[XV-39] Independent of £1,425 paid for her proportion of Cent. Am. indebtedness to Finlay, Hodgson, & Co. of London. Hond., Gaceta Ofic., Jan. 30, 1853.
[XV-40] The British seized Roatan June 3, 1830, driving away the small Central American garrison. Similar attempts have been made since 1743 by British subjects, though unsuccessfully. The seizure of 1830 lasted only a short time, having been disallowed by the British government. Crowe's Gospel, 212; Montúfar, Reseña Hist., iii. 424-7; iv. 71-5.
[XV-41] 'Whose territorial right is indisputable,' he alleged. He based his action on the treaty of April 19, 1850, between the U. S. and Great Britain, under which neither power was to have colonies or settlements in Central America. The U. S. took part in defence of Honduras' rights and overthrew the British pretensions. Squier's Cent. Am., 621-6, 740-8; Democratic Rev., xxx. 544-52.
[XV-42] Under a decree of the superintendent of Belize. The comandante of Trujillo, by order of his government, protested against the occupation Sept. 13, 1852. Hond., Gaceta Ofic., Dec. 15, 1852; El Siglo, Jan. 1, 1853.
[XV-43] Art. 1. Great Britain recognized the islands to belong to Hond. The latter pledged herself not to cede them to any other nation. Art. 2. The former power recognized as part of Hond. the country till then occupied or possessed by the Mosquito Indians within the frontier of the republic, whatever that frontier might be. La Union de Nic., March 9, 1861; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 412-15. Further details in connection with the Bay Islands question may be seen in Bay Islands, Queen's Warrant, etc.; La Nacion, Nov. 9, Dec. 26, 1856; Brit. Quart. Rev., xcix. 270-80; Caicedo, Lat. Am., 76-80.
[XV-44] The grounds alleged for this violent action were: 1st, That the Brit. vice-consul's residence had been broken into by Hond. troops, and robbed; 2d, That Omoa was sacked by these troops, and goods to the value of $100,000 had been stolen from British subjects; 3d, That some British subjects had been drafted into the army, and an Englishwoman unjustly imprisoned. Nic., Gaceta, Oct. 25, 1873; El Porvenir de Nic., Sept. 21, 1873; Nic., Semanal Nic., July 27, 1874.
[XV-45] Streber, who commanded the troops accused of these abuses, defends the rights of Honduras in the controversy, in Exposic. Doc. Suc. Omoa, 30-44, 66-103.
[XV-46] She had to settle, in 1850, claims of French citizens, and in 1851 of Prussian subjects. Hond., Gaceta Ofic., Aug. 31, 1850; Jan. 15, 1852; Costa R., Gaceta, Nov. 16, 1850.
[XV-47] Nic. had claimed on the N. E. the river Patuca to its mouth, Hond. claimed the Coco to its mouth. The commissioners agreed upon a compromise line between those rivers, namely, the summit of the Dilpito cordillera, from the point where it becomes detached from the main body, which divides the waters running to both oceans; and from the point where it and the line continues eastwardly to the waters of the Atlantic in lat. 15° 10' N., and long. 83° 15' W. of Greenwich. Nic., Mem. Rel., 1871, 5-7.
[XV-48] About this time he was on the Nic. frontier mediating for peace between the belligerents of that state. His efforts proving successful, he was warmly congratulated by his friends on his return. Hond., Gaceta Ofic., Nov. 26, 1851; El Siglo, Dec. 13, 1851; Cent. Am. Pamph., vii. no. 2.