"king," of the Mosquito Indians, and finally took the shape of a British protectorate, which was, however, contested both by the republics of Central America and by the United States. The threatened international complications, growing out of the seizure of Greytown by the Indians with the aid of England in 1848, led to the conclusion of the ClaytonBulwer treaty, which became the starting point for fresh disputes. In consequence of the failure of the Webster-Crampton arrangement of 1852 (because of the objections of Nicaragua) and of the Dallas-Clarendon convention of 1856, Great Britain adopted the course of direct negotiations with Nicaragua, which resulted in the conclusion of the treaty of Managua of January 28, 1860. By this treaty, says the opinion, the British protectorate over the Mosquito district was expressly given up; the sovereignty of Nicaragua was acknowledged under specified conditions and engagements; and a definite territory was reserved to the Indians within which they were to enjoy the right of self-government. This territory, the opinion declares, although it forms an integral and inseparable component of the aggregate territory of Nicaragua, is to be considered as primarily and immediately owned by the Indians as their own country, which they are indirectly prohibited from ceding to a foreign power or person. Within this territory the Mosquito Indians are, by the treaty of Managua, to enjoy the right of governing according to their own customs and regulations. This concession of selfgovernment comprehends, so the opinion affirms, the ideas of selflegislation and self-administration, as long as the Indians shall not, according to Article IV. of the treaty of Managua, agree to “absolute incorporation" into the republic and subject themselves to its general laws and regulations; it cannot extend to foreign affairs, since the Mosquito reserve forms a political and international whole with the Republic of Nicaragua. The connection of Nicaragua with the reserve may indeed, says the opinion, be shortly described in the phrase “The republic rules, but does not govern." Nicaragua, however, is entitled to hoist her flag as a sign of dominion; nor did Great Britain oppose this claim, though it formed the subject of a complaint in the memorial submitted by the Mosquito chief to the arbitrator. Nicaragua also had the right to appoint a commissioner to see that the Mosquito government did not act beyond its powers; but this commissioner must not meddle with the internal affairs of the Indians or exercise any jurisdiction in their district. On the other hand, the Indians could not be forbidden to use their old flag, but they must place in it a sign of the sovereignty of Nicaragua. As to the particular matters to which the right of self-government extended, the opinion declared that the Mosquito government must possess the right of granting licenses for the acquisition of the natural products of its territory, and of levying duties on such products; and the right of carrying on trade according to its own regulations, including the levying of duties on goods imported into and exported from the district. These rights belonged to the Mosquito Indians exclusively. With regard to Nicaragua's claim that Great Britain had no right to interfere in affairs relating to the Mosquito Indians and to the free port of Greytown, or to come forward as a complainant in the pending case, since such a proceeding would involve a reassertion of her relinquished protectorate, the opinion pronounced the contention not to be well founded. England, said the opinion, had the right to insist that the provisions of the treaty of Managua, constituting Greytown a free port, should not be merely nominal, and, if

her subjects residing in Greytown or trading thither asked her interposition against measures of Nicaragua prejudicial to the character of Greytown as a free port, there was nothing contrary to the rules of international law or to ordinary practice in her intervening. As to the affairs of the Mosquito Indians, it was true, said the opinion, that England had in the treaty of Managua acknowledged the sovereignty of Nicaragua and renounced her protectorate, but only on the condition, set forth in the treaty, of certain political and pecuniary advantages to the Indians, and she had the right to insist upon the fulfilment of those promises as well as of all other clauses of the treaty. Nicaragua was wrong in calling this an inadmissable "intervention," since pressure for the fulfilment of treaty engagements was not to be classed as an intermeddling with internal affairs, nor as an exercise of the relinquished protectorate. In conclusion, the opinion advised that the arbitrator should decline to comply with the request of Nicaragua that he should declare that the treaty of Managua was, as having accomplished its purpose, annulled in respect of the Mosquito territory, since he was empowered only to interpret the treaty and not to supersede it.

The full text of the opinion may be seen in Moore, International Arbitrations, V. 4955-4966.

The foregoing award and opinion have become obsolete as the result of the voluntary and formal incorporation of the Mosquito Indians into the Republic of Nicaragua. (For. Rel. 1894, Appendix I. 354-363; infra, pp. 250–253.)

