Doc. No. 75. 



277 



Mr. Castellon addressed to the committee on the 2Sth of February last, 

 and of their reply of the 12th of March; and the undersigned regrets to 

 learn from these letters that this important part of the mission, intrusted 

 to Mr. Castellon by the government of Nicaragua, has not yet been satis- 

 factorily concluded. 



It appears from this correspondence that Mr, Castellon has abandoned 

 some preliminary objections which had been raised by him calling in 

 ■question the validity of a notice which was published in the London 

 newspapers in March, 1828, by Mr. Zebadua, then minister of the Cen- 

 tral American republic at this court, and it appears that Mr. Castellon has 

 now informed the bondholders that he cannot make arrangements for the 

 payment of the arrears of interest due to them, until they furnish him with 

 evidence showing that their bf^nds tally with those mentioned in Mr. 

 Zebadua's notice; Mr. Castellon has also required the committee to sup- 

 port him in maintaining the claim which he has addressed to the under- 

 signed relative to the Mosquito port of Greytown, the revenues of which 

 ^port he says formed part of the. security assigned for the payment of the 

 debt. 



The undersigned begs leave to observe, that it appears to him that Mr. 

 'Castellon has not alleged, in support of these demands, any reasons suffi- 

 cient to justify him in further postponing an arrangement which ought to 

 have been made twenty years ago, for surely the bondholders are borne 

 out in stating, as they have done, that all they can be reasonably expected 

 to do in order to prove that their bonds are genuine, is, to exhibit them 

 at the time when the interest becomes payable, as the bondholders did 

 iive years ago when the republic of Costa Rica paid its proportion of the 

 debt. And with regard to the question respecting Greytown, Mr. Castel- 

 lon will recollect that the undersigned stated to him, in a letter dated 17th 

 February last, that her Majesty's government, however desirous they 

 were of cultivating the most friendly relations with the State of Nicaragua, 

 could not do anything which could be interpreted as admitting any doubt 

 that Greytown belongs exclusively to the M )squito territory. This, there- 

 fore, is a matter in regard to which the bondholders cannot exercise any 

 influence over the determination of her Majesty's government; and the 

 undersigned has to state to Mr. Castellon that it cannot be deemed just 

 that the payment of the arrears which have been long due to the British 

 bondholders should now be made to depend upon the issue of a question 

 which the government of Nicaragua has raised in opposition to the rights 

 *of the Mosquito King. And moreover, with reference to Mr. Castellon's 

 statement that the revenues of San Juan were pledged as security to the 

 loan contractors, the undersigned has to observe that the loan was raised 

 in 1825, and that it was not until the year 1836 that the government of 

 Central America attempted to effect their usurpation of this Mosquito har- 

 bor of Greytown and establish a custom-house there. 



The undersigned has the honor to renew lo Mr. Castellon the assur- 

 ances of his high consideration. 



PALMERSTON. 



Mr. Castellon, ^c, ^c, 



London, June 2S, 1849. 



It is a true eopy^ 



PRANCISCO CASTELliON. [seal.] 



