river Segovia, in about 120 north latitude. This respectable author certainly never could have imagined that it extended south to San Juan de Nicaragua, because he describes this as the principal port of Nicaragua on the Caribbean Sea, says there are 'three portages' between the lake and the mouth of the river, and 'these carrying places are defended, and at one of them is the fort San Juan, called also the Castle of Nuestra Señora, on a rock, and very strong; it has 36 guns mounted, with a small battery, whose platform is level with the water; and the whole is inclosed on the land side by a ditch and rampart. Its garrison is generally kept up at 100 infantry, 16 artillerymen, with about 60 of the militia, and is provided with bateaux, which row guard every night up and down the stream.' Thus, it appears, that the Spaniards were justly sensible of the importance of defending this outlet from the lake of Nicaragua to the ocean; because, as Captain Bonnycastle observes, 'this port (San Juan) is looked upon as the key of the Americas, and with the possession of it and Realejo, on the other side of the lake, the Spanish colonies might be paralyzed by the enemy then being master of the ports of both oceans.' He might have added that nearly 60 years ago, on the 26th February, 1796, the port of San Juan de Nicaragua was established as a port of entry of the second class by the King of Spain. Captain Bonnycastle, as well as the Spaniards, would have been greatly surprised had they been informed that this port was a part of the dominions of His Majesty the King of the Mosquitos, and that the cities and cultivated territories of Nicaragua surrounding the lakes Nicaragua and Managua had no outlet to the Caribbean Sea except by his gracious permission. "It was, therefore, with profound surprise and regret [that] the Government and people of the United States learned that a British force, on the 1st of January, 1848, had expelled the State of Nicaragua from San Juan, had hauled down the Nicaraguan flag, and had raised the Mosquito flag in its place. The ancient name of the town, San Juan de Nicaragua, which had identified it in all former times as belonging to Nicaragua, was on this occasion changed, and thereafter it became Greytown. "These proceedings gave birth to serious apprehensions throughout the United States that Great Britain intended to monopolize for herself the control over the different routes between the Atlantic and Pacific, which, since the acquisition of California, had become of vital importance to the United States. Under this impression, it was impossible that the American Government could any longer remain silent and acquiescing spectators of what was passing in Central America. "Mr. Monroe, one of our wisest and most discreet Presidents, announced in a public message to Congress, in December, 1823, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered subjects for future colonization by any European powers.' This declaration has since been known throughout the world as the Monroe doctrine,' and has received the public and official sanction of subsequent Presidents, as well as of a large majority of the American people. Whilst this doctrine will be maintained whenever, in the opinion of Congress, the peace and safety of the United States shall render this necessary, yet to have acted upon it in Central America might have brought us into collision with Great Britain, an event always to be deprecated, and, if possible, avoided. We can do each other the most good, and the most harm, of any two nations in the world, and, there fore, it is our strong mutual interest, as it ought to be our strong mutual desire, to remain the best friends. To settle these dangerous questions, both parties wisely resorted to friendly negotiations, which resulted in the convention of April, 1850. May this prove to be instrumental in finally adjusting all questions of difficulty between the parties in Central America, and in perpetuating their peace and friendship. "Surely the Mosquito Indians ought not to prove an obstacle to so happy a consummation. Even if these savages had never been actually subdued by Spain, this would give them no title to rank as an independ ent state without violating the principles and the practice of every European nation, without exception, which has acquired territory on the continent of America. They all mutually recognized the right of discovery, as well as the title of the discoverer to a large extent of interior territory, though at the moment occupied by fierce and hostile tribes of Indians. On this principle the wars, the negotiations, the cessions, and the jurisprudence of these nations were founded. The ultimate dominion and absolute title belonged to themselves, although several of them, and especially Great Britain, conceded to the Indians a right of mere occupancy, which, however, could only be extinguished by the authority of the nation within whose dominions these Indians were found. All sales or transfers of territory made by them to third parties were declared to be absolutely void; and this was a merciful rule even for the Indians themselves, because it prevented them from being defrauded by dishonest individuals. "No nation has ever acted more steadily upon these principles than Great Britain, and she has solemnly recognized them in her treaties with the King of Spain, of 1783 and 1786, by admiting his sovereignty over the Mosquitos. "Shall the Mosquito