"On the fifteenth ultimo Dr. Horacio Guzman, the minister of Nicaragua at this capital, in pursuance of instructions Mr. Bayard's in- received from his Government, left at this Department a copy of a note addressed by Mr. J. P. H. Gastrell, the British minister in Central America, to the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Nicaragua,

structions to Mr. Phelps, Nov. 23, 1888.

a copy of which I inclose herewith.

"In this note Mr. Gastrell complains that the Government of Niçaragua 'has established a post-office at Bluefields, thus intervening in the domestic affairs of the reservation;' that 'troops and a police force have been stationed, and forts, arsenals, and military posts have been established, or are about to be established, by Nicaragua' within the Mosquito Reservation, and that the Nicaraguan commissioner residing in the reservation sustains these acts. He states that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, the erection of forts, arsenals, or military posts, the establishment of post-offices by Nicaragua, or the exercise of military or police authority within the territory of the reservation can not be reconciled with the spirit of the treaty of Managua of 1860, as interpreted by the award of the Emperor of Austria. And he refers to certain questions touching the precise boundary of the reservation, as to which some dispute still exists.

"Touching the inquiry in regard to the demarkation of the boundaries of the reservation, I have no observations to offer. The matter is one in which the Government of the United States feels at least an

equal interest with that of Great Britain, inasmuch as a number of our citizens are now engaged in business within the reservation and by far the larger part of the foreign commerce of that region is at present carried on between the ports of Bluefields and New Orleans. "But with respect to the other subjects mentioned by Mr. Gastrell the case is different. . . .

"The Mosquito coast was a name bestowed in the last century upon a tract of courtry of considerable but imperfectly defined extent, stretching along the shores of the Caribbean Sea to the southward and westward of Cape Gracias à Dios, and was inhabited by a sparse population of wholly uncivilized Indians, between whom and the inhabitants of the British colony of Jamaica some relations are said to have early existed. . . . It is enough for my present purpose to point out that this Government has at all times maintained that the title to the whole of the Mosquito coast was, in the last century, vested in the Crown of Spain; that the native inhabitants were never more than a mere savage tribe, having at best only possessory rights in the region they occupied; that the sovereignty of Spain was distinctly recognized by Great Britain in the treaties concluded with the Spanish Government in 1783 and 1786; and that the rights of Spain became vested in her revolting colonies when they secured their independence.

"These views were not accepted by the British Government, which insisted upon regarding the Mosquito Indians as an independent nation, entitled to full recognition as such. The chief of the tribe was described in the British correspondence as the Mosquito King, and Great Britain was designated as his protecting ally. Acting upon this view of the case, two British frigates, on January 1, 1848, took forcible possession of the town of San Juan del Norte-subsequently known as Greytown-which had a peculiar importance to the people of the United States as being situated at the Atlantic mouth of the projected Nicaragua interoceanic canal. For upward of twelve years the protectorate of Great Britain thus established continued.

"These pretensions on the part of Great Britain excited marked interest and opposition in the United States, and together with other circumstances, became the cause of the negotiation of the ClaytonBulwer treaty of April 19, 1850. . .

"Into the irritating controversies to which this treaty gave rise I do not desire to re-enter, but it is enough to point out that the continuance of the protectorate of Great Britain over the Mosquito territory was regarded throughout by the United States as being in conflict with the provisions of that agreement.

"The arrangements to be entered into upon the cessation of this Mosquito protectorate were, however, the cause of considerable embarrassment to the British Government, as was frankly pointed out in two instructions addressed by Lord John Russell to Mr. Crampton,

under date of January 19, 1853, from which I quote the following passages:

"It is evident that since Great Britain first assumed the protection and defence of the Mosquito Indians the position of all parties has changed.

“First. Spain, instead of exercising absolute sovereignty over Central America and prohibiting all commerce on the coasts under her sway, has entirely lost her dominion over the continent from Cape Horn to Florida.

"Second. The Mosquito Indians, instead of governing their own tribe according to their own customs, furnish a name and a title to Europeans and Americans, who carry on trade at Greytown and along the coast of Mosquito according to the usages of civilized nations.

Third. Great Britain, instead of having an interest in the defense of the Mosquito Indians for the sake of rescuing part of the territory of Central America from Spanish control, and obtaining an outlet for her commerce, has no other interest in Mosquito than that which is derived from an honorable regard for her old connection with the Indian nation of Mosquito.

"Her Majesty's Government has for several years endeavored to suit its engagements to the altered circumstances of the case.

