THE CENTRAL AMERICAN QCTESTION : MOSQUITIA v. NICARAGUA.

As that part of the Central American question relating to the Mosquito territory has all at once become the most prominent feature in the case, the Filibuster Government of Nicaragua having issued a decree annexing the debateable land on the pretence that it forms a portion of the Nicara- guan republic, it is worth while to inquire what grounds there are for the claim which General Walker and his confederates have set up. Un- fortunately for those who would like to see the question settled incon- testibly, the evidence on both sides is of a somewhat unsatisfactory na- ture ; the dispute as to the independence of the Mosquitos having lasted for the last two centuries.

Bryan Edwards, in a memorial laid before the English Government in 1773, entitled " Some Account of the British Settlements on the Mos- quito Shore," after adverting to the voluntary allegiance tendered by the inhabitants of that coast about the time of the conquest of Jamaica, makes the following statement regarding the Mosquito Indians.

" Their submission to the sovereignty of Great Britain was not only so- lemnly renewed by the Mosquito King in person to the Duke of Albemarle, (son of General Monk,) when Governor of Jamaica, but it is a fact not to be denied, that they have made it a point to give to almost every succeeding Governor fresh assurances of their allegiance ; in consequence of which, Great Britain did for upwards of a century afford them protection, and has for many years constantly distributed annual presents among their native chieftains. In the year 1741, a regular establishment of troops, under the cOmmand of a Suivenntendent, was fixed there ; and an administration of justice by magistrates and courts of quarter-session was constituted in 1744, which continued to subsist under the auspices of Government till the last peace, (the peace of Paris in l763) when the troops and military stores were removed, and orders given to dismount the guns and dismantle the fortifications whMh our people had built for the protection of themselves and of their faithful friendly allies the native Indians, who were now to be exposed. to the implacable resentment of a power from which they had everything to dread, and by which, but for our protection, they had long ago been exterminated. These impolitic orders were evidently grounded on a most unaccountable notion that the Mosquito shore was part of the Bay of Honduras ; an astonishing instance of inattention, to call it by no harsher name. As it is no part of the Bay of Honduras, so neither is it any part of the territory of Spain in that part of the world ; for, admitting the Spanish claim of prediscovery of the whole of this coast, aided as it was by the bene- volent grant of Pope Alexander VI., and admitting even (which I have shown is not the ease) that the subjects of England had no intercourse with the country previous to the conclusion of the American treaty in 1670, will it be pretended in a nation so enlightened as ours, that circumstances of this kind are sufficient to justify the pretensions of the Spanish Crown to enslave a—f7ve people, who, if not the subjects of Great Britain, are, by the laws of God and the unerring dictates of human nature, free at this day to yield allegiance to what power they please ? "

In corroboration of this statement, we find the " Mosquitos " de- scribed, in Jeffrey's "Spanish West Indies," published in 1762, as "a small nation of Indians never conquered by the Spaniards ; the country being so situated as to render any attempts against them impracticable : for they are surrounded on all sides by land with morasses or inacces- sible mountains, and by sea with shoals and rocks ; besides, they have such an implacable hatred to the Spaniards that they would never have any correspondence with them." It must be remembered, however, that war with Spain was declared in 1762, the year in which this was written; so that some deduction must be made from the statement re- garding the "implacable hatred" which the Mosquitos bore to Spain. In 1785, the King of Spain, writing to the Governor-General of Guate- mala, as Central America was then called, refers to the Mosquitos in the following terms, as having submitted to the Spanish yoke.

"The Mosquito Indians, situated in the provinces of Guatemala, have been vassals of the Crown of Spain since the conquest and reduction of these dominions ; and, notwithstanding that some time since they abetted certain adventurers in making transitory establishments among them, they have since repeatedly solicited to return to the Spanish dominion, and, finally, the reconciliation which they asked for has been benignantly con- ceded."