tribe of Indians constitute an exception from this hitherto universal rule? Is there anything in their character or in their civilization which would enable them to perform the duties and sustain the responsibilities of a sovereign state in the family of nations? "Bonnycastle says of them, that they were formerly a very powerful and numerous race of people, but the ravages of rum and the smallpox have diminished their number very much.' He represents them, on the authority of British settlers, as seeming to have no other religion than the adoration of evil spirits.' The same author also states, that the warriors of this tribe are accounted at 1,500.' This possibly may have been correct in 1818, when the book was published, but at present serious doubts are entertained whether they reach much more than half that number. The truth is, they are now a debased race and are degraded even below the common Indian standard. They have acquired the worst vices of civilization from their intercourse with the basest class of the whites, without any of its redeeming virtues. The Mosquitos have been thus represented by a writer of authority, who has recently enjoyed the best opportunities for personal observation. That they are totally incapable of maintaining an independent civilized government is beyond all question. Then, in regard to their so-called King, Lord Palmerston, in speaking of him to Mr. Rives, in September, 1851, says: They had what was called a King, who, by-the-bye,' he added in a tone of pleasantry, was as much of a king as you or I;' and Lord John Russell, in his dispatch to Mr. Crampton, of the 19th of January, 1853, denominates the Mosquito Government as a fiction,' and speaks of the King as a person whose title and power are, in truth, little better than nominal.' "The moment Great Britain shall withdraw from Bluefields, where she now excises exclusive dominion over the Mosquito shore, the former relations of the Mosquitos to Nicaragua and Honduras as the successors of Spain, will naturally be restored. When this event shall occur, it is to be hoped that these states in their conduct towards the Mosquitos and the other Indian tribes within their territories, will follow the example of Great Britain and the United States. Whilst neither of these has ever acknowledged, or permitted any other nation to acknowledge, any Indian tribe within their limits as an independent people, they have both recognized the qualified right of such tribes to occupy the soil, and as the advance of the white settlements rendered this necessary, have acquired their title by fair purchase. "Certainly it cannot be desired that this extensive and valuable Central American coast, on the highway of nations between the Atlantic and Pacific, should be appropriated to the use of 3,000 or 4,000 wandering Indians as an independent state, who would use it for no other purpose than that of hunting and fishing and savage warfare. If such an event were possible, the coast would become a retreat for pirates and outlaws of every nation from whence to infest and disturb the commerce of the world on its transit across the Isthmus, and but little better would be its condition should a new independent state be established on the Mosquito shore; besides, in either event, the present Central American States would deeply feel the injustice which had been done them in depriving them of a portion of their territories; they would never cease in attempts to recover their rights, and thus strife and contention would be perpetuated in that quarter of the world where it is so much the interest, both of Great Britain and the United States, that all territorial questions should be speedily, satisfactorily, and finally adjusted." To this is given in reply an elaborate statement of Lord Clarendon (Brit. and "A protectorate necessarily implies the actual existence of a sovereign authority in the protected power, but where there is, in fact, no such authority there can be no protectorate. The Mosquitos are a convenience to sustain British pretensions, but cannot be regarded as a sovereign state. Lord Palmerston, as was evinced by his remark to Mr. Rives, took this view of the political condition of the Mosquitos, and it is so obviously correct that the British Government should not be sur prised if the United States consider the subject in the same light." Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Buchanan, Aug. 6, 1855. MSS. Inst., Gr. Brit. "It, however, became apparent, at an early day after entering upon the discharge of my present functions, that Great Britain still continued in the exercise or assertion of large authority in all that part of Central America commonly called the Mosquito coast, and covering the entire length of the State of Nicaragua and a part of Costa Rica; that she regarded the Belize as her absolute domain, and was gradually extending its limits at the expense of the State of Honduras; and that she had formally colonized a considerable insular group known as the Bay Islands, and belonging, of right, to that State. "All these acts or pretensions of Great Britain, being contrary to the rights of the States of Central America, and to the manifest tenor of her stipulations with the United States, as understood by this Government, have been made the subject of negotiation through the American minister in London. I transmit herewith the instructions to him on the subject, and the correspondence between him and