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Doc. No. 15. 



menced such negotiations, he was instracted that the capitalists who pm- 

 posed to construct the ship navigation between the Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans through the lakes Nicaragua and Managua had never applied to- 

 this government for any treaty with Honduras on that subject^ and thai 

 his instructions from the Department of State, by which he should be- 

 governed, did not warrant the negotiation of a treaty acquiring more terri- 

 tory for the United States. 



The occupation by authority of the British charge d'affaires finally ap- 

 peared to have been made in consequence of alleged spi illations on the 

 commerce of Great Britain and the imprisonment of her subjects. As 

 we had in the progress of the negotiation of the new treaty with Great 

 Britain been informed that she did not intend to occupy any part of Cen- 

 tral America, the late President directed the inquiry to be made of the 

 British government Avhat the intentions of that government were in taking 

 possession of this island. From the answer given, it appeared that 

 shortly after the occupation, and even before we had apphed to her Majes- 

 ty's government for information on the subject, the British forces and" 

 flag had been withdrawn from the island by the British admiral com- 

 manding in the Pacific, and that the flag of Honduras had been hoisted 

 by his order, under a salute of twenty -one guns. 



The unauthorized acts of the British and American dipfomatic agents ii> 

 Central America in regard to this island might for the time have seriously 

 interrupted the friendly understanding existing between their respective 

 governments, but for the fact that the negotiations which have at length 

 terminated in an amicable treaty had progressed so far in November last 

 that both nations then understood each other on the subject of the occu- 

 pation of Central American territory, and were rapidly approaching their 

 final determination, that the whole territory of Central America should 

 be neutral, and the passage across the isthmus dedicated as a highway 

 for all nations, whose commerce should never be overawed or endangered 

 by the colonization or dominion of any great maritime power. 



A copy of the treaty concluded between Great Britain and the United 

 States in regard to Central America is herewith submitted. Its engage- 

 ments apply to all the five States which formerly composed the republic 

 of Central America and their dependencies, of which the island of Tigre 

 was a part. It does not recognise, affirm, or deny the title of the British 

 settlement at Belize, which is, by the coast, more than five hundred miles 

 from the proposed canal in Nicaragua. The qoestion of the British title 

 this district of country, commonly called British Honduras, and the small 

 islands adjacent to it claimed as its dependencies, stands precisely as it 

 stood before the treaty. No act of the late President's administration has 

 in any manner committed this government to the British title in that ter- 

 ritory, or any part of it. 



When the late President came into oflice he found the British govern- 

 ment in possession of the port of San Juan de Nicaragua,, which it had 

 taken by force of arms, after we had taken Califoraia, and while we were 

 engaged in the negotiation of a treaty for the cession of it,- and that no 

 official remonstrance had been made by this government against the 

 aggression, nor any attempt to resist it. Efforts were then being made 

 by certain private citizens of the United States to procure from the State 

 of Nicaragua, by contract, the right to cut the proposed ship canal, by the 

 way of the river San Juan aud the Lakes of Nicaragua and Managua^, to? 



