to go into a detail and exposition of the intrigues, exactions, and frauds practised by British agents in Central America, upon their individual authority or under the sanction of their government. If impartially recorded, with every extenuation which charity can suggest, they would present to the world one of the most disgraceful pages in history.

As we have already said, Great Britain saw, years ago, in Central America, a vast productive country, the acquisition of which would relieve her from a dependence which she was obliged against her will and policy to endure. She saw there the prospective construction of a great work which would make miraculous changes in the commerce of the world, and reduce her to the second rank of commercial states. She determined to secure it to herself; to relieve herself if possible from her dependence, and remove the danger of that commercial revolution which she so much dreaded.

In this emergency she hesitated not to avail herself of any pretext, plausible or otherwise, which might come to hand. That which offered the best prospect of success was the illegal relationship which English pirates and the piratical governor of Jamaica once maintained with the savages on the eastern shore of Central America, but more especially on that portion bearing the

indefinite geographical name of "Mosquito Shore." She well knew that any occupation of this shore by force would excite the alarm of all the American States, and involve her in serious difficulties. She, therefore, adopted a secret policy, relying on intrigue to effect ultimately what she dared not to attempt openly and at once. She affected to treat one of the savage tribes upon that coast as an independent nation, and its chief as a sovereign, an ally, under her protection. As "protector," she has also assumed to maintain what she calls his "territorial rights," which rights have the property of extending wherever and as far as suits her interests or convenience. The" King of the Mosquitos" is the stalking-horse of her aggressions. This august potentate is styled, in some portions of the correspondence which has passed upon the subject, "the brother of Queen Victoria." He is a little Sambo boy, with a precocious taste for liquor, and rejoices under the aristocratic name of "Charles Frederick Augustus," or, in the court language of Mosquito, "Quaggo."

With this preliminary exposition of British policy, and in order that the reader may fully understand the nature of British pretensions, we propose to give a succinct historical sketch of the Mosquite shore, and trace the origin and progress of its relations with England.

CENTRAL AMERICA was discovered by Columbus on his fourth voyage, 1502. He coasted along its entire eastern shores, landed, and formally took possession of the country for the crown of Spain. It was not long before the enterprising adventurers of that day turned their attention to its exploration. The object of their ambition was gold, and of this, the savage inhabitants, of the alluvial eastern shore of Central America, had but little to attract the

attention of the conquerors. The latter accordingly penetrated at once into the interior, and to the region bordering on the Pacific. Here they found nations possessing a similar semi-civilization with those of Mexico, and contrasting strongly, in their superiority, with the squalid hordes wandering among the dense, dark forests of the Atlantic coast. Here they early founded cities, and here, in time, grew up a considerable population, holding communica

contributed so largely to its wealth and revenues, was forced to remove them. The actual condition of things, in this respect, is very well described by Jo. Esquemiling, a Dutch pirate, who wrote about 1670 :"The Kings of Spain have, on several oc

erable forces, these were either broken up by the pirates who not long after infested the Spanish Main, or were abandoned by their inhabitants.

Columbus describes the tribes which he found on the coast to have common habits, and to correspond generally with Caribs of the Islands. They had no pretensions to the degree of civilization of the interior tribes, and fell below the Indians of the United States in all that indicates progress in civilization. They were rude and barbarous, living on the natural productions of the earth, by hunting and fishing. In fact they were essentially fishers, and had their haunts along the bays and creeks of the coast. Among these tribes was one afterwards called by the pirates "Mousticks," and by the Spaniards "Moscos," which name in time passed into "Mosquito," and finally came to be the designation of a considerable extent of coast.

Lord Palmerston, in his resumé of British pretensions on the Mosquito shore, addressed to the Nicaraguan government, under date of July 16, 1849, observes that "the time when, and the manner in which, the connection between Great Britain and the Mosquito coast began, is not well known."

