Doc. No. 75. 



7 



maps J it appears that the hmits of the Mosquito kingdom have been 

 changed from time to time, until they embraced more than half of Cen- 

 tral America, and have even been pushed beyond the boundaries of New 

 Grenada, as far as Boca del Toro. 



Christopher Hempstead having been appointed consul of the United 

 States for Belize, on the 3d day of March, 1847, an application was made 

 for his exequatur to the British government through Mr. Bancroft. That 

 application was referred by Lord Palmerston to the Colonial Office. The 

 exequatur was granted, as v/ill be seen by a copy of a letter addressed by 

 Mr. Hempstead to the Department of State, on the i2th day of February, 

 1848, herev/ith submitted. Thus far, the existence of a British colony 

 at Belize, in Honduras, has been recognised by this government. 



On the 26th day of May, 1848, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of 

 State, Mr. Hempstead represented that the Indians in Yucatan had ^' ap- 

 plied to her Majesty's superintendent at Belize for protection, and had 

 desired him to take possession of the territory which they occupied, and 

 itake them under his protection, as British subjects;" and he further 

 added, that, in the event of the success of their application, the British 

 .government would then have possession of the entire coast from Cape 

 Conte to San Juan de Nicaragua." Again, on the 29th of July, 1848, 

 he wrote: I have no doubt but the designs of her Majesty's officers, 

 here and on the Mosquito shore, are to obtain territory on this continent." 

 The ^receipt of this letter was regularly acknowledged on the 29th of Au- 

 gust, 1848. 



Accommpanying the note of Sefior Buitrago will be found copies of the 

 treaties of 1783 and 1780, between Great Britain and Spain, from which 

 a judgment may be formed of the relative rights of the parties to those 

 treaties in the territory of which British Honduras was then a part. 



Without instructions from Congress, the Executive could not disturb 

 the British possession iii Honduras; the more especially since the recog- 

 nition of it, in 1847, as a British colony. But as to the province of Yu- 

 catan and the State of Costa Rica — over both of which it appeared, from 

 the official correspondence in the Department of State, that certain per- 

 sons, represented to be British agents, had for a long time been seeking 

 to establish protectorates — the late President directed the Secretary of 

 State to make inquiries as to the intentions of the British government, 

 n iiese inquiries resulted in the accompanying correspondence between the 

 British minister, in Washington, and the Secretary, from which it will 

 appear that the British government, in the most cordial spirit of friend- 

 :ship, have now declared it to be their fixed policy to establish no more 

 protectorates over distant States. This frank declaration of Great Britain — 

 made, as I understand it, for the purpose of explaining her intentions, in 

 regard to the future acquisition of territory in America, through the me- 

 dium of protectorates — cannot fail to strengthen the amicable relations 

 ;existing between tiie two chief commercial nations of the world. 



The island of Tigre, in the State Honduras, was occupied by British 

 forces on the 16th day of October, 1849, by order of Mr. Chatfield, her 

 Britannic Majesty's charge d'affaires in Central America. No instruc- 

 4:ions appear to have been given to him for that purpose by the British gov- 

 ernment, nor v/ere any given to the American charge d'affaires in that 

 country to negotiate for the cession of this or any other territory to the 

 United States.. As soon as it was known to nieXhat Mr. Squier had com- 



