Do not dread death when it comes to you. It will be God's angel of rest,--remember this. I hope my children will forget their father's harshness, and remember his love and anxiety for them. May they practice regularly their religion and pray for him always. Tell---, the last act of my life will be a public profession of my faith, and hope in Him, of whom we need not be ashamed, and it is not honest to withhold that public acknowledgement from any false modesty or timidity. May God bless and save us all.
Sweet, dear, dear Dita, we will soon meet again. Till then adieu for the last time.
Your devoted husband, JOSEPH FRY.