In 1786 a treaty was concluded between Great Britain and Spain ; by the 14th article of which "his Catholic Majesty, prompted solely by mo- tives of humanity, promises to the King of England, that he will not exercise any act of severity against the Mosquitos, inhabiting in part the countries which are to be evacuated by virtue of the present convention, on account of the connexions which may have subsisted between the said Indians and the English." By another clause in the same treaty, the King of Spain grants to England the privilege of cutting logwood and mahogany in the Honduras territory, but jealously guards against any act on the part of the English which may interfere with the sovereign rights of Spain. But Greytown is the most important part of the territory in dispute ; and it was constituted a port of entry, by the Spanish Government, in 1796, under its ancient name of San Juan de Nicaragua. This, however, is not deemed of much importance by Lord Palmerston ; who speaks in the most confident terms as to the right of the Mosquitos to

town having existed from a very remote period. In a despatch to Mr. Castillon, Minister of Nicaragua, dated 16th July 1849, his Lordship says- " 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 San Juan belongs to and forms part of the Mosquito territory. This can be shown by quotations from numerous au- thorities, public and private, official and Ierary • and so far from there being any. just ground to doubt that the Southern extremity of the Mosquito territory includes the port of Greytonn, there are, on the contrary, vod and substantial reasons which can be alleged to show that the rights of the the K. of Mosquito has at various times exercised rights by levying Mosq_uiintoes extend Southward as for as the Boca .del Toro,, at which place

duties."

Nothing can be more positive than this statement. The only draw- back is the want of information as to where the "numerous authorities" are to be found on which Lord Palmerston founds the Mosquito claim. It is, however, satisfactory to find from Lord John Russell's letter to Mr. Crampton, dated 19th January 1863, that there is no disposition on the part of the Foreign Office to press the King of Mosquito's claim to an undue length. Whatever may have been the state of affairs in former times—respecting which there is room for wide diversities of opinion- his Lordship recognizes the fact that the King of Mosquito no longer exercises any real sovereignty at Greytown, but that the Committee of Europeans and Americans carry on the Government at that port." What he suggested, with a view to the settlement of the question, was that Greytown should be declared a free and independent port, under the joint protection of Great Britain and the United States. The history of Greytown during the last two years has been rather an interesting one. The first event of much importance was the bom- bardment of the town by an American man-of-war, in the summer of 1854. The early accounts of this extraordinary outrage represented it as the act of Captain Hollins, of the Cyane ship-of-war, who was said to have acted on his own responsibility. From what has transpired within the last few months, however, it appears that the affair was deliberately planned by certain parties in New York, with a view to promote the aggressive schemes of a rival transit company. A letter from Mr. White, of the New York and California Steam-ship line vii Nicaragua, to Mr. Fabens, the United States Consul at Greytown, has appeared in the New York papers, in which the destruction of the place is foretold on June 16, nearly a month before it happened. After stating that Captain Hollins has received instructions to show no mercy, Mr. White says, "If the scoundrels are soundly punished, we can take possession, and build it up as a business place, put in our own officers, transfer the jurisdiction, and you know the rest." A more audacious ease of filibusterism than this would be hard to find.

A few weeks after Mr. White had sent off his programme to Mr. Consul Fabens, the Cyane ship-of-war made its appearance before Grey- town. On the 13th of July, Captain Hollins sent a message to the au- thorities, demanding the payment of 24,000 dollars as compensation for an insult which Mr. Borland, the Minister of the United States, had re- ceived during a riot, partly caused by the said Minister taking the part of a murderer. Only a few hours were allowed for the people of Grey- town to make up their minds. At the end of that time, the brave Cap- tain Hollins opened fire upon the defenceless town, which was speedily laid in ruins. The whole of the valuable property in the warehouses of this port-the emporium between Nicaragua and Costa Rica-was de- !greyed by the flames. The French, English, Spanish, German, and American merchants, have applied to the United States Government for compensation ; but there does not seem much readiness to take up their ease. President Pierce, in his last message but one, spoke of the affair at Greytown as if it had been a just punishment inflicted on what he chose to call a camp of savages. M. Barruel de Beauvert, as representa- tive of the French residents in Greytown, presented a memorial to Con- gress last November, in which he gave a plain narrative of the outrage committed on the defenceless inhabitants, and, after adverting to the de- struction of property, expressed his confident belief that the American Government "will avow the mistake into which it has been so fatally plunged," and " will remove by an act of complete and general appro- priation that dark shadow which, since the 13th of July 1854, has ob- scured the stars of the Union." But the proposal to vote a million to the sufferers at Grey-town is not likely to meet with much favour, seeing that it would necessarily provoke a discussion in Congress on the secret policy which led to the disgraceful transaction a result which neither the one party nor the other seems willing to risk.

