Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/209

 and of rendering the position of things in Mexico still more complicated.

I scarcely need inform you that the surmises which have been made by a portion of the press on the subject of certain relations existing between this department and General Santa Anna, have no foundation in fact.

Despatch of Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Seward reporting his first interview with the Marquis de Moustier, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated Paris, October 12, 1866. Sir,—The Marquis de Moustier received the corps diplomatique for the first time yesterday.

He asked me if it was true, as the newspapers reported, that our official relations were soon to cease. He expressed his regret to learn that this was the case, and the desire which he should have felt to co-operate with me in cultivating very friendly relations between our two respective countries.

In reply to a question I put to him, he stated that the policy of his government towards the United States and Mexico would undergo no alteration through his accession to the ministry.

His excellency added that he was devoting all his leisure time to studying the different American questions with which he had not yet had an opportunity of becoming familiar, and that as soon as he was prepared, he should be glad to converse at greater length either with me or my successor. Nevertheless, he wished to inform me, and begged me to apprise you of the fact, that he had seen the emperor at Biarritz; that his majesty had expressed his desire and intention of withdrawing his troops from Mexico as soon as it could be done, and without taking cognizance of the convention entered into with Maximilian. His excellency added that, according to the last reports, the malcontents were gaining territory, but that it was not the emperor's intention to undertake any fresh or distinct expeditions for the purpose of subduing them; that there had been an idea of recapturing Tampico, but that nothing had transpired at Paris on the subject.

He said that the position of France was a delicate one, and that the emperor desired nothing so much as to disembarrass