Doc. No. 75. 



87 



No. 2. 



{Translation. 3 



Government House, 



Grenada, March 13, 1848. 



My Lord: I have the honor to address your excellency, by express 

 •command of the Supreme Director of the State of Nicaragua, with the 

 important object of communicating information to you touching the ques- 

 tions which appertain to the occupation of the port at the mouth of the 

 river San Juan de Nicaragua — of which I conclude you have received full 

 inteliigence from Mr. Frederick Chatfield, your consul-general in Central 

 America — in order that the whole may be brought to the knowledge of her 

 Majesty your august sovereign, and that, with regard to this matter, that 

 fair and impartial judgment may be formed which is to be expected on the 

 part of a friendly government, whose distinguished sagacity and principles 

 of moderation are the surest pledges of its equity. 



From the date of the 29th of October of last year, (1847,) when Mr. 

 CJeorge Hodgson, under the title of senior member of the council of his 

 Mosquitiari Majesty, made known to my government the intention of taking 

 possession of the above-mentioned port of San Juan de Nicaragua, we are 

 of opinion that it has been proved, by arguments not to be contested, either 

 de facto or dejure, that the government of this State has not recognised, 

 nor can it possibly recognise, as a nation, the few scanty tribes wandering 

 on the coast whose name they bear. Much less can it admit that 

 they have the right of dominion which they lay claim to over all that 

 shore, so as to include the above-named port of San Juan, which it is evi- 

 dent has belonged to Nicaragua from time immemorial, and during an un- 

 interrupted continuation of ancient and peaceful possession, as your Grace 

 will see in the note dated the 15th of September, 1844, which Senor Fran- 

 cisco Castellan, minister plenipotentiary of this State at several courts in 

 Europe, addressed to his Grace Lord Aberdeen. Nevertheless, it has 

 never evaded the question; but, being always disposed to discuss it with 

 the pacific and amicable measures suggested by natural reason, and coun- 

 selled by international law, it has sought to find a skilful agent, through 

 whose means an understanding might be arrived at, but without success. 



In fact, my lord, neither the chief of the said Mosquito tribes, nor the 

 English agents who have effected the protection which the government of 

 her Majesty was disposed to extend towards them, showed an equal dis- 

 position to come to an equitable arrangement; and the government of Nica- 

 ragua, contrary to all its hopes and expectations, has found itself in the 

 sad and imperious necessity of taking measures of defence against any 

 aggression which might be aimed at its territorial integrity. Ct appeared 

 difficult, and even impossible, that the government of her Majesty, which 

 has been always so propitious to the cause of American liberty and inde- 

 pendence, should authorize its agents to carry forcible intervention into a 

 case which ought to be decided by reason and truth, with a State which, 

 though as yet nascent and feeble, has given no cause to be treated, in the 

 midst of peace, like an enemy who has provoked the just vengeance of an 

 offended nation. Such was the conviction of my government. Such was 

 the opinion which her Britannic Majesty's government had merited from 

 it. It flattered itself that its weighty interposition would offer the surest 



