286 Doc, No, 75. 



if the arrangement was further postponed, alleging, in support of his pre- 

 tensions, the conduct of Nicaragua, and the acquiescence of the other 

 States not only to the parts assigned to them, but also to the amount of 

 the general debt, which, according to him, is ^816,300, and interest 

 thereon since 1828, belonging to the bondholders, and $158,950, and 

 interest thereon since the same year, to the house of Reid, Irving, &- Co.; 

 making, altogether, a total of $975,450- — the share of Nicaragua being 

 $162,576 5 reals. The government of Nicaragua — seeing the obstinacy 

 of the consul, and the difficulty of comnng to a satisfactory conclusion^ 

 especially after the events of the 1st of January, 1848, when by real force 

 she was deprived of the port of San Juan de Nicaragua — determined to 

 include in the objects of my mission the affair of the debt, to see if, by 

 treating with the creditors themselves, I might come to an equitable ar- 

 rangement. In fact, on my arrival at this coast, I communicated to the 

 bondholders the object of my mission, inviting them to name a com- 

 missioner, if they found it convenient, to treat with me for the liquidation 

 and other final arrangements I was empowered to conclude, with the con- 

 ditions I have before stated, relative to the responsibility of Messrs. Bar- 

 clay & Co., for their not having complied with the articles of the contract. 



The committee answered me, on , that the bondholders had nothing 



to do with the question of responsibility, because they had only bought 

 the said bonds without investigating if the sale was made according to the 

 conditions laid down in the contract with loan contractors; and as for the 

 liquidation, they considered it unnecessary, because Mr. Zebadua, by a 

 notice which appeared in the Times on the 6th of March, 1828, had made a 

 formal recognizance of the debt, to the sum of J^l 63,000 sterling, (=^300 

 less than the sum claimed by the consul,) to which was to be added the 

 interest up to the present time. The observation to the first point I 

 thought just, and I expressed myself ready for the liquidation and final ar- 

 rangement, reserving the rights of Nicaragua against the said house of 

 Messrs. Barclay & Co. But as for the acknowledgment made by Mr. Zeba- 

 dua, I was not of the same opinion, and I answered the committee that the 

 article of the Times , though I did not doubt of its authenticity, or the 

 good faith of its editors, was not sufficient without the signature of that 

 minister ; that, besides, I judged indispensable the exhibition of the pub- 

 lic act by which the bonds were found good and according to the said 

 notice, the tenor of which is as follows: 



^' The undersigned, minister of the republic of Central America, is in- 

 structed to make .known to whom it may concern, that his government 

 some time since negotiated a loan through the agency of the late house of 

 Messrs. Barclay, Herring, Richardson, (fc Co., of this city, for the nomi- 

 nal amount of one million four hundred and twenty-one thousand pounds; 

 and that the contractors with the said house did not fulfil their engage- 

 ments touching the said loan, by which his government has suffered great 

 inconvenience and injury. Considering, however, that there was a por- 

 tion of the bonds put into circulation, and that the holders of them ought 

 not to suffer from the non-fnlfilment of the contractors, the said govern- 

 ment, therefore, wishing to give a proof of their good faith towards them, 

 has authorized the undersigned to recognise as national debt the sum of 

 one hundred and sixty-three thousand three hundred pounds, being the 

 amount of bonds in circulation, which bonds are as follows: 698 marked 

 A; 298 marked B; and 38 marked C; and in order to authenticate and 



