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Doc. No. 75. 



independent ruler of a separate territory; and he has invariably heeis ac- 

 knowledged and upheld as such by the government of Great Britain. It 

 is quite true that, by the convention of 1786 between Great Britain and 

 Spain, Great Britain agreed to withdraw British subjects from the Mos- 

 quito country; but Great Britain did not by that treaty either acknowl- 

 edge that the Mosquitos were not an independent nation^or renounce her 

 protectorship of that nation; on the contrary, the stipulations of the 

 treaty of 1T86 clearly mention the Mosquitos as a nation distinct from 

 the people living within the Spanish dominions, and that treaty contains 

 a stipulation which w^as an act of protectorship exercised by Great Britain 

 in favor of the Mosquito nation. 



In order to understand fully the treaty of 1786 it is necessary to revert 

 to the treaty of 1783. 



It appears, from the 6th article of the treaty of 1783, that, several 

 English settlements having been formed and extended upon the Spanish 

 continent, on the pretence of cutting logwood or dyeing- wood, and Great 

 Britain and Spain being desirous of preventing, as much as possible, the 

 causes of complaint and misunderstanding to which this intermixture of 

 Spanish and British wood-cutters gave rise, it was thought expedient that 

 the Spanish government should assign to British subjects, for the purpose 

 of wood cutting, a separate and sufficiently-extensive and convenient 

 district on the coast of America; and that, in consideration of such assign- 

 ment, British subjects should be restricted from forming settlements in 

 any other part of the Spanish territories in America, whether continental 

 or insular, and that all British subjects dispersed in those Spanish, 

 possessions should, within eighteen months after the exchange of the: 

 ratifications of the treaty, retire within the district specially assigned for 

 their occupation and use. 



It seems, however, that the treaty of 1783 did not sufficiently accom- 

 plish the purpose of preventing complaiuts and misunderstandings. It 

 was found by Great Britain, on the one hand, that the district on the 

 coast of Honduras assigned to British subjects, by the 6th article of the 

 treaty of 1783, was too limited in extent, and the enjoyment of it was toa 

 much narrowed by the restrictions contained in that article. It was found 

 by Spain, on the other hand, that British subjects still lingered in parts of 

 the Spanish American territories; and the Spanish government found^, 

 moreover, that there were many British subjects settled in the Mosquito 

 territory — a territory to which the treaty of 1783 did not apply, as that 

 treaty mentioned only the Spanish possessions in America, and said 

 nothing about Mosquito, and did not require that British subjects should 

 retire from Mosquito; and it seems that the revenues of Spain suffered 

 from smuggling transactions carried on by British subjects so settled iih 

 the Spanish territory and in Mosquito. 



^Vo put an end to these mutual inconveniences it was agreed, by the 

 convention of 1786, that a larger extent of territory should be assigned to 

 British subjects on the coast of Honduras, according to new boundaries 

 described in that convention ; and it was also agreed that the enlarged 

 territory so granted should be occupied by British subjects with a greater 

 latitude of enjoyment than was allowed by the restrictions of the treaty of 

 1783; and in return, in order to relieve the Spanish government from loss, 

 by smuggling, the British government again bound itself to recall British 

 subjects from the Spanish possessions in America^, and also took the new 



