Doc. No. 75. 



133 



Mr. Squier to Mr. Clayton. 



,[EKtractf5.] 



[No. L] 



San Juan de Nicaragua, 



June 10, 1849. 



Sir: I have the honor of informing the department that I arrived at 

 this port in good health on the 6th instant, after a protracted passage of 

 twenty- six days. 



I have made arrai^igements to proceed up the river to-niorrow, and hope 

 to arrive at Grenada in eight days from that date, probably about the I9th 

 instant. I shall lose no time in presenting myself at Leon, and entering 

 upon the duties with which I am charged. 



Affairs here are in a very anomalous and unsettled state, and it would 

 require a longer stay than I feel myself authorized in making in order to 

 ascertain fully their exact conditioti. I shall nevertheless present what 

 information I have been able to obtain, subject to future correction. 



The harbor of San Juan is much more spacious, and altogether a better 

 one, than I had been led to anticipate from what had previously fallen 

 cinder my notice respecting it. 



The entrance is easy, atid vessels of large draught would, I am assured 

 by those qualified to judge, experience no difficulty in passing the mouth, 

 and finding within a safe and commodious anchorage. It has been rep- 

 resented that, in consequence of the peculiar make of the land, it is ex- 

 tremely difficult for ships to find the harbor. This is true to a certain 

 extent; but although the coast in the immediate vicinity is low, yet a 

 short distance back the land is high and characteristic, and cannot be 

 mistaken. With proper charts, correct sketches of the coast above the 

 harbor, and with a light-house on point Frenas or point Colorado, every 

 difficulty would be obviated. This is evident even to the unprofessional 

 observer. 



The town of San Juan consists of a collection of fifty or seventy-five 

 ipalm thatched houses, arranged with some regularity on the southwest 

 shore of the harbor. The population may be estimated at two hundred 

 inhabitants, including whites, mestizoes, samboes, negroes, and Indians. 

 It is impossible to convey an idea of their extraordinarily variegated chair- 

 acter, nor yet of the total absence of prejudice which exists among them. 

 The Indians, which are not numerous, are inferior to those of the United 

 States in personal appearance, and are infinitel^r below them in the men- 

 tal scale. A considerable number are scattered along the coast, engaged 

 in fishing for turtle, the shell of which constitute a considerable article of 

 trade. They are squalid and miserable beyond description. 



From the best of my information, the whole number of Indians belong- 

 ing to the Mosquito tribe or nation" proper does not exceed one thou- 

 sand or fifteen hundred, and it is not probable that one- tenth of these are 

 aware of the circumstance that they have a national character, and are re- 

 cognised and ^^protected" by Great Britain. It should be understood 



Harbor of Sati .Tuan. 



Town of San Juan, 



