retire within the district above described in the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the exchange of ratifications.'

"And the treaty further expressly provides, that the permission granted to cut logwood shall not be considered as derogating, in any wise, from his [Catholic Majesty's] rights of sovereignty' over this logwood district; and it stipulates, moreover, 'that if any fortifications should have been actually heretofore erected within the limits marked out, His Britannic Majesty shall cause them all to be demolished, and he will order his subjects not to build any new ones.'

"But, notwithstanding these provisions, in the opinion of Mr. Fox, it was still in the power of the British Government 'to put our [their] own interpretation upon the words "continente Espagnol," and to determine, upon prudential considerations, whether the Mosquito shore comes under that description or not.'

"Hence the necessity for new negotiations which should determine, precisely and expressly, the territory embraced by the treaty of 1783. These produced the convention of the 14th of July, 1786; and its very first article removed every doabt on the subject. This declared that His Britannic Majesty's subjects, and the other colonists who have hitherto enjoyed the protection of England, shall evacuate the country of the Mosquitos, as well as the continent in general, and the islands adjacent, without exception,' situated beyond the new limits prescribed by the convention within which British subjects were to be permitted to eat, not only logwood, but mahogany and all other wood; and even this district is indisputably acknowledged to belong of right to the Crown of Spain.'

"Thus what was meant by the 'continente Espagnol' in the treaty of 1783, is defined, beyond all doubt, by the convention of 1786; and the sovereignty of the Spanish King over the Mosquito shore, as well as over every other portion of the Spanish continent and the islands adjacent, is expressly recognized.

"It was just that Great Britain should interfere to protect the Mosquito Indians against the punishment to which they had exposed themselves as her allies from their legitimate and acknowledged sovereign. Article XIV of the convention, therefore, provides that His Catholic Majesty, prompted solely by motives of humanity, promises to the King of England that he will not exercise any act of severity against the Mosquitos inhabiting in part the countries which are to be evacuated by virtue of the present convention, on account of the connections which may have subsisted between the said Indians and the English; and His Britannic Majesty, on his part, will strictly prohibit all his subjects from furnishing arms or warlike stores to the Indians in general situated upon the frontiers of the Spanish possessions.'

"British honor required that these treaties with Spain should be faithfully observed; and from the contemporaneous history no doubt exists but that this was done; that the orders required by Article XV of the convention were issued by the British Government, and that they were strictly carried into execution.

In this connection a reference to the significant proceedings in the House of Lords on the 26th of March, 1787, ought not to be omitted. On that day a motion was made by Lord Rawdon that the terms of the convention of July 14, 1786, do not meet the favorable opinion of this House.' The motion was discussed at considerable length, and with great ability. The task of defending the ministry upon this occasion was undertaken by Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and was most trium

phantly performed. He abundantly justified the ministry for having surrendered the Mosquito shore to Spain; and proved that the Mosquitos were not our allies; they were not a people we were bound by treaty to protect.' His lordship repelled the argument that the settlement was a regular and legal settlement, with some sort of indignation; and so far from agreeing, as had been contended, that we had remained uniformly in the quiet and unquestionable possession of our claim to the territory he called upon the noble Viscount Stormont to declare, as a man of honor, whether he did not know the contrary.

"Lord Rawdon's motion to condemn the convention was rejected by a vote of 53 to 17.

"It is worthy of special remark that all sides of the House, whether approving or disapproving the convention, proceeded upon the express admission that it required Great Britain, employing its own language, 'to evacuate the country of the Mosquitos.' On this question the House of Lords was unanimous.

"At what period, then, did Great Britain renew her claims to the country of the Mosquitos, as well as the continent in general, and the islands adjacent, without exception? It certainly was not in 1801, when, under the Treaty of Amiens, she acquired the island of Trinidad from Spain, without any mention whatever of further acquisitions in America. It certainly was not in 1809, when she entered into a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with Spain, to resist the Emperor Napoleon in his attempt to conquer the Spanish monarchy. It certainly was not in 1814, when the commercial treaties, which had previously existed between the two powers, including, it is presumed, those of 1783 and 1786, were revived. On all these occasions there was no mention whatever of any claims of Great Britain to the Mosquito protectorate, or to any of the Spanish-American territories which she had abandoned. It was not in 1817 and 1819, when acts of the British Parliament (57 and 59 George III), distinctly acknowledged that the British settlement at Belize was 'not within the territory and dominion of His Majesty,' but was merely a settlement for certain purposes, in the possession and under the protection of His Majesty; thus evincing a determined purpose to observe with the most scrupulous good faith the treaties of 1783 and 1786 with Spain.

