THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 121 



Sir Henry Bulwer as part of the dependencies of British 

 Honduras. As for British Honduras itself the former 

 Belize there was no question in any quarter, not even in 

 the Senate, but that it was excepted from operation of the 

 treaty. This is confirmed by an official exposition of the 

 convention which appeared in the National Intelligencer but 

 three days after its promulgation ; it was there asserted that 

 "the British title to the Belize the treaty does not in any 

 manner recognize, nor does it deny it or meddle with it. 

 That settlement remains, in that particular, as it stood pre- 

 viously to the treaty." No mention, however, was here made 

 of the dependencies, and the people of the United States 

 were still left in ignorance of the uncertainties which existed 

 in official circles connected with that word. 



President Taylor's death occurred on July 9, and about 

 one week later his successor in office, President Fillmore, 

 transmitted a communication to Congress, with which he 

 submitted^ copy of the treaty itself. "Its engagements," 

 he said, "apply to all the five states which formerly composed 

 the republic of Central America and their dependencies, of 

 which the Island of Tigre was a part. It does not recognize, 

 affirm, or deny the title of the British settlement at Belize, 

 which is, by the coast, more than five hundred miles from 

 the proposed canal at Nicaragua. The question of the Brit- 

 ish title to this district of country, commonly called British 

 Honduras, and the small islands adjacent to it, claimed as 

 its dependencies, stands precisely as it stood before the 

 treaty. No act of the late President's administration has, 

 in any manner, committed this government to the British 

 title in that territory or any part of it." 



Thus it seems clear enough that whatever misunderstand- 

 ing there may have been between the negotiators of the 

 treaty, that misunderstanding was in reference to Mosquitia, 

 and not to Belize, known as British Honduras, nor to the 

 Bay Islands. Furthermore, whatever may have been the be- 

 lief in Congress as to the meaning of the abnegatory clauses 

 of the first article (whether or not prospective in character, 

 requiring Great Britain to abandon her Central American 



