BRITISH PRETENSIONS CHALLENGED

55

James Buchanan, the United States Minister to England, in January, 1854, in a "statement for the Earl of Clarendon," discussed this question:

"At what period, then, did Great Britain renew her claims to the country of the Mosquitoes, as well as the continent in general, and the islands adjacent, without exception? It certainly was not in 1801, when, under the Treaty of Amiens, she acquired the Island of Trinidad from Spain, without any mention whatever of further acquisitions in America. It certainly was not in 1809, when she entered into a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with Spain, to resist the Emperor Napoleon in his attempt to conquer the Spanish monarchy. It certainly was not in 1814, when the commercial treaties, which had previously existed between the two powers, including, it is presumed, those of 1783 and 1786, were revised. On all these occasions there was no mention whatever of any claims of Great Britain to the Mosquito protectorate, or to any of the Spanish-American territories which she had abandoned. It was not in 1817 and 1819, when acts of the British Parliament distinctly acknowledged that the British settlement at Belize was 'not within the territory and dominion of His Majesty' but was merely a 'settlement for certain purposes, in the possession and under the protection of His Majesty;' thus evincing a determined purpose to observe with the most scrupulous good faith the treaties of 1783 and 1786 with Spain."

Steps toward the reassertion of British claims were taken, however, with or without authority, as early as 1816. The "Crown Prince" of the Mosquito Indians, George Frederick, and his half-brother, Robert, were taken by British settlers to Belize, and thence to Jamaica, to be educated and also to be subjected to British influences. Upon the death of his father, George Frederick was taken back to the Mosquito Coast in a British warship, and was formally crowned and enthroned as "King of the Mosquito Shore and Nation." He soon got killed in a drunken brawl, and was succeeded by Robert, who showed himself more friendly to the Spanish of Nicaragua than to the British, and was accordingly deposed. A negro, named George Frederick, was put into his

place, but he, proving unsatisfactory to the British, was in turn arbitrarily displaced in favour of another negro, called Robert Charles Frederick, who was taken to Belize, dressed in a British army officer's uniform, and crowned King of the Mosquito Coast. This was in April, 1825. He was then taken back to his "kingdom" for a time, but, his reign giving little satisfaction to the British, he was soon practically exiled to Belize and was kept there for the rest of his life. In his place Patrick Walker, the private secretary of the British Superintendent of Belize, was established as a sort of regent at Bluefields, where he renamed the country "Mosquitia" and established a purely British administration.

Since there seemed little prospect of extending the British power northward, the sovereignty of Mosquitia was next declared to extend southward as far as Boca del Toro, on the Chiriqui Lagoon, in Panama, and there thus loomed large a scheme of British rule in Central America from Yucatan to Darien. This scheme was promoted by the dissolution of the Central American union and by the weakness of the separate States which succeeded it. In 1835 a Legislative Assembly was formed in Belize, the name of that country was changed to "British Honduras," its boundaries were much enlarged, and it was declared to be a British possession entirely independent of any Central American State. The Bay Islands and Mosquitia were similarly declared to be independent of Honduras and Nicaragua, and the British Government was asked to recognise them as Crown Colonies.

Before acting upon these strenuous proposals of its agents, the British Government sent special commissioners to investigate matters, and also a naval force to protect its colonists and to compel Nicaragua to acknowledge the independence of Mosquitia, not as a British colony but as a native kingdom allied with Great Britain. Guatemala, Nicaragua, and New Granada protested against these acts and proposals, while Costa Rica acquiesced in them. The United States was for some time silent and inactive. It was too busy with its plans for the spoliation of Mexico to pay much

THE ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA

57

attention to what was going on so far southward. Moreover, it had not yet acquired a great territory on the Pacific Coast with which it needed to have intercourse by way of the Isthmus. Great Britain therefore went on unchecked and almost unchallenged, under Lord Palmerston's vigorous leadership. War was waged against Nicaragua, with the result that British control was established on the San Juan River, and Nicaragua was compelled formally to relinquish forever to the Mosquito King all her rights in that region. It needed only the subsequent British seizure of Tigre Island in the Bay of Fonseca, off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, to make the British conquest and control of that Isthmus complete.

