December 5th
I am sending this off by the German boat Ypiranga. We have given up going to Vera Cruz on Saturday. People say that it is impossible for us to do so without creating a panic. No one would really know that we had left a hostage in the shape of the blue-eyed boy. I felt rather in the mood to go, after the visit of Sir Christopher, who painted the harbor of Vera Cruz in most attractive colors.
Huerta is gradually getting rid of his Cabinet. Garza Aldape, Gobernación, went, as I wrote you, and now de Lama (Hacienda) is to go to Paris by the Ypiranga. I don’t imagine Huerta has much to do with his Cabinet. They fill up certain conventional spaces usual in governments, and that is all—a sort of administrative furniture, along with the tables and chairs. Burnside said to-day that when Huerta really has a Cabinet meeting it consists of himself and advisers in the shape of copitas. He has just got full powers from “Congress” to put into effect any orders he may give in military and naval matters for the next year. He pays no attention to Washington and it is rather difficult to do anything with a person who acts as if you were non-existent. The ultimata continue to go into the waste-paper basket, and Vera Cruz is so full of war-ships that those yet to come will have to stay outside the harbor. The Rhode Island, the Suffolk, and the Condé have the best places available for the big ships. The rest of the harbor is taken up with gunboats.