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Doc. No. 75. 



the certainty that our questions may be settled without any foreign inter- 

 vention; and he has not replied to me, (communications dated 22d of 

 January last, 9th of February last,) although he has verbally stated to me 

 that he would not answer, because / do fiot give the title of republic to 

 the State of Costa Rica; and that with regard to arrangements, he would 

 only accept my proposal in the event of our submitting to the decision of 

 the government of her Briiamiic Majesty. 



At the same time, I forwarded to Lord Palmerston, on the of Jan- 

 uary, a copy of the protest which the commissioner for Nicaragua made 

 on the 23d of September, informing him that its object was to prevent 

 the rights of Nicaragua being in any uay affected in the arrangements 

 which mis; /it be made vnth Mr, Molina. 



I have obtained no answer; and although I have not been able to ascer- 

 tain the actual state of the relations between Mr. Molina and Lor-i Pal- 

 merston, I am of opinion that they are closer every day, for various rea- 

 sons: the fiist is, that when Mr. Christie announced from San Juan that 

 the government of Nicaragua had declared war against Costa Rica, Lord 

 Palmerston asked for explanations from me, through the medium of Mr. 

 Poster, with respect to this event, stating that the government of her 

 Britannic Majesty would not look with indifference upon such an act after 

 the relations it had established in the new republic. I hereupon replied 

 to him, that I had no official information of the event which he spoke 

 of, and that I was sure that the questions between the two States would 

 be settled amicably." The second reason is, that Mr. Christie, under 

 instructions from the same ministry, has fixed as the boundary line with 

 Mosquito the '■^ Machuca torrent^'''' thirty miles above the junction of 

 the Serapique; and which limitation tacitly involves (he question of Costa 

 Rica, (attention!) because the very fact of so doing cuts off Nicaragua 

 from the possessions which lie within those limits on both sides of the 

 river San Juan. Third, the solemn reception given to Mr. Christie, in his 

 character of British consul at Mosquitos, noth withstanding the opposition 

 of Nicaragua; a reception which Lord Palmerston has availed of for his 

 interference in the case related in the first of the reasons which 1 * * 



The fourth is, that the minister Molina has accepted the new denomina- 

 tion of Grey town," which Lord Palmerston has given to port of San Juan 

 de Nicaragua. The fifth is, that a treaty of friendship and alliance is 

 actually under discussion; and I, on my part, having invited him not to 

 conclude anything prior to the arrangements which are to be made with 

 the intervention of the republic of the United States, he informed me (con- 

 fidentially) that I had three months to act in, in this matter, as his labors 

 were so far advanced that it was impossible for him to draw back or delay 

 the conclusion any longer time. The sixth and last is, that the road from 

 San Jose de Costa Rica to Serapique, and from the latter place to San 

 Juan, is already treated of, with all activity, by some British subjects 

 who are under the protection of Mr. Christie, pledging their private in- 

 terests. All these reasons appear to prove clearly that the relations be- 

 tween the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of her Britannic Majesty and the 

 State of Costa Rica are already established in a manner threatening to 

 Nicaragua and dangerous to the other States of Central America; not- 

 withstanding it is the province of the government of the American Union, 

 which on its side is intimately bound up with New Grenada and Nica- 

 ragua^ to prevent Costa Rica from thus compromising the rights of both^ 



