Doc. No. 73* 



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power, fo repair to Jamaica, for the purpose of doing homage into the 

 hands of the governor of that colony. In 1733, the Mosquito chieTs and 

 the soldiers under their command went over to Jamaica to assist the 

 British forces against the Marrones. A British agent was assigned, from 

 time to time, by the governor and council of Jamaica, to sup'-rintend the 

 settlements in the Mosquito territory; and the appointment of such func- 

 tionaries is mentioned regularly durmg the last thirty-three years of Brit- 

 ish occupancy in that country. The last superintendent who had been 

 sent there, in 1776, was removed, together with the troops and British 

 setders on the coast, in consequence of a treaty between Great Britain 

 and Spain, which was signed in London on the 14th of July, 1786. 

 Notwithstanding the abandonment of the Mosquito coast by Great Britain, 

 the government of Old Spain never assumed more than a mere nominal au- 

 thority over the territory, which has remained in possession of the Indians 

 ever since. Since the power of Spain in this hemisphere and the obliga- 

 tions of the treaty have ceased to be in force, the former relations of 

 friendship and commercial alliance between England and the Mosquitos 

 have been re-established, and the ancient custom of crowning the kings of 

 Mosquito within the territorial boundaries of Great Britain has been permitted 

 to be resumed. What may be the object of the government of Nicaragua in 

 striving to maintain that the Mosquito nation was not only formerly, but is 

 actually at present, subject to Spain, it is not my purpose at present to in- 

 quire. The inference to be drawn, however, from the peculiar mode of 

 reasoning that government has adopted in order to establish this fact^ 

 cannot, in my opinion, redound greatly to the interest of Central America. 

 If a mere declaration on the part of Spain, unaccompanied by any act of 

 occupation or of authority over the Mosquito territory, can confer upon 

 that country the exalted right of sovereignty which the government of 

 Nicaragua assumes for it, and if the fact that Spain never has, either 

 directly or indirectly, recognised the independence of this nation, tends 

 to enhance that right, it follows necessarily that < 'entral America, whose 

 formal submission to the Crown of Spain cannot be called into question, 

 and whose independence has never to this day been recognised by that 

 power, must, at this very moment, also be subject to the Spanish mon- 

 archy. 



The two cases you have been pleased to cite to prove the dependency 

 of the Mosquito Indians upon Spain are not, in my opinion, entitled to 

 much consideration. If an Indian soldier from the frontier were to be 

 convicted of having bartered away the independence ot his nation, be- 

 cause he happened to have intermarried into a Nicaraguan family, whose 

 daughter was probably given to him with the hope of securing their prop- 

 erty against his predatory attacks, during one of which the young lady 

 herself had been carried away — if, I say, this soldier were to be pro- 

 nounced guilty of having made a transfer of the independence of his na- 

 tion, in consequence of this alliance, it would be impossible to say what 

 is the precise relation or dependence of any country in regard to others. 

 As you have omitted to specify the exact period when Spanish authority 

 was in force on the Colorado or Black river, I take it for granted that the 

 date to which you refer is that subsequent to the removal of the British 

 superintendent, after the treaty of 1786, from the place where the English 

 had erected a small Jbrtress, which, being abandoned by the British set- 

 tlers, was clandestinely taken possession of by the Spaniards: the latter, 



