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Doc. No. 75. 



however^ were immediately driven away by the Indian general Robinson. 

 Many instances might be mentioned when Spain fairly admitted the inde- 

 pendent existence of the Mosquito nation; but; as the inference which I 

 have drawn from the fact that the Mosquito Indian prince Estevan had 

 been received by the Spanish authorities of this ancient kingdom, in 

 1797, with legal honors, has been disputed, I will mention, for your in- 

 formation, a much stronger case, adding thereto the date, without which 

 the narrative would not be sufficiently intelligible. 



In 1S07, the cannibals on the borders of Trujillo rebelled, and fled into 

 the Mosquito territory; the Spanish authorities pursued and captured 

 them, and compelled them to go back again, along with several native 

 Indians whom they had taken prisoners. The last mentioned king, 

 (Estevan,) who, at the death of the Indian King George, had been made 

 King Regent, despatched a communication to Colonel Ballegos, the officer 

 in command at Trujillo, threatening to send an expedition to burn that 

 place, and to wage war into the country beyond the frontier if the Mos- 

 quitos v/ere not immediately restored to iheir homes. Ballegos forwarded 

 this communication to the President of Guatemala, who forthwith ordered 

 them to be set at liberty and to be conveyed beyond the line, where they 

 were received by commissioners from the Mosquito chief, who, at the re- 

 quest of the Spanish officer, gave a written acknowledgment of their 

 return. This correspondence, as well as what took place on other occa- 

 sions between the Spanish and Mosquito authorities, was conducted ac- 

 cording to the usages of independent States. As a further proof that, in 

 other countries, the Mosquito Indians are looked upon as an independent 

 nation, I am enabled to show, that in the year 1840 a French gentleman 

 of the name of G^/m'ee wrote to the Mosquito king for permission to occupy 

 certain lands which he had sold many years before to a French company 

 in Paris; and that in the month of July, 1841, Senor Afitojiio Escalano, 

 commanding the New Grenada settlements in Saii Andres, addressed a 

 communication to Frederick Charles Robert, king of the Mosquito nation, 

 asking for the surrender of sundry fugitive negroes who had gone over 

 into his territory. I again repeat the fact, so rudely denied by the cabinet 

 of Nicaragua, that the federal government of Central America was in- 

 formed by me, several years ago, of the recognition of the Mosquito na- 

 tion by her Majesty's government. 



I shall now proceed to explain, in the second case, the grounds upon 

 which her Majesty's government has based its convictions, that the south 

 or meridian side of the port of San Juan del Norte is Mosquito territory, 

 and not Nicaragua territory. The dimensions of the coast of Mosquito 

 proper are believed to be comprised within the degrees 10° 30' and 16° 

 10' of north latitude, and 83° 37' and 86° of west longitude. Smce the 

 country has been known to Europeans, the Mosquito Indians have always 

 possessed and enjoyed this area of land, without the least interference on 

 the part of any other people to their native rights of holding it. Reference 

 might be made to the various accounts of the boundaries of the Mosquito 

 coast, comprising sketches of the condition of the people, the amount of 

 native population, and the number of British settlements along the coast, 

 such as have been given from time to time by different British superin- 

 tendents; but the following extract from an official notice of the council 

 of Jamaica on the subject, dated the 16th day of July, 1774, will suffice 

 fov my present purpose: 