"In the very sensible book of Captain Bonnycastle, of the corps of British Royal Engineers, on Spanish-America, published at London, in 1818, he gives no intimation whatever that Great Britain had revived her claim to the Mosquito protectorate. On the contrary, he describes the Mosquito shore as a tract of country which lies along part of the northern and eastern shore of Honduras,' which had been claimed by the British.' He adds, 'the English held this country for eighty years, and abandoned it in 1787 and 1788.'

"Thus matters continued until a considerable period after 1821, in which year the Spanish provinces composing the captain-generalship of Guatemala asserted and maintained their independence of Spain. It would be a work of supererogation to attempt to prove, at this period of the world's history, that these provinces having, by a successful revolution, become independent states, succeeded within their respective limits to all the territorial rights of Spain. This will surely not. be denied by the British Government, which took so noble and prominent a part in securing the independence of all the Spanish-American provinces.

"Indeed, Great Britain has recorded her adhesion to this principle of international law in her treaty of December 26, 1826, with Mexico,

then recently a revolted Spanish colony. By this treaty, so far from claiming any right beyond the usufruct which had been conceded to her under the convention with Spain in 1786, she recognizes its continued existence and binding effect, as between herself and Mexico, by obtaining and accepting from the Government of the latter a stipulation that British subjects shall not be 'disturbed or molested in the peaceable exercise of whatever rights, privileges, and immunities they have at any time enjoyed within the limits described and laid down' by that convention. Whether the former Spanish sovereignty over Belize, subject to the British usufruct, reverted of right to Mexico or to Guatemala, may be seriously questioned; but, in either case, this recognition by Great Britain is equally conclusive.

"And here it may be appropriate to observe that Great Britain still continues in possession, not only of the district between the Rio Hondo and the Sibun, within which the King of Spain had granted her a license to cut mahogany and other woods, but the British settlers have extended this possession south to the river Sarstoon, one degree and a half of latitude beyond the limits described and laid down' by this convention. It is presumed that the encroachments of these settlers south of the Sibun have been made without the authority or sanction of the British Crown, and that no difficulty will exist in their removal. "Yet in view of all these antecedents the island of Ruatan, belonging to the State of Honduras, and within sight of its shores, was captured in 1841 by Colonel McDonald, then Her Britannic Majesty's superintendent at Belize, and the flag of Honduras was hauled down and that of Great Britain was hoisted in its place. This small State, inca. pable of making any effectual resistance, was compelled to submit, and the island has ever since been under British control. What makes this event more remarkable is that it is believed a similar act of violence had been committed on Ruatan by the superintendent of Belize in 1835; but on complaint by the Federal Government of the Central American States, then still in existence, the act was formally disavowed by the British Government, and the island was restored to the authorities of the Republic.

"No question can exist but that Ruatan was one of the islands adjacent to the American continent which had been restored by Great Britain to Spain under the treaties of 1783 and 1786. Indeed, the most approved British gazetteers and geographers up till the present date have borne testimony to this fact, apparently without information from that hitherto but little known portion of the world, that the island had again been seized by Her Majesty's superintendent at Belize, and was now a possession claimed by Great Britain.

"When Great Britain determined to resume her dominion over the Mosquito shore, in the name of a protectorate, is not known with any degree of certainty in the United States. The first information on the subject in the Department of State, at Washington, was contained in a dispatch of the 20th January, 1842, from William S. Murphy, esq., special agent of the American Government to Guatemala, in which he states that in a conversation with Colonel McDonald at Belize the latter had informed him that he had discovered and sent documents to England, which caused the British Government to revive their claim to the Mosquito territory.

"According to Bonnycastle the Mosquito shore lies along part of the northern and eastern shore of Honduras;' and by the map which accompanies his work, extends no further south than the mouth of the

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.

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"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 doc trine,' 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.'

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