76

450 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

might be fairly considered an unreasonable demand would make refusal by
Haiti to grant the Môle all the more difficult.

"I did not understand Admiral Gherardi to combat this opinion of mine,
for he at once acted upon it, and caused an officer from his flagship to go
with me to my house and prepare a telegram to be sent to Washington for the
required letter of credence. To this telegram he, two days thereafter, received
answer that such a letter would be immediately sent by a Clyde steamer to
Gonaïves, and thither the admiral went to receive his expected letter. But,
from some unexplained cause, no such letter came by the Clyde steamer at
the time appointed, and two months intervened before the desired credentials
arrived. This unexpected delay proved to be very mischievous and unfavor-
able to our getting the Môle, since it gave rise among the Haïtian people to
much speculation and many disquieting rumors prejudicial to the project. It
was said that Admiral Gherardi had left Port au Prince in anger, and had gone
to take possession of the Môle without further parley; that the American flag
was already floating over our new naval station; that the United States
wanted the Môle as an entering wedge to obtaining possession of the whole
island; with much else of like inflammatory nature. Although there was no
truth in all this, it had the unhappy effect among the masses of stirring up
suspicion and angry feelings towards the United States, and of making it
more difficult than it might otherwise have been for the governmcnt of Haïti
to grant the required concession.

"Finally after this long interval of waiting, during which the flagship of
Admiral Gherardi was reported at different points, sometimes at Gonaïves,
sometimes at the Môle, and sometimes at Kingston, Jamaica, the desired
letter of credence arrived. The next day I was again summoned on board the
'Philadelphia,' and there was shown me a paper, signed by the President of
the United States and by the Secretary of State, authorizing myself, as
Minister Resident to Haïti, and Rear-Admiral Gherardi, as special
Commissioner, to negotiate with such persons as Haïti might appoint, for
the purpose of concluding a convention by which we should obtain a lease
of the Môle St. Nicolas as a United States naval station.

"It may be here remarked that the letter of credence signed by President
Harrison and by the Secretary of State differed in two respects from the for-
mer and rejected letter under which we had previously acted. First, it charged
me, equally with Admiral Gherardi, with the duty of negotiation; and sec-
ondly, it was an application for a naval station pure and simple, without limi-
tation and without conditions.

"Before presenting to Haïti this new letter, which had the advantage of