Office of the Historian

Mr. Braida to Mr. Uhl.

United States Consulate,
San Juan del Norte, March 2, 1894. (Received March 16.)

Sir: I succeeded in procuring, just a few moments before the departure of a special schooner for Bluefields, a Spanish copy of Mr. H. F. Bingham’s (the British consul’s) first communication to the Nicaraguan commissioner at Bluefields. I am hardly able to have it translated in time, and therefore beg you to excuse the form of transmission.

I am, etc.,

S. C. Braida,
United States Consul.
[Inclosure.]

Mr. Bingham to General Lacayo.

British Consulate,
Bluefields, February 27, 1894.

Your Excellency: It is my duty to call your attention to the following infractions of the treaty of Managua and of the interpretation, of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria:

1.
The treaty expressly stipulates that the flag of the Mosquito Reservation shall be allowed to be flown simultaneously with that of the sovereign State, provided it is furnished with an emblem of the sovereignty of Nicaragua.
2.
That the commissioner of the supreme Government must not meddle with the internal affairs of the Mosquito Indians, or exercise any jurisdiction in the Mosquito district.
3.
The Republic of Nicaragua is not entitled to regulate the trade of the Mosquito Indians, or to levy duties on goods imported into, or exported from, the territory reserved to the Mosquito Indians. That right belongs to the Mosquito Indians.

In view, therefore, of the actual state of affairs here, I have now to request that your excellency will be good enough to comply with the stipulations of the treaty and restore the “status quo,” pending such [Page 239] other arrangements as may be made by the high contracting powers, as it is impossible to allow such serious infractions to continue, no consent having been either asked for or obtained from Her Majesty’s Government or the Mosquito Indians.

Your excellency must see that such violation of the treaty, publicly exercised before a foreign community and in the presence of a British ship of war, must, sooner or later, call for the interference on the part of the latter, should such a line of conduct be continued in.

I should be obliged if your excellency would be good enough to give me your answer at your earliest possible convenience.

I have, etc.,

H. F. Bingham,
Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul.

Conforme. Bluefields, March 1, 1894.

Carlos A. Lacayo.