It is however well known that, immediately after the capture of Jamaica by the English, under the administration of Cromwell, it became notoriously the head-quarters of pirates. It was from this point the Buccaneers started on their expeditions, and it was here they returned to dispose of their plunder. The English inhabitants of the island were, with scarce an exception, pirates or the accessories or patrons of pirates; the island was supported by the Buccaneers, and it is a notorious fact that the governors appointed over that island were too often associated, more or less directly, with the Buccaneer chiefs. So scandalous became the conduct of some of them, that the government, although little disposed to disturb a system which

England and France, to complain of the molestations and troubles these pirates have caused on the coast of America, even in the calm of peace. It hath always been answered,

'That such men did not commit these acts as subjects of their Majestys, and that, therefore, his Catholic Majesty might proceed against them as he should think proper The King of

France added that he had no fortress or castle thing of tribute from thence.' And the King upon Hispaniola, neither did he receive a farof England adjoyned, 'that he never gave any commission to those of Jamaica, to commit hostilities against the subjects of his Catholic Majesty.""

It is notorious that in Jamaica, Roche, Scott, Slonois, Davis (a native), Morgan, and nearly the entire body of piratical leaders originated, or were principally abetted in their enterprises. The honest pirate just quoted says, (p. 49), that, at the time of his writing, "the Spaniards finding they could gain nothing upon the pirates or diminish their numbers, resolved to lessen the number of their trading ships; but this was of no service, for the pirates finding few ships at sea, began to gather in companies and to land on the Spanish coasts, ruining cities, towns and villages, pillaging, burning, and carrying away as much as they could.”

Prominent among the leaders in this land-piracy were Scott, Mansvelt and Davis. The latter landed at San Juan de Nicaragua in the night, succeeded in entering the river and penetrating into the interior. Here he attacked the city of Grenada, committing great barbarities and procuring a great amount of plunder, with which he proceeded to Jamaica, where he was elected admiral of the pirates. In 1848, a certain Captain Lock committed

an act of no less turpidity, under the sanction of the British government, and, to complete the parallel, went also to Jamaica to receive his promotion !

In carrying on their new system of warfare, it became necessary for the pirates to have some stations, rendezvous, or places of refuge on the main land, as well as on the islands. Such were organized, and the most important of them were at Boca del Toro, Cape Gracias a Dios, and at Bleevelt, all on the coast now claimed by Great Britain as belonging to the "King of Mosquito." Indeed the royal court of that ebony monarch is held in Bleevelt, (so called from a pirate of that name,) which has now passed into Bluefields. And thus "first commenced" the intercouse between the savages of this coast, concerning which Lord Palmerston is so much in want of information.

The nature of those relations, we propose to show by extracts from the testimony of the pirates themselves; it will afterwards be seen that it was little different from that which exists at this day between the English and the Indians: one is but the prolongation of the other, under another name, and beneath the protection of the British government.

leaves," with " no other clothes than an apron tied around their middle," armed with spears "pointed with the teeth of crocodiles; living chiefly on bananas and other fruits, with fish," etc., etc.

But we have a later account of this particular station of the Freebooters, by De Lusson, who was one of the celebrated English and French piratical expedition to the Pacific coasts, in 1784-89. Upon the return of a portion of this expedition, including De Lusson, overland, through Honduras and Nicaragua, they stopped sometime at Gracias a Dios. He says:

"We arrived on the 9th at Cape Gracias á English ship at the island of Pearls. Dios, where we were obliged to wait for the

"The Cape has been inhabited for a long time by mulasters [mulattos] and negroes, both men and women, who have greatly multiplied since a Spanish ship bound from Guinea, freighted with their fathers, was lost by coming too near the shore. Those who escaped from the wreck were courteously received by the Mousticks [Mosquitos, as we find the insect mosquito called by the same name, in the same page,] who live hereabouts.

"These Indians assigned their new guests a place to grub up and build themselves cottages, etc.

ed:

"We directed our course towards Gracias a Dios, for thither resort many pirates who have friendly correspondence with the Indians there. The custom here is that, when any pirates arrive, every one has the liberty to buy himself an Indian woman at the price of a knife, an old axe, wood-bill or hatchet. By this contract, the woman is obliged to remain with the pirate all the time he stays there. She serves him, the meanwhile, with victuals of all sorts that the country affords. The pirate has also liberty to go and hunt and fish where he pleases.

