Doc. No 75. 



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right that every State enjoysj by which they can even prescribe the 

 conditions on which they consent to the reception. 



Talking of the independence of the Mosquitos, Mr. Christie says that 

 this has been tacitly acknowledged in the treaty concluded with Captain 

 Loch. Such reasoning is inexact, (I am pained to say so,) because by 

 the said treaty, which is no more than an armistice, no right whatever 

 has been acknowledged to the Indians, and all the stipulations made in 

 it were in consideration of the armed intervention of her Majesty's 

 government, and as a preparatory arrangement, as it was specified in the 

 6th article, and in the ratification sent to Captain Loch, as well as in the 

 despatch addressed to your excellency on the 13th of the same month and 

 year. 



Less force still has the argument deduced from a note said to have 

 been written by Mr. Q,uijaro to the Mosquito King, on the 11th August, 

 1838; not only because it is the act of a subaltern destitute of authority , 

 and cannot affect the rights of the State, but because, in the despatches 

 exchanged with Mr. Foster in the month of September of the same year, 

 that government expressly denied the Mosquitos the capacities required 

 to form a nation, as it is constant in the documents published by order of 

 your excellency. The government of Nicaragua not only did not au- 

 thorize Quijaro to enter into relations with the Mosquitos, recognising the 

 sovereignty of their chief, but was even ignorant of the existence of such 

 letter, as well as of the document which he was forced to sign by the 

 superintendent McDonald, for which he was recompensed with a shame- 

 ful imprisonment on board the Tweed, and for which a respectful com- 

 plaint was raised to her Majesty's government by the States of Nicaragua, 

 Honduras, and Costo Rica. 



If acts of this kind were to be quoted as proof that my government has 

 reeognised the Mosquito King, and their right to the possession of San 

 Juan, Mr. Christie might also mention another document, dated on the 

 8th of October, 1842, which will one day be published, in which the 

 said superinterident of Belize made Don Jose de la Figera, successor of 

 Q^uijaro in the administration of that port, declare, by certaiii mtans, that 

 the port of San Juan belonged to Mosquitos. But the dignity of her 

 Majesty's government and the honor of Great Britain would resent at 

 such reference — authorizing attempts that merit an exemplary punish- 

 ment — not only because they are executed with manifest infringement 

 of the laws of nations, but because they create discredit, and overcast 

 the splendor of the British Crown, for the very simple reason that, to 

 support a cause that has justice on its side, those means must not be em- 

 ployed which are disapproved of by public morals, and condemned by 

 sound policy. 



Lastly, 1 hope it will be permitted to me to observe, that though, in the 

 armistice of the Tth of March of last year, it was said, by way of expla- 

 nation, that the Nicaraguan government did not know that the Mosqui- 

 tian flag was so closely connected with that of England, that an insult 

 made to it would be considered as inferred to the British flag, that was 

 not recognising the independence of Mosquitos, as Mr. Christie pretends: 

 such explanation has no other meaning but its literal expression, in the 

 second article of the aforesaid armistice, consigned there only to show 

 H. M. government that Nicaragua only wished for the cessation of hostil- 

 ities commenced by the armed force of H. M. B. in the midst of peace, 

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