Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1911 — COUNTRY OF CONTINUAL UNREST [ARTICLE]

COUNTRY OF CONTINUAL UNREST

"The beginnings of the troubles that wreck Nicaragua at frequent intervals lie back bo its discovery by Columbus. A small remnant of Indians has recently been found living on an island near Blueflelds, speaking the language of the Aztecs gnd having traditions of ruling in Bplendid cities over the subject tribes of the coast. These cities, of which great ruins remain, at once attracted the Spaniards to the interior. so that from Panama to Yucatan not an Important Spanish settlement was formed 9n the Caribbean coast, and’ thus the coast tribes, freed from Aztec domination, remained almost unknown to the Spaniards, having no property worth looting. Loot was plenty among the buccaneers, but fresh food and women they lacked. These the Indians supplied. Commercial relations soon grew up. which speedily developed into an alliance against the Spaniards, by means of which the Indians maintained their independence. until their chief was carried, in 1688, with great pomp, to Jamaica, where he surrendered hi> authority .to the duke of Albemarle, and was then crowned and received back his insignia aa a vassal king, under a British protectorate, of all the coast from Chiviqul lagoon to Yucatan, along what Is known as the Mosquito coast. Bubject to occasional clashes with the Spaniards. matters went on thus for a century, each successive Mpsqnito king going to Jamaica for investure and to do homage. Finally. in 1783, by the peace of Paris, England specifically abandoned its protectorate over •11 of the Mosquito coast, except for the part

now known as Belize, or British Honduras, which then became and still remains a British colony. However, it was only 14- years before the French revolutionary turmoil again brought war between Spain and England. In the course of this, the protectorate was revived, so that, in spite of Spain’s becoming later the ally of England against Napoleon, the three succeeding Mosquito kings of the first half of the nineteenth century were crowned as of old in Jamaica or Belize, and did homage for their kingdom, the last In 1847. In 1821, after a long struggle, all Central American broke away from Spain, and offered to Join the United States as five states, an offer which was at once refused, as the population was not considered sufficient in'number to Justify ten seats in our senate, nor sufficiently advanced otherwise to be a de- * sirable element. The refusal stirred up bad blood against the English-speaking peoples and a dispute with England over the protectorate.

By the Clayton-Bulwbr treaty of 1860, both England and the United States bound themselves not to seek exclusive rights in any part of Central America. Again the protectorate made trouble, and London and Washington agreed on a treaty by which the Mosquito coast was to he protected by treaty with the Central American states Interested, but these refused the suggested terms, and./finally. In 1860, Great Britain concluded separate treaties with Honduras and Nicaragua, by'which to the first she surrendered absolutely all authority over the almost uninhabitable portion

of the coast claimed by Honduras, while to Nicaragua she agreed to surrender her protectorate and recognize the sovereignty of Nicaragua. Nicaragua in turn, agreed to grant complete local self-government to the Mosquito tribes, then of blood largely diluted with strains of white and Jamaica negro, and using English as their official language. Nicaragua also bound itself to make a free port of Greytown, at the mouth of the navigable river by which the great central lake of Nicaragua discharges Into the Caribbean sea. and for ten years to pay annually to the Mosquito Indians a subsidy of f 5,000. After 19 years less than half of the subsidy had been paid, while in violation of the treaty Nicaragua had imposed duties at Greytown under the pretext that they were to pay the subsidy, and had Introduced a governor and a garrison at Blueflelds, the Mosquito king's capital, and was otherwise vexing the inhabitants so as to force them to abandon the English language and their local self-government. Finally, after most insolent treatment of the British consul at Greytown, who had been appointed the Mosquito king’s agent to receive the arrears, England sent a warship to Greytown. Nicaragua protested that, as the British protectorate had been withdrawn and Nicaragua's sovereignty recognized over the coast. It was none of England’s business whether Nicaragua fulfilled the treaty stipulations In favor of .the Indians. But the captain of the warship was not moved by this, and after much parley the entire matter waa submitted to the arbitration of the Emperor of Austria. On two points the Nicaraguan contentions were upheld, flr-t, that 'the subsidy was of

the nature of a gift, and therefore that interest should not be added to the arrears; and, second, that the vessels belonging to thp Mosquito coast should hoist the Nicaraguan flag, though against Nicaragua’s contention they were allowed to hoist their own alongside of it; but on every important point the decision was in favor of England Under this decision settlers began to come in, especially from Canada and Jamaica, and business became quite brisk. Nicaragua failed In another attempt to induce the coast to vote in favor of full citizenship. and matters went on merrily til! a few months after Zelaya’s rise to the presldenecy, when, in January. 1894. a Nicaraguan army suddenly appeared at Blueflelds, kidnaped and sent to the interior the chief justice and all the leading men of the coast, and In their absence ordered an election, with soldiers at every polling place, to determine finally the status of the coast. , In this election there could be only one result, and Nicaragua announced that the coapt had accepted full citizenship in Nicaragua. and, therefore, British interference was at an end. For ten years, in spite of occasional at* tempts at revolution, one nearly successful matters went on fairly at olucflelds and business grew, but in 1904 there began systematic attempts to oppress this coast As a further vexation of foreigners, the Moravian missionaries and the Church of England rector at Blueflelds. who, since the Catholic churches have been harried out of existence, are the only representatives of religion of any kind In all this region, have had their schools closed because tuition was In English.