48 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



that the Liberal party, before the friends and support- 

 ers of foreigners, manifested a violent feeling against 

 them, particularly the English, ostensibly on account 

 of their occupation of the miserable little Island of "Ro- 

 atan, in the Bay of Honduras. The press, i. e., a little 

 weekly published at San Salvador, teemed with inflam- 

 matory articles against los Ingleses, their usurpation 

 ^nd ambition, and their unjust design of adding to 

 their extended dominions the republic of Central 

 America. It was a desperate effort to sustain a par- 

 ty menaced with destruction by rousing the national 

 prejudice against strangers. A development of this 

 spirit was seen in the treaty of alliance between San 

 Salvador and Quezaltenango, the only two states that 

 sustained the Federal Government, by which, in Au- 

 gust preceding, it was agreed that their delegates to the 

 national convention should be instructed to treat, in 

 preference to all other things, upon measures to be ta- 

 ken for the recovery of the Island of Roatan ; and that 

 no production of English soil or industry, even though 

 it came under the flag of another nation, and no effect 

 of any other nation, though a friendly one, if it came 

 in an English vessel, should be admitted into the 

 territory until England restored to Central America 

 the possession of that island. I do not mean to say 

 that they were wrong in putting forth their claims to 

 this island — the English flag was planted upon it in a 

 very summary way — nor that they were wrong in rec- 

 ommending the only means in their power to redress 

 what they considered an injury ; for, as England had 

 not declared war with China, it would have been rash 

 for the states of San Salvador and Los Altos to involve 

 themselves in hostilities with that overgrown power ; 

 but no formal complaint was ever made, and no nego- 



I 



