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Bases of a convention for the settlement of differences between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, proposed by the United States and Great Britain, April 30, 1852.

Mr. Webster to Mr. Kerr, April 30, 1852.

Mr. Marcoleta to Mr. Webster, (translation,) May 2, 1852.
Mr. Hunter to Mr. Kerr, May 4, 1852.

Same to Mr. Walsh, May 4, 1852.

Mr. Hunter to Mr. Molina, May 5, 1852.
Mr. Molina to Mr. Hunter, May 8, 1852.
Mr. Hunter to Mr. Kerr, May 13, 1852.
Mr. Hunter to Mr. Molina, May 19, 1852.
Mr. Walsh to Mr. Webster, May 28, 1852.
Same to the same, June 11, 1852.

Same to the same, enclosures, June 25, 1852.

Mr. Kerr to Mr. Webster, extracts and enclosures, July 28, 1852.
Same to the same, extracts and enclosures, July 30, 1852.

Mr. Molina to Mr. Hunter, August 6, 1852.

Mr. Webster to Mr. Molina, August 12, 1852.

Mr. Walsh to Mr. Webster, August 15, 1852.

Mr. Kerr to Mr. Webster, extract and enclosures, September 2, 1852. Mr. Marcoleta to Mr. Conrad, (translation,) October 16, 1852.

Mr. Kerr to Mr. Webster, extract, October 27, 1852.

Mr. Conrad to Mr. Marcoleta, October 28, 1852.

Mr. Marcoleta to Mr. Conrad, (translation,) November 2, 1852.
Mr. Molina to Mr. Everett, November 11, 1852.

Mr. Molina's project, November 17, 1852.

Mr. Walsh to Mr. Everett, extracts, November 19, 1852.

Mr. Kerr to the Secretary of State, extract, January 13, 1853.
Mr. Molina to Mr. Marcy, September 26, 1853.

Mr. Marcy to Mr. Molina, October 14, 1853.

Mr. Marcoleta to Mr. Marcy, (translation,) December 5, 1853.
Same to the same, (translation,) December 6, 1853.

Mr. Marcy to Mr. Molina, December 17, 1853.

Same to Mr. Borland, extract, December 30, 1853.

Mr. Marcoleta to Mr. Marcy, (translation,) enclosure, January 24,

1854.

Mr. Marcy to Mr. Marcoleta, February 21, 1854.

Mr. Clayton to the Supreme Director of Nicaragua.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 17, 1850.

SIR: I address this note directly to your excellency, because it is probable that before it shall have reached your capital Mr. Squier, the chargé d'affaires of the United States to Guatemala, will have left Central America on his return to the United States.

Immediately after the arrival of Señor Eduardo Carcache, the Nicaraguan chargé d'affaires in this country, I earnestly entreated him

to procure from his own government the most ample instructions to alter the treaty, negotiated with your government by Mr. Squier, in such way as to him, upon full view of all facts, should seem most conducive to the interests and prosperity of Nicaragua. Negotiations affecting the sovereignty of Nicaragua and her highest interests being in progress between the government of the United States and Great Britain, during the past year; have terminated in a treaty now ratified by both parties, of which I send you a copy, to the end that you may see the disposition of the people of the United States and their government in regard not only to Nicaragua but all Central America. This treaty has been acceded to by Great Britain, at the instance of the United States, and we are now, in pursuance of its provisions, making progress in obtaining the accession of all the great maritime states of Europe to the same treaty. It is not doubted that all the states of Central America will co-operate with us most heartily in the great objects we have in view, (and which caused us to enter into these guarantees,) to facilitate and aid by every means the construction of interoceanic communication across the isthmus which divides northern from southern America. Under these guarantees the Central American republics, united in one confederation and union for their common defence and happiness, will, it is ardently hoped, assume a rank among the nations of the earth, realizing the proudest anticipations of those who have made their brilliant destiny a study. The best wishes of this government towards Central America were conveyed to Nicaragua by our chargé d'affaires at Guatemala. Proofs of friendship, more solid than any professions, are conveyed to you in the enclosed treaty. In return for this we expect the confidence of yours, as well as of every other Central American State. If that confidence be withheld, all our efforts in behalf of your country will be fruitless. It is impossible for us to communicate with a minister at Leon. Experience has proved that my communications to Mr. Squier are addressed to him in vain, so defective are your mails and means of communication with San Juan de Nicaragua. The President has given him leave of absence, at his own request, and in a few days he will return to the United States. Señor Carcache has no instructions except to exchange the ratifications of the treaty negotiated by your government with Mr. Squier, which is so defective as to its duration and its grants of exclusive rights to the United States, not desired by us, that it cannot be ratified precisely as it stands, unless we repudiate the treaty with Great Britain. It is indispensable that the two treaties should in all respects conform with each other, and to this end Señor Carcache, or some other suitable person, should be immediately invested by your government with full powers to make a new treaty or change the old one as I have described. More than four months have elapsed since Señor Carcache was fully informed of this. He states to me that he has written to you for new and more ample instructions, and that he has received nothing in reply. In consequence of this misfortune the interests of Nicaragua are endangered at this critical period. If ample powers are speedily given to some person to negotiate in your behalf, the Senate of the United States, whose ratification is necessary to the treaty

with your government, may even be compelled to drop it. Although I offered to negotiate with Señor Carcache, with the express understanding that his government should be bound by nothing in our treaty which it should not hereafter approve, yet he utterly refused to commence any negotiation without instructions.

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Accept, sir, the assurances, &c.,

To the SUPREME DIRECTOR

Of the State of Nicaragua.

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JOHN M. CLAYTON.

[Extract from Translation.]