· The committee of government of Greytown are, in fact, the real power which exercises authority in that part of Central America. . What is apparent is, that the King of Mosquito exercises sovereignty over Greytown; what is real is, that he has no authority whatever, but that a committee of Europeans and Americans carry on the government at that port.

"It is the object of Her Majesty's Government to make Mosquito a reality instead of a fiction, which it has hitherto been; and provided we save our honor and credit in our treatment of the King of that country, whose title and power are, in truth, little more than nominal, it is a matter of comparative indifference to us how this object is carried out, whether by constituting Greytown as the head and pivot of the new territorial establishment which we desire to see formed, or by any other liberal and practical arrangement which may be thought preferable, on discussing the matter with the United States. . . . Neither would it consist with our notions of expediency that such States as Nicaragua, Honduras, or even Costa Rica, should obtain possession of the Mosquito territory.

"The plans of settlement thus suggested by Lord John Russell were not approved by the United States, and prolonged but fruitless negotiations were undertaken in the hope of arriving at an arrangement with respect not only to the Mosquito coast, but also to the British claims over certain islands off the coast of Honduras. Ultimately the Government of Great Britain sent Sir William Gore Ouseley as its representative to Central America, with the purpose of concluding separate agreement with the several countries interested. This mission was carried on and brought to a successful conclusion by Mr. Wyke.

"It is interesting to observe that the plan adopted in regard to the mode of dealing with the Mosquito Indians seems to have been first suggested by General Cass in a conversation with Lord Napier, which is related as follows by the latter in a dispatch to Lord Clarendon of March 12, 1857:

"General Cass then passed some reflections on the Clayton-Bulwer treaty: he had voted for it, and in doing so he believed that it abrogated all intervention on the

part of England in the Central American territory. The British Government had put a different construction on the treaty, and he regretted the vote he had given in its favor. He did not, however, pretend that the British Government should now unconditionally abandon the Mosquitos, with whom they had relations of an ancient date; it was just and consistent with the practice of the United States that those Indians should be secured in the separate possession of lands, the sale of which should be prohibited, and in the enjoyment of rights and franchises, though in a condition of dependency and protection. The British Government had already removed one impediment to the execution of the Bulwer-Clayton treaty by the cession of their claims on Ruatan. Two difficulties now remained-the frontier of Belize and the delimitation and settlement of the Mosquito tribe. If the frontier could be defined, and if the Mosquitos could be placed in the enjoyment of their territory by treaty between Great Britain and Nicaragua, in which the concessions and guaranties of the latter in favor of the Indians should be associated with the recognition of the sovereignty of Nicaragua-so I understood the general—then the Bulwer-Clayton treaty might be a permanent and satisfactory settlement between the contracting parties. The United States desired nothing else than an absolute and entire neutrality and independence of the Central American region, free from the exercise of any exclusive influence or ascendancy whatever.

"On January 28, 1860, a convention, sometimes known as the Zeledon-Wyke treaty, was signed at Managua by the representatives of Great Britain and Nicaragua. By the terms of this treaty Her Britannic Majesty, subject to the conditions and engagements specified therein, agreed to recognize as belonging to and under the sovereignty of the Republic of Nicaragua, the country theretofore occupied or claimed by the Mosquito Indians within the frontier of that Republic. The British protectorate was to cease three months after the exchange of ratifications, in order to enable Her Majesty's Government to give the necessary instructions for carrying out the stipulations of the treaty. A district, now commonly known as the Mosquito Reservation, was to be assigned to the Indians, within which they were to enjoy certain rights of local autonomy. The Republic of Nicaragua was to pay to the Indians $5,000 a year for ten years. The port of Greytown, which was not included in the Mosquito Reservation, was to be constituted a free port. And certain grants of land, if made bona fide, in the name and by the authority of the Mosquito Indians, since January 1, 1848, lying outside the reservation, were to be confirmed.

Articles II., III., and VI. of this treaty may be quoted in full as follows:

“Art. 2. A district within the territory of the Republic of Nicaragua shall be assigned to the Mosquito Indians; which district shall remain, as above stipulated, under the sovereignty of the Republic of Nicaragua. Such district shall be comprised in a line which shall begin at the mouth of the River Rama, in the Caribbean Sea; thence it shall run up the mid-course of that river to its source, and from such source proceed in a line due west to the meridian of 84° 15' longitude west from Greenwich; thence due north up the said meridian until it strikes the River Hueso, and down the mid-course of that river to its mouth in the sea, as laid down in Baily's map, at about latitude from 14 to 15 north and longitude