234 



Doc. No. 75. 



June 1, 1849. 



P. S. — Mr. Wheelwright, of the British company of steamers on the Pa- 

 cific, made an arrangement with M. Castellon, on the ]6th of February, 

 1849, to send a company of engineers, then at Lima or Valparaiso, to make a 

 survey of the river, lake, and isthmus of Micaragua. The contract con- 

 tained a conditional grant of the exclusive right to construct a railway or 

 canal connecting the two oceans. Mr. Wheelwright left England on the 

 17th of February for Nicaragua to obtain the ratification of this contract 

 by the government of Nicaragua. 



On Mr. Castellon's return, I will try to send you a copy of the contract. 



Mr. Bancroft to Mr, Clayton. 

 [Extract.] 



United States Legation, 



London, June 29, 1849. 



^ ^ ^ ^ 



-yj^ 'W 



The Mosquito affair is of much more importance, and yet there [ am 

 sure we shall succeed if we proceed rightly. I have already talked on the 

 subject with several of the ministers, and have asked of Lord Palmerston 

 an interview. He is in no haste to converse about Nicaragua, pardy 

 because he is at work night and day preparing for publication an immense 

 mass of papers on the affairs of northern Italy, and for that end shuns 

 every interruption. The minister of Nicaragua has returned to London, 

 and assures me that he will remain firm. 



Mr. Ba?icroft to Mr. Clayton. 



[No. 143.] United States Legation, 



Londoti, August, 1849. 



Sir: Believing that the time had now arrived when it became proper 

 on the part of the President of the United States to present his views to 

 the British government on the subject of its occupation of the port of San 

 Juan de Nicaragua, I was engaged in finishing the paper when I received 

 your letter of recall. Sensible of the confidence reposed in me by your 

 despatch No. 55 and its enclosures, I yet deem it now not proper to pre- 

 sent the paper which I had prepared after much consideration; and I now 

 confine myself to a concise report of the present state of the business. 



During the debates in the House of Commons on the miscellaneous 

 estimates, an appropriation for a charge, growing out of the crowning at 

 Jamaica of the so-called King of the Mosquitos, was asked for, and voted 

 amidst laughter. When a member seriously objected that this interfer- 

 ence might give umbrage to the United States, the House perceived that 

 the subject was one which merited serious consideration. 



Your directions to me were to proceed in the first instance by conver- 

 sation. I have done so, governing myself by the language and spirit of 



