In a subsequent letter, from Chiriqui Lagoon, dated June 21, 1740, Hodgson gives a further account of his expedition, and asks for some blank commissions for Mosquito admirals and generals, and also implores the Governor to send him out some men as a guard; for, he says, “my life is in more danger from these Indians than from the Spaniards.”
Previously to this mission of Hodgson, viz., on the 28th of October, the Spanish Embassador in London had made complaints that the incursions of the Zambos and Indians of the Mosquito Shore, on the adjacent Spanish settlements, were “at the instigation and under the protection of the English of Jamaica, who have a commerce with them, and give them in exchange for the captive Indians whom they purchase for slaves, firearms, powder, shot, and other goods, contrary to the natural rights of these people.”
The “cession” of the Mosquito Shore, thus procured by Hodgson, was followed up by occupation. Several Jamaica planters established themselves there, and Hodgson shortly afterward received the appointment of “Superintendent of the Mosquito Shore.”
In 1744 an order was issued in Council, dispatching a certain number of troops from Jamaica to the Mosquito Shore, and in 1748 another order for sending a supply of ordnance to the “new settlements” established there. In fact, everything indicated the purpose of a permanent occupation of the country. The Spaniards remonstrated, and in 1750-51 threatened a forcible expulsion of the English, whereupon Trelawney instructed Hodgson to represent to them, that “the object of keeping a superintendent among the Indians was to restrain them in their hostilities against the Spaniards!” For a time the Spaniards were deceived, and even went so far as to confer on Hodgson the title of Colonel, for the services which he professed to render to them. They, however, finally discovered his duplicity, and made arrangements to carry out their threat.
This not only alarmed the settlers, but also Governor Knowles, who had succeeded Trelawney in Jamaica. He opened a correspondence with the Captain-General of Guatemala for the cessation of hostilities, till he could hear from England, whither he wrote that the whole Mosquito affair was “a job,” and that if Hodgson were not checked or recalled, “he would involve the nation in difficulties,” and that the “Indians were so perplexed that they did not know what part to take.” A little later the Indians themselves took up arms against the English, being discontented with the treatment which they had received.
These things did not escape the notice of Spain, and had their influence in bringing about the troubles which were ended by the treaty of Paris, in 1763, by which Great Britain agreed to demolish all the fortifications which she had erected, not only on the Mosquito Shore, but in all “other places in the territory of Spain, in that part of the world.” This treaty, nevertheless, did not have the effect of entirely terminating English intrigue and aggression on the Mosquito Shore and elsewhere, and its provisions were consequently revived, and made more explicit and stringent by the subsequent treaty of 1783. This treaty provided that all the “English settlements on the Spanish continent” should be abandoned; but, on the pretext that “the Mosquito Shore was not part of the Spanish continent, but of the American continent,” the English managed to evade its provisions, and to keep up their connection with that coast, as before. This piece of duplicity led to severe reclamations on the part of Spain, which were only settled by the supplementary treaty of 1786, which stipulated that
“His Britannic Majesty’s subjects, and other colonists who have enjoyed the protection of England, shall evacuate the country of the Mosquitos, as well as the continent in general, and the islands adjacent without exception,” etc. And that “If there should still remain any persons so daring as to presume, by entering into the interior country, to obstruct the evacuation agreed upon, His Britannic Majesty, so far from affording them any succor or protection, will disavow them in the most solemn manner,” etc., etc.
The English, nevertheless, under authority of another article of this treaty, were allowed to cut logwood, within a certain accurately-defined territory on the coast of Yucatan, now known as “Belize,” or “British Honduras.” But they were strictly forbidden to make permanent establishments, erect fortifications, or organize any form of government; nor was the permission thus accorded to be construed as in any way derogating from the “sovereign territorial rights of the King of Spain.” Yet from this simple permission to cut wood, thus hedged round with solemn treaty stipulations, Great Britain, by a series of encroachments and aggressions has come to arrogate absolute sovereignty, not only over Belize and a wide expanse of adjacent territory, but also over the large islands of Roatan, Guanaja, etc., in the Bay of Honduras, which have been organized as colonies of the British crown!
From 1786 forward, Great Britain ceased to hold any open relations with the Mosquito Indians, until the decline of the power of Spain, and the loss of her American possessions. In the interval, the governors of the provinces of Central America had made various establishments on the Mosquito Shore, at Cape Gracias, and at Bluefields, and had erected a fort for the protection of the harbor of San Juan, at the mouth of the river of the same name.