118 



Doc. No. 73. 



set out on yom return to the United States, you will commit the hool:& 

 and papers of the legation to the custody of our consul there, or in hi^^ 

 absence to that of any trustworthy person, preferring, of course, a citizen 

 of the United States. 



Your despatches to No. 6 inclusive have been received. 



I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



J. M.CLAYTON. 



Elijah Hise, Esq., <^c.^ <^c.^ (^'c. 



Mr. Clayton to Mr. Sqmer^ 



[Extract.] 



Department of State, 



Washington, May 1, 18491 



^ 4L. ^ Ai^ -jJfe. ^ ^ 



^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ W W 



The controversy between the State of Nicaragua and Great Britain, re^ 

 specting the Mosquito coast and the port of San Juan, has not yet beeis 

 adjusted. That port, seized by a British force, without any previous decla- 

 ration of war, in January, 1848, it is understood, still remains virtually in 

 possession of Great Britain. * # * Nicaragua has recently sent Mr.. 

 Francisco Castellon as her charge d'affaires to London, and Mr. Marcoleta 

 in the same capacity to Brussels. Mr. Bancroft, our minister at London^ 

 however, expresses an opinion that their missions will be fruitless. It does' 

 indeed appear that Mr. Marcoleta 's application for the mediation of Belgium 

 has been successful ; but the department is not aware that the mediation 

 has yet been productive of any results, or, though consented to, has in 

 fact been undertaken. By the third and sixth articles of the agreement 

 for arranging the differences between Great Britain and Nicaragua, made at 

 the island of Cuba, in the lake of Nicaragua, on the 7th of March, 1848, 

 Nicaragua is restricted to a negotiation with England for a final settlement 

 of the controversy, and any attempt on her part to disturb the British pos- 

 session so violently taken is to be regarded as an open declaration of war^ 

 It is thus made the interest of Great Britain to protract the negotiation. 

 Nicaragua has not abandoned her rights, but by these articles the only re- 

 lief she has left her is war. 



General Herran, the minister from New Grenada at Washington, has in- 

 formed me, in conversation, that he*had received credentials to represent 

 Nicaragua also ; but that, owing to some provision in the New Grenadian 

 constitution, he could not present them without permission from his own 

 government, for which he had applied. The British claim, under the^ 

 alleged Mosquito title, as at first set forth, encroached, towards the south,, 

 upon territory claimed by New Grenada. But it seems to have changed 

 from time to time, as circumstances or expediency dictated ; and now the 

 claim is thus described by Lord Palmerston in his note of the 4th of May j, 

 1848,. to M. Mosquera, the minister of New Grenada in London :, 



With respect to the southern boundary of Mosquito, there are cer- 

 tainly strong grounds upon which the King of Mosquito might claim the 

 seacoast as far as the spot called King Buppan's Landing, which is oppo- 

 site the island called Escudo de Veragua^ but her Majesty's government 



