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Doc. No. 75. 



possession." That transaction, therefore, gave the Mosquito King no 

 claim to the independence of Spain, asserted in his behalf by Great 

 Britain, or the latter any right to consider him as nnder her protection or 

 sway. It may be averred that the illicit trade between Jamaica and the 

 Spanish Main, including the Mosquito shore, led to those captures of 

 British ships by the Spanish guarda-costas which occasioned the war of 

 1739, which lasted until 1748. Macgregor says, that '^during the war, 

 the importance of the Mosquito country having iDeen understood by the 

 British government, they determined to hold it under their immediate 

 sovereignty. Consequently, in 1749 Captain Robert Hodgson, the first 

 superintendent, proceeded, with one hundred men draughted from the 

 troops at Jamaica^ and took possession of the principal station at Black 

 river, where he erected a fort, mounted it with cannon, hoisted the royal 

 flag, and kept up a garrison." From this it appears that the peace of 

 Aix-la-Chapelle, of the 18th October, 1748, had scarcely been concluded 

 when the British government took a step which, if known to his Catho- 

 lic Majesty, might by him have justly been regarded as cause for breaking 

 it. In this part of his narrative, Mr. Macgregor is silent in regard to his 

 Mosquito Majesty. It does not appear that he either objected or assented 

 to the kind of protection thus offered by the British. If this protection 

 was designed, as Mr. Macgregor confesses, to be immediate sovereignty 

 on the part of Great Britain, it is difficult to understand how this could 

 be comjpatible with the sovereignty of the Mosquito King. If, then, it 

 be allowed, for argument's sake, that the latter was extinguished by the 

 proceedings of Superintendent Hodgson, and that the British flag waved 

 over the Black river fort until the treaty of peace of 1763, what does the 

 seventeenth article of that treaty require? 



His Britannic Majesty shall cause to be demolished all the fortifica- 

 tions which his subjects shall have erected in the bay of Honduras and 

 other places of the territory of Spain, in that part of the world, four 

 months after the ratification of the present treaty. 



^^And his Catholic Majesty shall not permit his Britannic Majesty's 

 subjects, or their workmen, to be disturbed or molested, under any pre- 

 tence whatsoever, in said places, in their occupation of cutting, loading, 

 and carrying away logwood: and for this purpose they may build without 

 hinderance, and occupy without interruption, the houses and magazines 

 which are necessary for them, for their families, and for their effects; and 

 his Catholic Majesty assures to them by this article the full enjoyment of 

 those advantages and powers on the Spanish coasts and territories, as 

 above stipulated, immediately after the ratification of the present treaty." 



Macgregor acknowledges, that, pursuant to this stipulation, the British 

 government gave orders for demolishing the fort at Black river, and with- 

 drawing the garrison to Jamaica. He does not hesitate to add, however, 

 ''They were soon after convinced of the impolicy of this decision." * * 

 # * * '^And although they declined to erect immediately the country 

 into a British province, it was considered desirous to encourage and promote 

 its commerce." Confessions like these, sanctioned by such authority, 

 speak for themselves and require no comment. 



Their efl'ect in strengthening or weakening the British title to the 

 country or the claim to sovereignty set up for the Mosquito King, may 

 safely be left to the judgment of mankind. 



The British flag was thus voluntarily struck at the only part of the 



