Doc. No. 75. 



801 



^^ I have the honor of repeating to your excellency the assurances of the 

 high considerations with which I am your excellency's humble servant.'* 



The manifest design of Costa Rica to insure her political and commer- 

 cial relations with her Majesty's government^ by ceding a territory which 

 is claimed by Nicaragua, and the resolution of Great Britain to take pos- 

 session of that important point, ever since America was a colony of Spain, 

 have obliged me to protest solemnly against that measure in the terms 

 expressed in the foregoing note; and, therefore, I declare before the great 

 nation so worthily represented by your excellency, in the name of my 

 government, that Nicaragua Avill never consent to the cession of any por- 

 tion of its territory, the integrity of which, as well as the universal cause 

 of justice and the honor of the country, she will defend, as far as her 

 small strength will permit, in case the aforesaid cession takes place, in 

 virtue of a treaty surreptitiously celebrated; with the only intention of 

 defrauding Nicaragua. 



I hope your excellency will deign to raise this protest to the knowledge 

 of your excellency's government^ which being interested in the support 

 of justice and peace, will accept it for the most convenient purposes. 



I have the honor of making your excellency the assurances of the high 

 consideration with which I am your excellenc^^'s humble servant, 



FRAN. CASTELLON. 



To his Excellency the Minister Plenipotentiary 



of the United States of A?Jierica. 



No. 13. 



London, Juhj 12, 1S49. 



Your excellency knows as well as I do the difliculties now existing 

 between Nicaragua and Great Britain respecting the port of San Juan and 

 Mosquito territory, occupied by force on the Lst of January, 1848. Your 

 excellency knows, too, that the State of Costa Rica having also a ques- 

 tion with Nicaragua as to the limits of the two States, has accredited a 

 minister plenipo<^entiary to her Britatniic Majesty's government with the 

 object of making certain political and commercial arrangements; and that; 

 by way of inducement, it has offered to cede, as he has really ceded, by a 

 treaty, the territory in question, which extends along the southern banks 

 of the San Juan river, from its mouth in the Atlantic to the great lake of 

 Nicaragua; a cession which, it appears, is made as a comj^ensation f)r the 

 advantages that Great Britain will grant to the Costa Rica trade through 

 the aforesaid port of San Juan, which, of course, is recognised by that 

 State as belonging to Mosquito. By this act that port will remain in the 

 possession of England, as well as a great part of that important territory 

 which the hand of Providence dej>ignated as the fit point for the junction 

 of the two oceans by a canal or railway. 



Lastly, your excellency has seen the obstinacy with which his excel- 

 lency Lord Palmerston disregards the friendly measures I have proposed 

 to settle the differences, and his constant disposition to trouble and lios- 

 tilize Nicaragua, not only by refusing to do justice to her claims, but also 

 by being always making scandalous advances, without respecting the 

 rights of the State and the rules established by nature to preserve order 



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