THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 119 



ingly approached Sir Henry Bulwer with a proposition for 

 a counter-declaration, in which he proposed to limit the 

 term " dependencies " by making special mention of the 

 islands along the Honduras coast, expressly omitting refer- 

 ence to Mosquitia. Sir Henry Bulwer agreed to this with 

 the understanding that " it was not the intention in the treaty 

 to embrace whatever is Her Majesty's settlement at Hon- 

 duras, nor whatever are the dependencies of that settlement." 

 To leave no room for "charges of duplicity 'against our 

 government," Mr. Clayton addressed a note to Mr. King, 

 Chairman of the Senate Committee 011 Foreign Affairs, 

 acquainting him with Sir Henry Bulwer's declaration, but he 

 omitted to mention in his note to Mr. King the word 

 "dependencies." Mr. King was probably not surprised by 

 receipt of the Secretary's letter, for he had never supposed 

 that British Honduras was to be abandoned by Great Britain 

 under the terms of the treaty; he replied the same day 

 (July 4) that " The Senate perfectly understood that the 

 treaty did not include British Honduras, but," he added, 

 in a tone of admonition to the Secretary of State, "you 

 should be careful not to use any expression which would 

 seem to recognize the right of England to any portion of 

 Honduras [i.e. outside of British Honduras]." Upon receipt 

 of Mr. King's answer, Mr. Clayton sent a note (it had been 

 already prepared) to Sir Henry Bulwer, in which he said : 



The language of the first article of the convention concluded 

 on the 19th day of April last, between the United States and Great 

 Britain, describing the country not to be occupied, etc., by either 

 of the parties, was, as you know, twice approved by the govern- 

 ment, and it was neither understood by them nor by either of us 

 (the negotiators), to include the British settlement in Honduras 

 (commonly called British Honduras, as distinct from the state of 

 Honduras), nor the small islands in the neighborhood of that settle- 

 ment which may be known as its dependencies. 



To this settlement and these islands the treaty we negotiated 

 was not intended by either of us to apply. The title to them it 

 .s now and has been my intention throughout the whole negotia- 

 tion to leave as the treaty leaves it, without denying or affirming 

 >r in any way meddling with the same, just as it stood previously. 



