120 Doc. No. 75, 



under the protection of Great Britain. In a note of the 9th of March last 

 Mr. Bancroft says: Great Britain often follows her old traditions of a 

 policy of aggrandizement. As, in the Mediterranean Gibraltar, Malta^ 

 and the Ionian isles form her military stations, so she flanks us by a strong 

 fortress at Halifax, seeks to overawe us by another at Bermudajand now^ 

 as we are gaining greatness in the Pacific, under pretence of protecting 

 the Mosquito tribe of Indians, she has seized the key to the passage to 

 the Pacific by the lake of Nicaragua, and has changed the name of the 

 town of St. Juan de Nicaragua to Greytown. This subject is important^ 

 because the route to the Pacific, which that town commands^ is here 

 esteemed the best of all. The representative of Nicaragua;^ who is here^ 

 is in great perplexity, and may well be in doubt what to do. The opin- 

 ion in France is, I believe, adverse to the wholesale encroachments of 

 England; but France is too busy at home to think much of Central Amer- 

 ica. The Nicaragua minister would very gladly seek advice from the 

 United States. I have always made answer to him, that I am not au- 

 thorized by my government to give him advice; that I can only commu- 

 nicate to the American government whatever facts he may desire to make 

 known to it. My instructions warrant not much more. 



I have seen the agent or minister from Costa Rica. He made on me 

 a very favorable impression. He was educated in the United States. 

 His State has a boundary strife with Nicaragua; but he assured me it was 

 not his intention to place Costa Rica under tlie protection of Great Britain. 

 At the same time, he does not join with Nicaragua in claiming St. Juan 

 for that province. Instead of it, he keeps aloof and awaits the result. 



The Peruvian minister still more keeps entirely aloof from the strife. 

 I annex a copy of a note to me from Mr. Castellon, the Nicaragua minis- 

 ter here, and a copy of a note of Lord Palmerston to Mr. Castellon, of 

 February 17." * * * * * 



The accompanying copy of a letter, signed D. T. Brown, addressed to 

 this department from New York, under date the 15th January last, refers 

 to a communication, a copy of which is also enclosed, addressed to the 

 Secretary of State of the United States by the Minister for Foreign Afl^airs 

 of Costa Rica, announcing that, by a decree of the 30th of August last, 

 the Congress of that State had declared it an independent republic. 



It is understood that the dissolution of the former confederacy of Cen- 

 tral America was in a great degree occasioned by jealousies between the 

 States of Guatemala and San Salvador, arising out of differences of opinion 

 as to the powers of the federal government, aggravated by the circum- 

 stance that the seat of that government was at the city of Guatemala, 

 which the people of San Salvador supposed was an undue partiality. You 

 will be diligent in your inquiries, with a view of ascertaining whether or 

 not it is probable that those Slates will again be united. If you should 

 arrive at the conclusion that the formation of another confederacy is hope- 

 less, the expediency of recognising the independence of the several States 

 will then no longer be questionable. Indeed, this has already been 

 decided in the affirmative, in regard to Guatemala, by the mission thither 

 of both Mr. Hise and yourself; and in regard to San Salvador also, by his 

 having been empowered and instructed to conclude a treaty with the 

 governments of both those States. You are also furnished with full 

 powers to conclude treaties of commerce with them, which you will use 

 in case Mr. Hise should not have succeeded in accomplishing those 



