294 Doc. No. 75. 



Nicaragua, but also because the national representation was more com- 

 forming to my wishes, to which Costa Rica might assist to procure a re- 

 union; therefore I endeavored to orgauize a federal government, whicb 

 created the pact of the 27th July, 1842, and was to resolve on the re- 

 forms then in need, and to which Costa Rica proposed to adhere on the 

 eth December, 1844. 



The affair then was still pending when I quitted the ministry to take 

 charge of a mission that had been intrusted to me to the courts of 

 France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, England, and the United States. But 

 while I was in Paris a war broke out between Honduras, San Salvador^ 

 and Nicaragua, changing altogether the aspect of affairs in this last 

 State; and Costa Rica, profiting of this change, sent persons of confi- 

 dence to the new government, with the object of settling the differences- 

 respecting Nicoya, and to celebrate a treaty for navigation of the river 

 San Juan. This commission was cordially received by Nicaragua; and 

 the individuals named to treat with them were persons who inspired 

 great confidence to the government of Costa Rica; they were Seiiores. 

 Don Juan J. Zabada and Don Laureano Pineda. But in spite of these 

 happy circumstances the affair did not change of aspect. The commis- 

 sion from Costa Rica tenaciously sustained the old pretensions without 

 alleging any substantial reasons for it. (Nota.) Nevertheless, considering 

 the difficult circumstances of the time, three treaties were signed on the 

 12th and 14th of December, 1846, which were to the following purpose:. 

 The first was a treaty of friendship, fraternity, and alliance between the 

 two States, for the mutual defence in case the integrity of the territory of 

 Nicaragua was attacked on the side of the Atlantic, and to endeavor ta 

 re-estabhsh the national union of Central America by means of a general 

 government that would watch over the security and respectability in and 

 out of the country: the second, to arrange the navigation of the San 

 Juan river. In this treaty it was stipulated, firstly, that the commerce 

 of Costa Rica should be made by that river, under the guarantee of the 

 laws of Nicaragua, paying at the port the tonnage duty and storage estab- 

 lished by the tariff; secondly, two reals per quintal of coffee, or any other 

 produce shipped for foreign markets^ and four per cent, for thetransitof goods 

 for the consumption of that State; and that Costa Rica could establish a cus- 

 tom-house at the place called Saii Alfonso, on the river Serapique, for the 

 entrance of those goods under certain conditions expressed in the articles 

 4th, 5th, and 6th; thirdly, to arrange the tariffs of each State with more 

 coiiformity and better principles of economy, until both shall be equal in 

 all its parts; fourthly, in an additional article they agree to exempt from 

 duty all kind of provisions that may be imported in San Alfonso, which 

 town it is in the interest of both governments to promote, and make it 

 attractive to the settlers: to name the judges for a court of justice to be 

 Crftablished there. The object of the third treaty was to settle the differ- 

 ences relative to the limits of both States,-; and therefore it was stipulated 

 " that the question respecting the boundary on the side of San JXmm 

 should remain undecided (thus the treaty says) until the said States 

 shall have chosen a pacific arbiter to solve it amicably; that until tlie 

 said differences shall have been legally arranged, either of the two States 

 might occupy the point or points that she might require on the side of 

 the Atlantic and the neighboring country, giving previous notice to th& 

 other gcyernment^. which^ as a friend and sister State^, could not oppose 



