Note XXVI-14 — Chapter XXVI · FURTHER WARS AND REVOLUTIONS. 1863-1885.

The circumstances connected with the sickness and death of Gen. Olarte and Manuel M. Morro afford presumptive evidence of foul play. After a banquet in San Miguel, on the last day Olarte was to be there, wine prepared with fish poison was served him and his secretary, José M. Bermudez. The latter, by accident, escaped the fate prepared for him, and Morro, being invited by Olarte to join him, partook of the wine. Olarte, having his stomach full of food and wine, immediately threw up all. Morro, on feeling the effects, took two doses of ipecacuanha, and succeeded in vomiting. But neither victim saved himself. Both were taken to Panamá, where Olarte died in five days, and Morro in about eleven. The facts have been strenuously denied. Correoso, Statem., MS., 5, asserts that Olarte contracted a fever in his visit to Darien. The first diagnosis of the physicians, it is understood, was that the patients were suffering from yellow fever, or some other malignant disease. Morro was a talented young man belonging to one of the prominent families of the city, and much liked by all.