Doe. No. 75. 



83 



th^ battery of La Trinidad, on the river of San Juan de Nicaragua, at its 

 confluence with the Sarapique; and by one of those accidents against 

 which human foresight cannot provide, he succeeded in dispersing the 

 forces in guard at that place, and occupied the whole course of the river 

 as far as the port of San Carios, on the eastern shore of the Great lake, 

 making some prisoners and taking as hostages the administrator of the 

 custom-house, the military governor of that establishment, and other of- 

 iicials, who were residing there in tranquillity. Being master of that 

 point, which may be said to command this city, that of Rimas, and other 

 towns of less size on the borders of the same lake, he demanded the re- 

 turn of the prisoners and articles taken at San Juan, as well as satisfac- 

 tion for the outrages which he alleged to have been committed on the 

 British flag on the 9th of January, and security that the inhabitants of 

 San Juan should not in future be disturbed, declaring himself ready to 

 enter into an equitable agreement on these points. 



My government, unprepared for a breach of peace with the British 

 forces, and having always manifested a disposition to treat on every ques- 

 tion relating to San Juan in an amicable manner, having a high opinion 

 of the cabinet of St. James, and believing the hour to be come when jus- 

 tice would be done to it through its agents, received with great pleasure 

 the invitation of the British commander, and did not hesitate to submit 

 to that imperious necessity by yielding to measures which promised an 

 easy and prompt settlement of the question. It therefore sent three com- 

 missioners to hear the propositions of Mr. Granville, with powers suf- 

 ficient to conclude an armistice, on the bases whereupon a definitive 

 treaty might be made with Great Britain. I'he commander Granville 

 conferred with our commissioners; but he considered himself without in- 

 structions for concluding any agreement other than on the base already 

 proposed by him — a base utterly at variance with the calculations and 

 desires of the Director of this State, as it tended solely to the recognition 

 of the Mosquitos as a nation, and of their chief as the legitimate sovereign 

 of the said monarchy. With a declaration so imperative and precise be- 

 fore them, the commissioners of the government could do nothing, as it 

 would have been mere loss of time to make propositions of any kind upon 

 such bases, which the British commander rejected in a manner irrevoca- 

 ble; and under these circumstances, they considered it proper, for the 

 sake of peace, to sign the treaty, of which I have the honor to send you 

 herewith a copy, marked No. 1. 



My government, having seen and examined the report of the commis- 

 sioners, saw that no other course was left to it, as the father and protector 

 of its people, than to preserve them from the dangers and calamities to 

 which they would be exposed by a war provoked by the obstinate blind- 

 ness and the guilty ambition of a few British individuals; and it took the 

 resolution of ratifying these proceedings of the commissioners, with the 

 expectation that a definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain should de- 

 termine the question; and in the mean time it addressed to the Court of 

 London the declaration and protest herewith sent under No. 2. From all 

 this, it may be easily inferred that the submission to all that was required 

 by the British commander was merely and purely provisional, and was 

 with no other object than to relieve the State from the evils to which it 

 would have been subjected, in spite of any resistance possible on its part; 

 it being, moreover; notorious that we were surprised by an unexpected 