Through this frequent converse with the pirates, the Indians sometimes go to sea with them, for whole years, so that many of them can speak English.”—Ib. pp. 165–168.

He continues to say that they had among them some negroes, which had been shipwrecked from a Spanish vessel; that they were generally excessively indolent, wandering up and down without knowing or caring so much as to keep their bodies from the rain, except by a few palm

66

They many times do our Freebooters a kindness, and frequently go with them, receiving their portion of the booty which is got.

"The ancient Mousticks live ten or a dozen

leagues to the windward, at a place they call Samboy and Sanibey [Sandy of the modern maps]. They are very slothful, and neither plant or sow but very little; their wives performing all the labor.

"As for their clothing, it is neither larger nor more sumptuous than that of the mulasters at the Cape. There are but few amongst them that have a fixed abode, most of them being vagabonds, and wandering along the river side, with no other house to shelter themselves in but a latarien-leaf, which they manage so that when the wind drives the rain on one side, they turn their leaf against it, behind which they lie. When they are inclined to sleep, they dig a hole in the sand, in which they put themselves."

"When these Indians go a journey, though and dogs with them, etc., etc."-De Lusson's never so short, they take their wives, children Narrative, p. 177. London, 1704.

Already the English pirates had opened

an intercourse with the Indians and the negroes that had been planted there by circumstances. They took temporary wives from among them, and grafted their blood upon the Indian stock. Already some of the natives had learned English; they went with the pirates upon their expeditions; and already English manufactures had been introduced among them, from that nest of pirates, Jamaica!

This free-and-easy relationship is even now but little altered, for Macgregor, in his statement of the Mosquito question, prepared and published under order of Parliament, a year or two since, says:—

"In the Mosquito shore a plurality of mistresses is considered no disgrace. It is no uncommon circumstance for a British subject to have one or more of these native women at different parts of the coast. They have acquired great influence through them, etc."

Roberts, an English trader, who published a work on the coast in 1827, says:"I have never known a marriage celebrated among them; these engagements are mere tacit agreements, sometimes broken by mutual consent. The children here and at Bluefields [which it will soon be seen is the royal capital,] are in general baptized by the captains of trading vessels from Jamaica, who on their annual visit to the coast perform this ceremony, with any thing but reverence, on all who have been born during their absence; and many of them are indebted to these men for more than baptism. In proof of this, I could enumerate more than a dozen acknowledged children of two of these captains! who seem to have adopted, without scruple, the Indian idea of polygamy to its fullest extent. By this licentious and immoral conduct they have, however, so identified themselves with the natives, as to obtain a sort of monopoly of the sale of goods. They have also insinuated themselves into the good graces of some of the leading men, so that their arrival is hailed with joy by all classes, as the season of festivity, revelry, christening, and licentiousness!"

These successors of the pirates hail from the same moral centre-Jamaica!

The intercourse which, as we have shown, sprung up between the Indians and the English of Jamaica, was continued in a more legitimate way, during the protracted wars that followed with Spain. It was then that the people and authorities of Jamaica had their closest intimacy with the Mosquito shore. They had the open aid of the government, in making establish

ments and exciting the Indians on the Spanish coast. When peace returned, and it was no longer prudent to connive at freebooting, they began to direct their attention to more respectable pursuits. They began to cut logwood on the coasts, from whence the Spaniards had been driven from fear of pirates, or where settlements had never existed. This trade soon became profitable, and as early as 1670 received the attention of the British government, which stipulated in its treaties with Spain, that its subjects should enjoy the liberty of cutting logwood on the Spanish coasts. The establishments which had been made at various points, were left to the general supervision of Jamaica,-that is to say, so far as any supervision was exercised over them. To these establishments the pirates, who had then gone out of favor with the government, reluctantly resorted, and after becoming weary of labor in the forests, made a compromise between honest industry and piracy, and turned smugglers. In fact, smuggling has always continued to be a weak point in the wood-cutter's character. This conduct renewed difficulties with Spain, and she expelled the English from her coasts; but some years subsequently they were permitted to return.

The government and people of Jamaica were far from being satisfied with the treaty stipulations which had been made in their favor. They desired that England should seize upon the entire coast, dwelling much upon its importance, in a commercial point awake the ambition and avarice of the govof view, and omitting nothing which might But their representations were

ernment.

without effect.