It was not until matters had gone thus far that the United States was roused to action, and even then it was aroused not so much by resentment at Great Britain's aggression as by the desire and the need of securing a line of communication with those Pacific Coast possessions which it was seizing from Mexico. The best route from New York to California was by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and in order to secure the use of that route the United States made in 1846-at the beginning of the Mexican war and long before the discovery of gold in California-a treaty with the Republic of New Granada, which was destined to have a profound and far-reaching effect upon all further Isthmian Canal schemes. (See Appendix I.) Under that treaty the United States secured the exclusive right of transit across the Isthmus of Panama, including all routes in the country between the Chiriqui Lagoon and the Atrato River, and in return undertook to maintain the neutrality of such routes and of any lines of traffic which might be established on that Isthmus, and also the sovereignty of the Isthmian territory against any attack by alien powers. Under this treaty American capitalists promptly proceeded to the construction of a railroad across the Isthmus, from Aspinwall (now Colon), on the Caribbean coast, to Panama, on the Pacific Coast, which was opened for traffic in 1855, and which has ever

since proved one of the most important factors in the whole problem of interoceanic commerce.

Nor was the traditional rivalry of Nicaragua lacking. In March, 1849, New York capitalists organised the "Compania de Transito de Nicaragua," and made a contract with the Nicaraguan Government for the construction of a canal; and later in the same year Cornelius Vanderbilt and others organised the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company, absorbed into it the "Compania de Transito de Nicaragua," and in 1851, under the name of the Accessory Transit Company, established a transit route across Nicaragua, with steamboats on the river and lakes and coach and truck lines for the remainder of the way. This was for years a much frequented route of interoceanic travel, but in time was overcome and destroyed by the superior facilities of the Panama Railroad route.

Diplomacy next began to dominate the scene, and not to the advantage or the credit of America. The British seizure of the Mosquito Coast and the San Juan River, and the British designs upon the Bay of Fonseca, were so great a menace to existing American interests at Nicaragua and to all prospect of extending them that much commercial and popular indignation was excited in the United States. In response to this President Polk and his Secretary of State, James Buchanan, sent Elijah Hise in 1849 as a special envoy to Nicaragua to see what was being done and what needed to be done. Conceiving it to be his duty to uphold the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, and regarding the treaty concluded with New Granada three years before as a precedent which it would be proper to follow, Mr. Hise soon concluded a treaty with Nicaragua, giving the United States or its citi: zens the exclusive right to construct a transit way, railroad or canal, across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, and to control it and guard it with fortifications; and in return giving to Nicaragua an American guarantee of the inviolability of her territorial sovereignty.

It was substantially an application to Nicaragua of the

SQUIER'S TREATY WITH NICARAGUA

59

principles which had just been applied to Panama. But there was this radical difference between the two cases: Great Britain was not directly interested in Panama, while she was very directly interested in Nicaragua. In almost every clause Mr. Hise's treaty ignored, traversed, or defied the pretensions and ambitions of Great Britain in that region. So the Washington Government, which had no stomach for a direct conflict with a great power, flatly repudiated him and all his doings, on the ground that he had exceeded his instructions; which was true enough, seeing that he had been sent down there practically without any instructions at all. In his place, President Taylor and his Secretary of State, John M. Clayton,-who had succeeded Polk and Buchanan while Hise was in Nicaragua,-sent E. G. Squier to the Isthmus, with instructions to negotiate with Nicaragua for an "equal right of transit for all nations through a canal which should be hampered by no restrictions." In addition he was bidden to be careful "not to involve this country in any entangling alliances, or any unnecessary controversy."

Mr. Squier went to work with zeal and with discretion, and in September, 1849, secured from Nicaragua a favourable concession for a canal, in behalf of the Company already mentioned, which had been organised that year by Cornelius Vanderbilt. But he also, moved by much the same spirit that had animated Mr. Hise, made a treaty with Nicaragua, guaranteeing the neutrality of the canal and the sovereignty of Nicaragua over the territory traversed by the canal and over the ports at its terminals. This, again, was practically a challenge to Great Britain, since she was already asserting her sovereignty, or at least her control, over much of the line of the canal, and over its Caribbean terminus. The British answer came promptly. Honduras, the owner of Tigre Island in the Bay of Fonseca, was pressed for immediate payment of an old British claim, the obvious intent of Great Britain being to seize the Island in default of settlement. To prevent this, Mr. Squier hastened to make a treaty with Honduras, under which Tigre Island and certain lands on