The next event in the history, of Greytown was the arrival of an Ameri- can adventurer named Colonel Kinney, in August 1855, as the head of an extensive colonization scheme. Kinney is said to have been very suc- cessful in projects of a similar kind in Texas, and great hopes were therefore entertained of what he would do in Central America. According to the American papers, he has completed the purchase of a region large enough for a principality. One part of it, for which he is said to have given 100,000 dollars, consists of a portion of the Mosguito territory, extending along the sea-coast 350 miles. Having cast in his lot with the people of Greytown, of which he has been appointed Governor, he has undertaken the advocacy of the claims of the sufferers by the bom- bardment, in a weekly newspaper called the Central American.

Since the establishment of General Walker in Nicaragua, which took place a few weeks after Colonel Kinney's arrival in Greytown, several attempts have been made by the latter to come to an amicable arrange- ment with the Filibuster Government. The last of these, of which we have any account, was in the early part of February, when Colonel Kin- ney paid a visit to Granada, and had an interview with President Rivas, who seemed to look favourably upon his proposal. General Walker, however, would not listen to any proposition founded on the claims of the Mosquito people to an independent existence. He contended that the territory held by Kinney belonged to Nicaragua, and that his claim was an act of rebellion against the sovereign republic. Kinney, in reply, said he had expended 100,000 dollars on the land. It was his by right of purchase and it had cost him too much for him to surrender it quietly. Walker still insisted that the claim was void, as the land belonged to Nicaragua ; and thus the interview ended. Next day Colonel Kinney was ordered off to San Juan del Norte, (Greytown,) by command of General Walker.

The following decree relating to the disputed territory was published by the Nicaraguan Government a few hours before the arrival of Colonel Kinney in Granada.

"The Supreme Executive Power to the People-

" The title of Nicaragua to the territory called Mosquito, including the port of San Juan del Norte, being notorious and incontestible and whereas H. L. Kinney pretends in virtue of a purchase from Sheppard and Raley, to be owner of the said 'territories the property of this Republic ; in the ex- ercise of its faculties decrees-

" The rights which the said Kinney-pretends to claim in and upon the said territory are null, void, and of no effect, the same being the property of the Republic of Nicaragua ; and, consequently, every alienation made by the said Kinney is also void. "Art. 2. The said Sheppard, Haley, and Kinney, and all other persons claiming this unlawful acquisition, are declared guilty of an attempt against the integrity of Central America. "Art. 3. The Minister of Relations and the Interior is charged with the publication, execution, and fulfilment of this decree.

"Granada, Feb. 8, 1856. Pare.mio RIVAS."

Of course Colonel Kinney will not pay much heed to this decree unless the Filibuster Government can send an army to put it in force. In the Central American newspaper of March 3, a letter by him states that the grant of a portion of the Mosquito territory to Messrs. Hely and Shop-

pard, from whom he purchased the land he now holds, has been in ex- istence since 1839, and has never been questioned by the Nicaraguan Governing* during all that time. If that republic could. have established her claim to the land in question, he thinks she would not have allowed it to lie dormant till now.

Meanwhile, affairs are coming to a crisis with General Walker. The Panama Herald of March 5 states that the pay of his army of 800 men has been reduced from 100 to 25 dollars per month. Even at this re- duced rate, he is said to be at a loss for funds to meet his weekly ex- penditure; at least such is the explanation given by some of the papers for his having annulled the contract of the Accessory Transit Company, and thereby, for the time, interrupted the traffic across the Isthmus by the Nicaragua route. A company in San Francisco is said to have ad- vanced a large sum to General Walker to carry on the game, with an understanding that he would give them an equivalent. Those funds are now exhausted, we are told ; and his only chance of obtaining a new loan is by selling the right of transit to a new company.

The 'F'ngliih residents at Greytown, feeling rather uneasy at the pre- sent aspect of affairs, have applied to the British Government for pro- tection; and the latest accounts from the West Indies are, that the Bri- tish ship-of-war Powerful had arrived at Havana, with orders to unite all the English and French forces in the Mexican Gulf and start imme- diately for Nicaragua.