Doc. No. 75. 279 



First. That the port of San Juan de Nicaragua has been open to the 

 ^commerce of import and export ever since 1796, when the government of 

 lier Britannic Majesty, hy a solemn convention celebrated with the King of 

 Spain, renounced the protectorate which they were disposed to lend to 

 the Mosquito tribes ; that since then these Indians remained under the 

 dominion of that monarch. 



Secondly. That after the independence of Central America, not only 

 was it declared to be within the limits of this republic, but also it was 

 rehabilitated by a decree of the federal government in 1824, ratified by 

 the nationa;l Congress in 1825. 



Thirdly. That in 1826 the prospectus of the history of Guatemala, by- 

 Don Jose de Valle, was published at this court; and it was there said to 

 all the world, without ever being contradicted, that the limits of that re- 

 public were, on the west and northwest. New Spain; on the southeast 

 the province of Yeraguas; on the south the Pacific ocean, and on the 

 north the Atlantic; in an area of 26,152 leagues square, and of the shape 

 of a triangular polygon, whose base is in the line that separates it from 

 New Spain, and its vertice at Panama. 



Fourthly. That the argument deduced from the assertion that Nicara- 

 gua has not had any formal establishment at San Juan until the year 1836, 

 is not admissible to prove that it does not belong to Nicaragua, because, 

 if it was admitted as a principle, it would necessarily follow that any one 

 might occupy lands belonging to other persons, but found vacant by neg- 

 ligence Of impotence of the right owner; and that, reasoning in this man- 

 ner, England herself could not be sure of many of her territories where 

 she only holds a legal possession. 



Fifthly, That even admitting the argument, it cannot prove that the 

 Mosquitos are the ov»rners of the port: firstly, because they have not had 

 political existence until the year 1848, when the arms of her Britannic 

 Majesty put them under her protection — a protection against which I 

 have protested, inasmuch as it is prejudicial to the rights of Nicaragua. 

 Secondly, because, even if they had existed independently de facto, they 

 never possessed the port of San Juan before or after the year 1836, and in 

 this case Nicaragua has the right of the first occupant; a right that, as I 

 have before said to your excellency, must be respected, until she shall 

 have been convinced by reason, and not with arms, that her right is null 

 and unfounded. 



Sixthly. That it cannot be said, without offending Nicaragua, that her 

 government has committed an usurpation, at tlie very time when, sup- 

 ported by justice, she comes to exclaim against the violence with which 

 she has been deprived of her best possessions. And lastly, that in the 

 differences now existing between Great Britain and Nicaragua, this State 

 will never consent, however great be the confidence she has in the mod- 

 eration and equity of her Majesty's government, that they should defini- 

 tively resolve the question. For that reason I have proposed to your ex- 

 cellency, in my despatches of the 5th and 19th of March, to settle it by 

 arbiters, if no other means are found to settle it amicably. 



It results, then, from what I have said in the preceding paragraphs — 

 First. That the port of San Juan is, and has always been, the property 

 of the State of Nicaragua since the declaration of independence of Central 

 America. 



Secondly. That as such, it is comprised in the hypothec as security to 

 the loan coHtractors. 



