Doc. No. 75. 



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Iii 1844 a vessel-of-war, in the service of her Britannic Majesty, brought 

 to the coasts of tlie northern side of this State Mr. Patrick Walker, in the 

 character of consul general near the chief of the Mosquito tribes, whom, 

 they improperly term king, and whose residence was then established at 

 Bluefields. This act, which of itself alone revealed the tendency of the 

 cabinet of Great Britain to appropriate to itself the coast called Mosquito, 

 alarmed, as was natural, the pacific inhabitants of this State, and our 

 minister plenipotentiary accredited near the courts of Europe, doing jus- 

 tice to the high trust imposed in him, addressed to the cabinet of London, 

 on the 15th of September of the same year, 1844, a protest, which he also 

 addressed to your excellency from Brussels, with a statement of the affair. 

 You will allow me now to recall to your mind that document in which the 

 facts and the rights are set forth, supported by unanswerable reasons, 

 showing the title of Nicaragua to the possession, use, and enjoyment, as 

 heretofore, of all that territory comprised within the limits from Cape de 

 Gracias to the line of separation of this State from Costa Rica. 



Mr. Walker established himself at Bluefields, where he constituted 

 himself as the regent of the pretended kingdom during the minority of 

 the person to whom he caused the royal sceptre and investiture to be after- 

 wards given -, and he communicated to the governments of Central Ameri- 

 ca, and to that of this State in particular, the nature of the commis- 

 sion which he held from her Britannic Majesty, to defend the rights of 

 that person as being an independent sovereign, and under the protection 

 of his government. My government refused to acknowledge Mr. Walker 

 in that character, as he had not been officially accredited near this cabi- 

 net, nor had the court of London declared its intention with regard to 

 the questions which an agent possibly unauthorized had thus raised ; and 

 though it might have desired to drive him from Bluefields, it did not 

 find itself in a condition to do so, as the treasury of Nicaragua, drained 

 by the expenses of an intestine war, required a period of peace, in order 

 to be relieved from the miserable condition to which it had been reduced 

 by these deplorable events. 



Favored by these circnmstances, the consul general of her Britannic 

 Majesty at Guatemala, Mr, Frederick Chatfield^ addressed a communica- 

 tion, in which he declared that the chief of the Mosquito tribes had been 

 crowned at Jamaica, with the usual ceremonies, and that the government 

 of her Majesty would at all times lend her powerful support for the settle- 

 ment of the questions which might arise respecting territorial limits be- 

 tween the Mosquito nation and the State of Nicaragua. My government, 

 however, proceeding ever with that moderation and circumspection which 

 it had imposed on itself, in order to avoid giving any grounds of justifi- 

 cation to that of Great Britain, replied to Mr. Chatfield, that although it 

 had not acknowledged, nor never could acknowledge as a nation these 

 few and small savage tribes of the Mosquitos, as it had already declared 

 through its minister plenipotentiary at Paris, in September, 1844, of 

 whose statement a copy was sent, nevertheless it was ready to treat the 

 question in an amicable manner. Mr. Chatfield said nothing more on 

 this subject, and the government confidently hoped that the British gov- 

 ernment would do justice to that of Nicaragua, and would establish an 

 order of things for the future more satisfactory to this State and to the 

 well-known interests of all nations having intercourse with it. 



This just hope was, however, frustrated. The well known events 

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