Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress
Mr. Dickinson to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I have the honor herewith to hand you a copy of a despatch from the Costa Rican government to Mr. C. N. Riotte, as well as my reply to the same.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Mr. Volio to Mr. Riotte.
Sir: The Central American Transit Company of Nicaragua, instituted by a contract on the 10th of November, 1863, has recently determined, as the government of the republic has just been informed, to turn the waters of the Colorado, now flowing within Costa Rican territory, into the lower San Juan, thus restoring the current to its former channel, in order to deepen the river at that point, and restore the port by means of the greater volume and velocity of the waters of the San Juan.
Although the said company declares the new work will not obstruct or damage the Colorado, yet it is scarcely credible when its waters will go to increase the San Juan, and destroy the natural and legal title that Costa Rica has acquired by gradual accession to those streams. Hard as it is to credit a fact which in its nature belongs to crimes against the integrity and sovereignty of the republic, the government, jealous of its rights and its obligation to maintain them in their integrity, has determined to send a commissioner to inspect the Colorado and its tributaries, and, if works are constructing to damage those rivers, to warn those engaged, and to expel them by force if they do not yield to reason.
As your interference might induce the company to desist in their contemplated project, the President of the republic has instructed me to inform you of the facts, as well as of all that has been done in the case, and that he is determined to repel any unauthorized trespass upon the territory of the republic.
In thus complying with the President’s request I embrace the occasion to offer you the assurances of my distinguished consideration.
Mr. C. N. Riotte.
Mr. Dickinson to Mr. Riotte.
Dear Sir: Your communication, with its enclosure of a copy of a despatch from the Costa Rican government to your honor, has just been received, and I hasten to send a translation of the same to the president and general agent of the Central American Transit Company, as well as a copy to the Nicaraguan government.
Without stopping to discuss the questions at length which the Costa Rican government have presented for your consideration, I will briefly call your attention to a few of the prominent facts and circumstances as they exist within the recollection of every man acquainted with the navigation of the San Juan that has arrived to forty years of age.
Within the last twenty years there were from twenty to twenty-three feet of water on the bar at the entrance to the harbor of San Juan del Norte; at this time there are not more than eight to ten feet. At that time there was not more than one-tenth as much water discharged [Page 542] by the Colorado as by the lower San Juan; at this time there is, by actual measurement, eleven-twelfths of the water discharged through the Colorado. The San Juan has been known as a navigable river ever since the settlement of the country; the Colorado has never been used for any purpose, and up to this moment is a desolate, barren waste of water, with scarcely an Indian canoe to be seen once a month.
Within the recollection of men now living the Colorado was not more than from twenty to thirty yards in width at its divergence; at this moment it is more than two hundred yards, and its depth has been proportionably increased, and in the same ratio which the Colorado has been increased the lower San Juan has been diminished and the harbor injured by its decreasing, and the bar made impassable for everything except small crafts, whereas twenty years since vessels of the largest class were admissible; nor is this all, as every heavy freshet increases the waters of the Colorado.
These facts seem to be well understood by his excellency J. Volio, the minister of foreign relations, as he distinctly avows that the company have decided to restore the waters of the “Colorado to their old drain.” The company wants nothing more, nor do I believe they want more than the one-half of that to restore the harbor and make a good and safe navigation. It would seem that his excellency the minister of foreign relations rests his case on the facts that the company was restoring the waters under their contract of November 10, 1863, as though the company had not acquired all the rights to the waters of the San Juan that belonged to Nicaragua, for the purposes of navigation, by the treaty of the 15th of April, 1858, between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, which ceded to Costa Rica a portion of her territory. Costa Rica was bounded by the right bank of the river San Juan. Costa Rica acquired no jurisdiction over the waters of San Juan, but only the free use for navigation. That I shall be better understood I will quote the 6th section of the boundary treaty between the two republics of the 15th of April, 1858, which distinctly shows the exclusive control which Nicaragua reserved to herself over the waters of said river, when she permitted Costa Rica to extend the boundary line then existing between the two countries up to the right bank of the San Juan and along a portion of said river:
“Article 6. The republic of Nicaragua shall have the exclusive domain and fullest command upon the river San Juan, from its headwaters on the lake to its mouth on the Atlantic; but the republic of Costa Rica shall enjoy upon said waters the perpetual right of free navigation from the aforesaid mouth of said river up to a point within three English miles before arriving at Castillo Viejo, for the purposes of commerce either with Nicaragua or with the interior of Costa Rica, by way of the rivers San Carlos or Sarapigui, or by any other routes proceeding from that part of the margin of the river San Juan which it shall be decided corresponds (belongs) to Costa Rica. The vessels of both countries may, without distinction, come alongside of the banks of the river where the navigation is common without paying any class of tax, unless the same shall be empowered by common accord by both republics.”
Now permit me to call your attention for one moment to the Colorado river, that Costa Rica seems so tenacious of. It is a river having for its source the outlet of Lakes Managua and Nicaragua, commonly known as the San Juan river. It not only has its source from this river, but from floods down to showers, and its growth from year to year, if not prevented by artificial means, will finally dry up the lower San Juan. It runs through an unbroken wilderness to the Atlantic, where it empties into an open roadstead, where there is not, nor ever has been, nor is there likely ever to be, water enough for vessels of sufficient size for conveying passengers, without being transferred from ocean to river steamers by means of small crafts, as they must be, where they are liable with scarcely a moment’s notice to severe gales and heavy surfs.
I hardly need to say to one so familiar with the policy of our government as my colleague is, that while they protect and defend their citizens anywhere and everywhere in all legitimate business, she is not unmindful of her duties towards other governments, and will not stand patiently by and see her citizens committing overt acts that may draw her into controversy with other powers. If there is any one obligation stronger than another that a government is under to her citizens, as well as those of the nations of the earth, it is to protect their lives and property in the hands of her common carriers, created by themselves, which entitles the common carrier to look to his government for just and fair treatment,
I have sent copies of the despatch from the minister of foreign relations of Costa Rica to the parties interested, with but little expectation that it will have the effect to cause the Central American Transit Company to desist from their present purpose of restoring a portion of the waters that flow through the Colorado, first, for the reason that the Nicaraguan government reserved to herself the exclusive jurisdiction over the waters of the San Juan in the same treaty in which she permitted the republic of Costa Rica to extend her boundary up to the right bank of said river; secondly, for the reason that the company can restore and prevent these waters from escaping from the San Juan without touching the right bank of said river; thirdly, if it was an open question and the same amount of water had flowed through the Colorado in the past as at present, I hardly think, in this enlightened day and age of the world, that intelligent and impartial arbitrators would permit Costa Rica to seal up hermetically her Colorado from the use of mankind; and I am not prepared to believe that Costa Rica could afford, if left to herself, to force the thousands and millions of passengers that [Page 543] will pass over this isthmus to be re-shipped on an open roadstead, at the great hazard of life and property that would attend the same.
These are a few of the prominent facts which Costa Rica proposes to enforce by arms, if she fails by persuasion, viz: to prevent a company from maintaining a navigation which by implication Nicaragua was bound by the same treaty to keep up, as both governments bound themselves per consideration that Costa Rica should enjoy upon the river San Juan the perpetual right of free navigation.
Your friend and colleague,
Hon. C. N. Riotte, Minister Resident at Costa Rica.