Founding of Chetumal Page 2

I issued him the appointment of Commander-Administrator of the said pontoon for the Bay of Chetumal and Rio Hondo.

My stay in the harbor lasted until November 1897, and is a source of pleasant memories of the small staff of the boat, the warm reception received both from the authorities, as well as the educated and friendly society of the port.

There was a delay in the receipt of instructions requested from the Secretariat, to determine my official conduct before the superior English authorities, from whom we would request passage through the port of Belize, B.H. This was probably due to the procedure follow by our Foreign Ministry to the British government, which tried to insert the additional existing Article III, which gives to Mexico the free transit of their merchant vessels in British waters south of Ambergris Caye to penetrate into the Bay of Chetumal.

Following the instructions from the Ministry of Finance, at the end of November I received the following telegraph message: "Be ready, because there will be coming soon to your port the national steam Ibero which will be the final point of their destination."

This posed a serious problem for getting the provision of a pontoon crew, they knowing in advance the destination of the ship, for in the minds of seafarers there was the fear that the ship would be attacked by the rebel Mayan tribe.

After the arrival of the steamship Ibero we would set sail with a stopover in Cayo Ancon, Progreso, Cozumel, and Isla Mujeres, places where the authorites suceeded in increasing the number of crew members to the sum of thirteen, including the commander.

In Progreso, the Customers Manager, Mister Zeferino Romero, gave me a Customs Ordinance, which I subsequently used as a guide for my commission.

The journey along the east coast of the Yucatan to Belize, B. H. could not be considered very happy, because several times the pontoon remained adrift because of a break the tow rope, causing the little boat to be exposed to the reefs that stretch along the coast, or to the undesirable acts of the Mayas who dominated the coast.

The lack of instructional orders preoccupied my imagination about what the English authorities needed to justify and prove my official documentation. That I trusted in my position as a naval officer and the appointment of the Commander-Major, I credited to said authorities. More …