During this time, the intercourse with the Indians on the Mosquito shore was kept up; and, as stated by Macgregor,

many individual adventurers passed from time to time from Jamaica to the coast, and traded with the natives for sarsaparilla, deer-skins, and tortoise-shells." "And Lord Palmerston says that about this time (in 1687), "the Mosquito Indians made a formal cession of sovereignty of their country to the King of England, and that in consequence of this cession, the chief of the Mosquitos received his appointment as King, by a commission given him by the Governor of Jamaica in the name and on behalf of the King of England."

But Lord Palmerston forgets to state that he derives this information from the papers of Jamaica, and that the cession (if it ever was made) was made to the Duke of Albemarle, then Governor of Jamaica, and that no intelligence of the proceeding ever reached the home government. That no such proceeding was ever concurred in by the government, is clear from its subsequent acts. The alleged cession has been dragged up from the depths of the Jamaica records of intrigues, since England has undertaken a grand hunt for pretexts to justify her present aggressions. But had it been known and acknowledged by the government, it would have been invalid, for Spain had undoubted sovereignty, in conformity with all established principles, over both the coasts and the natives, as will appear in due course.

Macgregor himself states, that the "Anglo-Saxon colonists were not long in discovering profitable channels of commerce, and they soon commenced a very lucrative contraband trade with the Spanish possessions." To put a stop to this, the government of Spain organized a fleet of guarda-costas. These soon These soon came in collision with English traders, and a war ensued between the two countries. Macgregor states the case as strongly as he dares in favor of his country, in the following words: "The transient commerce on the Mosquito coast, and the logwood trade carried on by the English settlers, on the western part of the bay of Honduras, Spain thought proper so to interrupt (!!) by capturing the ships of British subjects in that part of the world, as to cause the war of 1739."

At this time the British Government seems to have seriously meditated taking possession of the Mosquito shore,―not, however, by virtue of right derived from the natives, but by force of arms. In 1749, one year after peace had been concluded between the two countries, Captain Robert Hodgson proceeded with one hundred men from Jamaica and established a fort at Black River, on the Mosquito coast. He took, or bore the title of Superintendent" of the English settlements. This step, in conjunction with other circumstances, greatly exasperated Spain, and seven years thereafter led to another and protracted war, which lasted until 1763.

By the treaty of peace concluded in that year, England not only agreed to demolish the fortifications which she had erected on the continent, without exception, but recognized the Mosquito coast to be the territory of Spain,-thus, by her own acts, declaring all her previous pretensions void. The 17th article of this treaty is as follows :—

"His Britannic Majesty shall cause to be demolished all the fortifications which his subjects shall have erected on the Bay of Honduras, and other places, of the territory of Spain, in that part of the world, within four months after the ratification of the present treaty; and his Catholic Majesty shall not permit his Britannic Majesty's subjects, or their workmen, to be disturbed or molested, under any pretence whatsoever, in their said places of cutting and loading logwood; and for this purpose they may build, without hindrance, and occupy, without interruption, the houses and magazines necessary for them, for their families and effects; and his Catholic Majesty assures to them the full enjoyment of these advantages and powers in the Spanish coasts and territories, as above stipulated, immediately after the ratification of the present treaty."

Accordingly the fortresses were demolished; but, subsequently, the adventurers in the neighborhood of Belize, having abused the privileges conceded to them, and engaged largely in smuggling, they were, in September, 1779, seized and transported out of the country, and their property confiscated. So flagrant had been their conduct, that, in the subsequent treaty with Spain, in 1783, England never so much as requested an indemnity for the property seized, on this occasion, although it was estimated to amount to upwards of $500,000.

The sole fortification which the English had, at the date of the above treaty, upon the Mosquito shore, (that at Black river), was evacuated early in 1664, and the garrison withdrawn to Jamaica.

"But," says Macgregor, "the English Government was soon convinced of the impolicy of its decision, and continued to support the settlements which had been made. From the first establishment of a superintendent on the coast," this author confesses, "the settlers perceived, from the royal instructions given to them, that although the British Government de