Doc. No. 75. 



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objects prior to yonr arrival. If you should be of the opinion that the 

 States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras are as capable of main- 

 taining their independence and of discharging the duties of sovereignty 

 as Guatemala and San Salvador, the department is not aware of any good 

 reason why treaties may not be concluded with them also. You will 

 accordingly herewith receive full powers for that purpose. In negotiating 

 these treaties, you will in general be guided by the instructions to your 

 predecessor. It is desirable, however, that the treaty with Nicaragua 

 should contain an article similar to that in the late treaty between the 

 United States and New Grenada, securing to our citizens and their etfects 

 a free transit between the two oceans by the way of Nicaragua river and 

 lake Nicaragua or Leon, and over any canal or railroad which may here- 

 after be constructed along that route, on the same terms enjoyed by the 

 citizens of Nicaragua. In the present posture of the conflicting claims 

 respecting the Mosquito shore and the port of San Juan, it is not deemed 

 expedient to give, as a compensation for the grant of the right of way^ 

 any guaranty of the independence of the country through which the 

 canal or railroad might pass. Such a guaranty is entirely inadmissible 

 in the proposed treaty. I greatly mistake, however, the intentions of the 

 people of this country, if they would supinely allow any one of the three 

 contemplated passages to the Pacific to be directly or indirectly either 

 held or obstructed by any great maritime Power. There can be as little 

 doubt that they will deem the people of the Spanish American States the 

 rightful inheritors of all territory within their respective limits^ to which 

 Spain had a just title. 



The British claim to the port of San Juan, and, in effect, to the whole 

 Mosquito coast, is founded upon the assumption that the savage Indians 

 who inhabit that coast, who perhaps never amounted in numbers to ten 

 thousand, and are now less than five thousand, including zamboes and 

 mulattoes, were never subdued by Spain, by Central America, or by 

 Nicaragua; that, in fact, they constitute a monarchy, entitled to the privi- 

 leges, because capable of discharging the duties, of a sovereign state. 



The mere statement of such a pretension is sufficient to startle an im- 

 partial inquirer. The importance of the subject, however, and the appa- 

 rent earnestness of the British government in regard to it, require an 

 examination of the title to that region as thorough as the materials within 

 reach of this department will allow compatibly with the limits proper for 

 this communication. 



It cannot be disputed that Spain was the first European nation which 

 discovered or occupied any part of the country called Central America. 

 As long ago as the 15th September, 1543, Charles V appointed a governor 

 and captain general, to reside at Guatemala, with the same powers, over 

 the provinces between Mexico and what is now called New Grenada, as 

 were exercised in New Spain by the viceroy of that country. 



The Spaniards having at first resorted to America chiefly for mining 

 purposes, occupied those parts of the country, which they discovered and 

 subsequently held by that title, where the mines were principally situated. 



Agriculture and all other kinds of industry were dependant upon, or 

 subordinate to, mining. Those of the aborigines, therefore, who inhab- 

 ited the quarters which were remote from the mining districts, or whirdi, 

 like the Mosquito shore, deterred Europeans by an unhealthy climate^ 

 in some instances may not have been subjugated by Spain. 



