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Boc. No. 75. 



argument with you to shoW; by any other evidence than the doctimente 

 which you yourself have quoted, that long before Nicaragua came into 

 existence as a State, Great Britain exercised a protectorship over the 

 Mosquitos as a separate nation. But, nevertheless, even at the risk of 

 making this letter needlessly long, I will mention one or two facts which 

 clearly demonstrate that it was so. 



At what time and in what manner the connexion between Great Britain 

 and the Mosquito nation first began is not well known; but it is certain and 

 on record that, while the Duke of Albemarle was governor of Jamaica, to 

 which office he was appointed in 1687, the Mosquito Indians made a 

 formal cession of the sovereignty of their country to the King of Eng- 

 land, and that in consequence of that cession the chief of the Mosquitos 

 received his appointment as King by a commission given to him by the 

 governor of Jamaica in the name and on behalf of the King of England. 



Somewhat more than thirty years afterwards — namely, on the 25th of 

 June, 1720, as appears by the journals of the House of Assembly of Ja- 

 maica — a convention about runaway slaves was concluded between Sir 

 Nicholas Lawes, governor of Jamaica, and King Jeremy, of the Mosqui- 

 tos. From that time downwards, during the reigns of George I, 11, and 

 III, the connexion between Great Britain and Mosquito contmued unin- 

 terrupted and unimpaired; and at times during that period there were 

 British settlers established in the Mosquito territory, with a British resi- 

 dent officer appointed by the governor and council of Jamaica on behalf 

 of the British Crown to superintend those settlers; and the council of Ja- 

 maica, in a report to Governor Dallas, on the 16th of July, 1774, advert- 

 ing to the inland boundary of the Mosquito territory, mentions it as run- 

 ning along the distant mountains which bound the Spanish territory" — ■ 

 a clear proof that Mosquito was a separate State, and did not belong to 

 Spain. But the colonial records of the British government abound with 

 correspondence about the Mosquito nation, proving not only the strong 

 and constant interest taken by the British government in their welfare^ 

 but the close and intimate connexion which has uninterruptedly subsisted 

 between Great Britain and Mosquito. 



If it be established, as it clearly is, that the Mosquito territory is, and 

 for centuries has been, a separate State, distinct from the American pos- 

 sessions of Spain, there cannot be a moment's doubt that the port of 

 Grey town, at the mouth of the river St. John, belongs to, and forms part 

 of, that Mosquito territory. This can be shown by quotations from nu- 

 merous authorities, public and private, official and literary ; and so far 

 from there being any just ground to doubt that the southern extremity of 

 the Mosquito territory includes the port of Grey town, there are, on the 

 contrary, good and substantial reasons which can be alleged to show that 

 the rights of Mosquito extend southward as far as the Boca del Tore, at 

 which place the King of Mosquito has at various times exercised rights 

 of levying duties. 



Such being the state of these matters, it can scarcely be necessary for 

 me to say that her Majesty's government cannot allow the government of 

 Nicaragua to mix up its unfounded pretension to the territory of Mosquito 

 with the just claims of the British creditors upon Nicaragua; and any at- 

 tempt on the part of the Nicaraguan government to do so, would consti- 

 tute one of those cases of denial of justice and of notorious injustice 

 which you yourself admit would entitle her Majesty's government to ex- 



