341 
Chap. XXI—B.P.] SHARP WORK. 
in a most satisfactory manner. Captain Loch himself 
then proceeded to Granada and made his own terms. 
The Nicaraguan Commissioners met him on the 5th, 
and finding him firm and decided, signed the treaty, 
which was agreed to the same evening hy the Con¬ 
stituent Assembly at Managua. During the night the 
prisoners were returned with the stolen flags of Mos¬ 
quito, and the ratified treaty followed early the next 
morning (8th). Captain Loch and his twenty or thirty 
officers and men left Granada the same evening, arrived 
at San Carlos on the 11th, and re-embarked on board 
their ships at Greytown on the 13th, finally leaving 
for Jamaica the following day. 
The reader will observe that the Spanish American 
can act promptly on occasion, in spite of the national 
predilection for manana and poco tiempo. 
Those who know the country, the nature of the 
people, the extreme difficulty of ascending a tortuous 
river against a strong current, and no less than five 
dangerous rapids, can well appreciate this spirited 
vindication of national honour; indeed the expedi¬ 
tion will compare favourably with that lately under¬ 
taken in Abyssinia for a somewhat similar object, 
which would have been carried out in an equally 
prompt, energetic, and economical manner, had the 
Lord Palmerston of 1848 been in power. 
Captain Loch’s action settled the status of the 
Mosquito question, which was now, under American 
influence, removed to the region of “ diplomacy and 
intrigue,” the nature of which will be best understood 
by the following extracts :— 