The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Nicaragua to the Secretary of State of the United States.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS,

Leon de Nicaragua, September 10, 1850.

SIR: The important dispatch received from your excellency, dated the 17th of last June, is another of those documents bearing incontestable evidence of the very noble and fraternal sentiments which animate the respectable government of the United States in its intercourse with the government of this State relative to those sacred rights. and vital interests which link the destiny of the latter with the other sections of the continent.

Your excellency is in possession of authentic data showing the ardent desire of this supreme government to establish such intercourse, and the efforts it has made to cultivate the same for the mutual benefit of the two countries; but although it has availed itself of all the means of communication which presented themselves, yet, owing to the obstacles thrown in the way of all regular correspondence by those who have usurped the occupation of the port of San Juan since the first day of January, 1848, this intercourse has not been so frequent or so punctual as the importance of the matters at issue required; now, however, that your excellency has been pleased to select a safe channel of communication, in addressing the above mentioned dispatch to this cabinet, the Supreme Director having well considered its contents has agreed to reply to your excellency in the following terms:

That having experienced the most unbounded satisfaction, and entertaining a profound sense of gratitude for the friendly offices of your excellency's government relative to the great question which has been agitated with England, he begs to tender, from this moment, with all the earnestness of a true American heart, the thanks which are due for the offices aforesaid, and also for the transmission by your excellency of the treaty concluded in Washington on the 19th of last April, and for the progress your excellency's government has made in procuring the assent of all the principal maritime powers of Europe to said treaty. Your excellency has good reason to hope for the cooperation of the Central American States.

The accomplishment of this interesting object will be greatly facilitated by the simultaneous effort now making on the part of the States of Labrador, Honduras and Nicaragua to establish a national union in Central America, in spite of the opposition offered by Guatemala and Costa Rica to the realization of such a scheme.

With regard to the State of Nicaragua, which is immediately interested in the question pending with England, it wishes to make known from this moment to the high government of your excellency, that it does not entertain the smallest doubt of the just and benevolent intentions both of said government and of the heroic people of the United States, and that it anticipates from the treaty of the 19th April all those great results which your excellency has been pleased to prognosticate in regard to the future sovereignty and aggrandizement of this country.

To the Most Excellent the SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Of the supreme government of the republic of North America.

[Translation.]

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nicaragua to the Secretary of State of the United States.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS,

Leon, September 28, 1850.

SIR: I have the honor of transmitting to your excellency copies of the notes which have been addressed to this department by Mr. Frederick Chatfield, her Britannic Majesty's consul general in Central America, under the respective dates of August the 15th and the 2d instant, and of the replies which have been sent to him by this department, on the 16th and 23d of the present month.

From these documents your excellency will perceive, that notwithstanding the treaty of Washington of last April the 19th, Mr. Chatfield persists in maintaining the integrity of the Mosquito nation, resting his argument upon the recognition which he supposes the government of the United States to have made of her independence, as well as the fact that the aforesaid treaty was concluded with Great Britain, adding, by way of strengthening his argument, that the government of the French republic has already acceded to the same.

Although Nicaragua has not caused the assertion of her rights to be included in the treaty of the 19th of April, she has seen, with very great satisfaction, a vindication of the same therein, as a kind of explanation and recognition of those rights on the part of the contracting parties; and the supreme director, who saw in the consul's notes alluded to above a studied evasion, with a view of continuing to usurp the coast and the northern ports of the State, has, without a moment's hesitation, decided upon forwarding those documents to your excellency, for the purpose of subserving the general interests of your country and of this State.

It affords me pleasure to renew to your excellency my protestations of regard, with which I am your devoted servant.

S. SALINAS. The Most Excellent the SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Of the government of the United States of North America.

[Translation of Translation.]

HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S LEGATION AT GUATEMALA,

August 16, 1850.

SIR: Mr. Vice Consul Foster has informed me of the steps which he has deemed it his duty to take in consequence of the losses recently experienced by Messrs. Beschor & Co., of Granada, through acts of public violence, and for the recovery of a debt contracted some time since by the government of Nicaragua with the aforesaid Messrs. Beschor & Co., for the use of certain small vessels which had been forcibly taken possession of by armed men.

In replying to Mr. Foster, under the respective dates of the 19th and 20th of July last, the government of Nicaragua has made use of some expressions, in regard to the Mosquito coast and the authorities thereof, which, owing to the desire I entertain, and have constantly manifested, to see the government of Nicaragua free from the embarrassments by which it is surrounded, in consequence of its not understanding or of concealing from itself its true position in regard to the Mosquito question, have induced me to offer a few remarks on the subject.

I do not wish to make any comments upon the uncourteous and illtempered expressions which the government of Nicaragua, unthinkingly, perhaps, has used, in speaking of the British government and its agents, in the course of the controversy about the Mosquito question, as I am disposed to attribute a great portion of this irritability and want of courtesy to error and the suggestions of evil counsellors; but I cannot forbear recommending to your government, in the most friendly spirit, the propriety of viewing a question, the final arrangement of which is demanded by the interests of the country, in a manner more worthy of statesmen, and of treating this subject without any reference to those false relations now existing, and those exaggerated offers on the part of persons who are interested in fomenting ill feelings between Nicaragua and Great Britain.

Instead of persisting in the maintenance of fancied rights to the coast of Mosquito, and refusing to listen to reason, Nicaragua would much more consult her interests by coming to a satisfactory arrangement with England upon this question, as it will not be much longer of any avail to resist the settlement of it.

The government of Nicaragua cannot be ignorant of the determination of her Britannic Majesty's government in regard to the Mosquito question, Viscount Palmerston having declared, in the most explicit language, to the chargé d'affaires of Nicaragua at the British

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