Doc. No. 75. 



39 



and not Nicaragiian, is an absolute error, which cannot relieve you from 

 the heavy responsibility which has been contracted in consequence of 

 the conduct of your subaltern, the superintendent of Belize, towards the 

 administrator, Colonel Manuel duijano. 1 repeat, that the allegation in 

 favor of the right of the Mosquitos to the port of San Juan is not a legal 

 declaration, such as should have preceded the act of violence committed 

 by the superintendent of Belize, and have authorized him to serve with 

 armed force a territory possessed by Nicaragua before the whole world, 

 and remove its administrator. This person was a functionary of the State 

 of Nicaragua, subject exclusively, as regards his conduct, to the investi- 

 gation and determination by this supreme government, or by the tribunals 

 who were entitled to take cognizance of the case, in the order established 

 by the laws, which constitute the peculiar sovereignty of this country, 

 in all matters of government and justice, over its own subjects, with ab- 

 solute exclusion of all others. 



If the officers of any one nation had the right to proceed against those 

 of another, because the former might conceive that the latter were acting 

 in a territory not belonging to their nation, the security of all the nations 

 of the earth would be rendered dependant on the various opinions of their 

 respective functionaries, and universal anarchy would be the certain 

 consequence of so horrible a maxim. It cannot but be far from the in- 

 tentions of her Britannic Majesty's government, and from your intention, 

 to evade responsibility by such a subterfuge. 



Mr. Superintendent Macdonald, beyond the limits of his establishment 

 at Belize, listening to complaints against the administrator, Colonel Q,ui- 

 jano, deciding them according to his own judgment, using armed force, 

 and thus carrying that functionary as a prisoner on board the sloop-of-war 

 Tweed, and conducting him in his expedition along the coast northward, 

 until he was set ashore at Cape Gracias a Dios, is a usurpation, without 

 question or excuse, on the rights of sovereignty of the State of Nicaragua, 

 and a criminal act, which should be severely punished. 



Such is the real object of the claim addressed by this supreme govern- 

 ment on the 16th of October of the past year to that of her Britannic Maj- 

 esty for satisfaction and indemnification, of which this department will 

 present an account so soon as the justice of its demand has been admitted, 

 as also for the measures which should be adopted for the conduct of the 

 subalterns, who may pretend to imitate the superintendent of Belize. 

 The British government, from that time to the present, has not done jus- 

 tice to the State of Nicaragua; and you, sir, after declaring that you came 

 for that purpose, are now retiring without effecting it. 



For these reasons this supreme government protests solemnly before 

 you, that so long as her Britannic Majesty's government shall not have 

 done justice in this State, Nicaragua does not hold herself responsible for 

 the result of the claims of that government or its agents, and that it will 

 pursue its claim until it should have been completely satisfied. 

 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



SIMON OROSCO. 



To F. Chatfield, Esq., 



Consul General of her Britannic Majesty. 



