Doc. No. 75. 



25 



north to the south side of the port of San Juan, where they occupy build- 

 ings belonging to Seiior Zapata, a British subject. With regard to the 

 ignorance which the government of Nicaragua professes concerning the 

 existence of the State of Mosquito, that government probably forgets that 

 some years ago I announced to the general government of Central America 

 the fact that Great Britain recognised the State of Mosquito, and that she 

 would not see with indifference the usurpation of the territory of a State 

 with which she has been on terms of close alliance for a long series of 

 years. Spain herself, moreover, when she was in possession of these 

 countries, pubUcly recognised the Mosquito nation, especially on a cer- 

 tain occasion, still fresh in the memory of many persons who are yet 

 living, when the Indian Mosquito Prince Estevan visited San Salvador 

 and Guatemala in 1797, and was everywhere received with the honors 

 and ceremonies due to a King by the order of the Spanish authorities, 

 who defrayed all the expenses. According to the evidence to be found 

 in the British colonial archives, which are accessible to the public, the 

 place whence Senor Q^uijano was removed by Colonel Macdonald was 

 Mosquito territory, and not Nicaragua territory; and the government of 

 her Majesty has been credibly informed that the persons and property of 

 British subjects were placed in jeopardy by the acts and conduct of said 

 Q^uijano; and as Colonel Macdonald was perfectly well aware that her 

 Majesty's government would never tolerate the least usurpation of 

 authority in the territory of a State which has lived under its protection 

 for more than a century, her Majesty's government sees no tangible cause 

 to justify the State of Nicaragua in claiming compensation. 



It is true that the government of her Majesty would have preferred the 

 usual custom of representing to the government of Nicaragua the im- 

 proper conduct of its functionaries; but the government of her Majesty 

 would not have considered itself justified in persisting to expose the per- 

 sons and the property of British subjects to outrage. The Nicaragua 

 agent in San Juan was looked upon as a person so utterly unfit to be in- 

 trusted with any kind of authority by the supreme government, that to 

 this fact may be attributed, in a certain measure, the results which unfor- 

 tunately followed. The government of her Majesty has issued instruc- 

 tions for exacting from the government of Nicaragua an acknoAvledgment 

 of the grounds upon which Mr. George Bell and four other British sub- 

 jects, connected with the company of Segoria in London, were, in the 

 month of September, 1841, forcibly detained by the authorities of this 

 State; it having been represented to her Majesty's government that the 

 illegal detention of these individuals, one of whom died in confine- 

 ment, had been determined upon by the authorities of Nicaragua by 

 way of retaliation for what had taken place at San Juan the preceding 

 month; but from the explanations given by the supreme government of 

 Nicaragua on this subject to the British agents in Central America^ pre- 

 viously to my return to this country, L am disposed to look upon the 

 detention of Mr. Bell and his companions as an act of indiscretion on 

 the part of a subordinate officer in Acoyapa, at variance with the wishes 

 and intentions of the supreme government of Nicaragua, which seized 

 the very first opportunity to rectify the error. It only remains for me now 

 to assure the supreme government of Nicaragua that any assistance it 

 may require from her Majesty's government in order to facilitate the ami- 

 cable settlement of any dispute in which it may be involved with its neigh- 

 bors; will be most [cheerfully] given at all times; since the government of 