the British secretary for foreign affairs, by which you will perceive that the two Governments differ widely and irreconcilably as to the construction of the convention and its effect on their respective relations to Central America. "Great Britain so construes the convention as to maintain unchanged all her previous pretensions over the Mosquito coast and in different parts of Central America. These pretensions as to the Mosquito coast are founded on the assumption of political relation between Great Britain and the remnant of a tribe of Indians on that coast, entered into at a time when the whole country was a colonial possession of Spain. It cannot be successfully controverted that, by the public law of Europe and America, no possible act of such Indians, or their predecessors, could confer on Great Britain any political rights. "Great Britain does not allege the assent of Spain as the origin. of her claims on the Mosquito coast. She has, on the contrary, by repeated and successive treaties, renounced and relinquished all pretensions of her own, and recognized the full and sovereign rights of Spain in the most unequivocal terms. Yet these pretensions, so without solid foundation in the beginning, and thus repeatedly abjured, were, at a recent period, revived by Great Britain against the Central American States, the legitimate successors to all the ancient jurisdiction of Spain in that region. They were first applied only to a defined part of the coast of Nicaragua, afterwards to the whole of its Atlantic coast, and lastly to a part of the coast of Costa Rica; and they are now reasserted to this extent, notwithstanding engagements to the United States. "On the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the interference of Great Britain, though exerted at one time in the form of military occupation of the port of San Juan del Norte, then in the peaceful possession of the appropriate authorities of the Central American States, is now presented by her as the rightful exercise of a protectorship over the Mosquito tribe of Indians. "But the establishment at the Belize, now reaching far beyond its treaty limits into the State of Honduras, and that of the Bay Islands, appertaining of right to the same state, are as distinctly colonial governments as those of Jamaica or Canada, and therefore contrary to the very letter as well as the spirit of the convention with the United States, as it was at, the time of ratification, and now is, understood by this Government. "The interpretation which the British Government, thus in assertion and act persists in ascribing to the convention, entirely changes its character. While it holds us to all our obligations, it in a great measure releases Great Britain from those which constituted the consideration of this Government for entering into the convention. It is impossible, in my judgment, for the United States to acquiesce in such a construction of the respective relations of the two Governments to Central America. "To a renewed call by this Government upon Great Britain to abide by and carry into effect the stipulations of the convention according to its obvious import, by withdrawing from the possession or colonization of portions of the Central American States of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, the British Government has at length replied, affirming that the operation of the treaty is prospective only, and did not require Great Britain to abandon or contract any possessions held by her in Central America at the date of its conclusion. "This reply substitutes a partial issue, in the place of the general one presented by the United States. The British Government passes over the question of the rights of Great Britain, real or supposed, in Central America, and assumes that she had such rights at the date of the treaty, and that those rights comprehended the protectorship of the Mosquito Indians, the extended jurisdiction and limits of the Belize, and the colony of the Bay Islands, and thereupon proceeds by impli cation to infer that, if the stipulations of the treaty be merely future in effect, Great Britain may still continue to hold the contested portions of Central America. The United States cannot admit either the inference or the premises. We steadily deny that, at the date of the treaty, Great Britain had any possessions there other than the limited and peculiar establishment at the Belize, and maintain that, if she had any, they were surrendered by the convention. "The Government, recognizing the obligations of the treaty, has, of course, desired to see it executed in good faith by both parties, and in the discussion, therefore, has not looked to rights which we might assert, independently of the treaty, in consideration of our geographical position and of other circumstances which create for us relations to the Central American States different from those of any Government of Europe. "The British Government, in its last communication, although well knowing the views of the United States, still declares that it sees no reason why a conciliatory spirit may not enable the two Governments to overcome all obstacles to a satisfactory adjustment of the subject. "Assured of the correctness of the construction of the treaty constantly adhered to by this Government, and resolved to insist on the rights of the United States, yet actuated also by the same desire which is avowed by the British Government, to remove all causes of |