"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
For. St. Pap. for 1855-56, vol. 46, 255-271); a rejoinder by Mr. Buchanan
(ibid., 272), and further correspondence between Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Marcy,
Mr. Dallas, Lord Clarendon, and Mr. Crampton.

"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 surprised 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 gov ernments 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

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serious misunderstanding between two nations associated by so many ties of interest and kindred, it has appeared to me proper not to consider an amicable solution of the controversy hopeless.

"There is, however, reason to apprehend that, with Great Britain in the actual occupation of the disputed territories, and the treaty, therefore, practically null so far as regards our rights, this international difficulty cannot long remain undetermined without involving in serious danger the friendly relations which it is the interest as well as the duty of both countries to cherish and preserve. It will afford me sincere gratification if future efforts shall result in the success anticipated heretofore with more confidence than the aspect of the case permits me now to entertain."

President Pierce, Third Annual Message, 1855.

President Pierce's message of Feb. 14, 1856, covering correspondence with respect to Nicaragua and Costa Rica and the Mosquito Indians, is given in Senate Ex. Doc. 25, 34th Cong., 1st sess.

"The President cannot himself admit as true, and therefore cannot under any possible circumstances advise the Republic of Nicaragua to admit, that the Mosquito Indians are a state or a Government any more than a band of Maroons in the island of Jamaica are a state or Government. Neither, of course, can he admit that any alliance or protective connection of a political nature may exist for any purpose whatever between Great Britain and those Indians."

Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Dallas, July 26, 1856. MSS. Inst., Gr. Brit.
As to protests by the Government of the United States against English and

French naval expeditions to prevent filibusters landing "on any part of
the Mosquito coast or at Greytown, without any application for that pur-
pose from any local authority," see Mr. Cass, Sec. of State, to Mr. Lamar,
Dec. 1, 1858, Mar. 2, 1859. MSS. Inst., Am. St.

"The same rules applicable to the aborigines elsewhere on the American continent are supposed to govern in the case of the Mosquito Indians within the territorial limits of the Republic of Nicaragua, to whom the United States deny any claim of sovereignty, or any other title than the Indian right of occupancy, to be extinguished at the will of the discoverer, though a species of undefined protectorate has several times been claimed over them by Great Britain. This subject gave rise to much discussion, on account of the contiguity of the territory to the proposed interoceanic communication, to promote which a convention was concluded between the United States and Great Britain on 19th April, 1850. In that convention there is no reference to the Mosquito protectorate, though by a subsequent agreement between these powers, dated 30th April, 1852, intended to be proposed to the acceptance of the Mosquito King, as well as of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, there was a reservation to these Indians of a district therein described. But Nicaragua refused to enter into the arrangement, and protested against all foreign intervention in her affairs. (Congressional Globe, 1852-53, xxvi, 268; ibid., xxvii, 252, 286; 8 Stat. L., 174; Annuaire des deux mondes, 1852-53, 741; Appendix, 922; President Fillmore's message, Annual Reg., 1852, 301. See also for negotiations with Great

S. Mis. 162-VOL. III- -3

33

Britain subsequent to the interoceanic treaty, Cong. Doc., 32d Cong., 2d sess, Senate Ex. Docs. 12 and 27; ibid., 33d Cong., 1st sess., Ex. Docs. 8 and 13.)"

Lawrence's Wheaton (ed. 1863), 71.

President Buchanan, in his fourth annual message, announced that "Her Britannic Majesty concluded a treaty with Honduras on the 28th November, 1859, and with Nicaragua on the 28th August, 1860, relinquishing the Mosquito protectorate." By that treaty Great Britain recognized, as belonging "to and under the sovereignty of Nicaragua, the country hitherto occupied by the Mosquito Indians, within the frontiers of the Republic; that a certain designated district should be assigned to these Indians, but that it should remain under the sovereignty of Nicaragua, and should not be ceded by the Indians to any foreign prince or state, and that the British protectorate should cease three months after the exchange of ratifications."

Ibid.

It was provided, however, in this treaty, that the titles theretofore granted under the alleged protectorate should be valid. (Supra, § 150f.) Under these titles the British settlers held. It has already been observed (supra, § 150f) that President Buchanan's expressions of satisfaction with the treaty, in the message above noticed, were based on the assumption that Great Britain had ceased to exercise any influence whatever over the Mosquito country. That this is not the case, however, follows from the ratification, by the treaty, of British titles from Indians, already noticed, giving British subjects a controlling power in the territory, and from other conditions to be presently detailed.

Difficulties having arisen between Great Britain and Nicaragua, under this treaty, as to the degree of influence Great Britain was entitled to exercise over the Mosquito coast, the two powers agreed in 1880 to submit the questions at issue between them to the arbitrament of the Emperor of Austria. As translated, the material parts of the award are as follows:

(1) "The treaty of Nicaragua of January 28, 1860, does not recognize in Nicaragua a full and unlimited sovereignty over the Mosquito Indians, but concedes in the third article to these Indians a limited autonomy (self-government.)

(2) "The Republic of Nicaragua is authorized, in order to give evidence of her sovereignty of the territory of the Mosquito Indians, to hoist on it the flag of the Republic.

(3) "The Republic of Nicaragua is authorized to appoint a commissioner in order to the protection (wahrnehmung) of her sovereign rights in the territory of the Mosquito Indians.

(4) The Mosquito Indians are authorized to carry their own flag, provided that in it there is a recognition of the sovereignty or the Republic of Nicaragua.

(5) "The Republic of Nicaragua is not authorized to grant concessions for the obtaining of the natural products of the territory assigned to the Mosquito Indians. This right belongs to the Mosquito Government. (6) The Republic of Nicaragua is not authorized to regulate the trade of the Mosquito Indians, or to tax the importation or exportation of goods into or from that territory. This right belongs to the Mosquito Government.