Murphy, was indeed sent down to the isthmus to enquire into the affair. He was somewhat vaguely instructed by Daniel Webster, Harrison's Secretary of State at this time, to insist that the United States considered independent Central America to have succeeded to all the rights of Spain on the isthmus; but beyond this Murphy received no orders entitling him to act against the British, and so nothing was really done to enforce the Monroe doctrine while there was yet time. After the breaking up of the confederacy, Colonel Gulindo, now representing Guatemala as an independent state, proceeded to London to lay the matter directly before the British government, in the hopes of obtaining redress. But Gulindo being an Irishman by birth, and thus a British subject still, the Foreign Office on this ground refused to receive him as an accredited minister from another state, and thus the British government was enabled still to avoid all official responsibility for the acts of her enthusiastic settlers. Costa Rica, it is true, had made no objection to the English colony on her shores; but the republic of New Granada was not so complaisant. Referring to the royal order of 1803 transferring this entire strip of coast, lying between Cape Gracias and the Rio Chagres, from the Chancellorate of Guatemala to the Vice-royalty of New Granada,' the government of the republic, having succeeded to the right of Spain, now claimed jurisdiction over this whole 1 Cf. ante, § 45. shore, including even Mosquitia itself. Already the President of New Granada had issued a decree forbidding the landing of the English colonists; and now the authorities of the republic began to press their claims most vigorously, both against Costa Rica for countenancing the scheme, and against Great Britain, on the other hand, for encroaching on their domain. It was an easy matter for England to ignore these several protests from disunited Spanish-America so long as the United States remained passive in the matter; and we were too much engaged in our own advance toward the west to trouble ourselves about the affairs of our southern neighbors. The British agents were thus given free rein on the isthmus, and, with definite instructions from the Home government, their energies were, indeed, well directed and wonderfully fruitful in results.1 § 71. The Seizure of the San Juan. Meanwhile the English Foreign Office was watching with jealous attention the territorial expansion of the United States that was still going on apace. In 1842 the northeast boundary dispute had been settled by the Ashbur ton treaty, and, from this fresh startingpoint, the rivals in the New World were now making their final race to the Pacific. Along the northwest frontier the English were still able to hold the Americans in check, and pursue their own 1 M. Alvarez to Mr. Webster, December 30, 1834. U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 27, 32d Cong., 2d Sess., Docs. 1-9. westward course unmolested; but toward the southwest there was nothing but Mexico to block the way of our frontiersmen. Florida was already ours by right, and American squatters in Texas had long been pursuing a policy of encroachment against Spanish-American claims, similar to that already carried out to such good effect by the English settlers farther south. At this juncture the United States government again took a hand, and in 1845 boldly annexed the independent state of Texas to her fast-growing domain. This advance in the south called for some concession to our competitor in the north, if war was still to be averted. To avoid an immediate struggle, we therefore allowed our northwest boundary line to be run out to the Pacific along the forty-ninth parallel, though there were many Democrats of the day who would have preferred to force the issue at once on the "fifty-four forty or fight." As it was, each of the rivals had now gained a foothold on the Pacific, but this was but the turning point in the race, and the course now lay toward the southwest. There was but one path open to the United States, and this stretched out directly before them through California to the coast. But England had already run her course in the north, and, in order to emerge once more on the western seaboard, she had now to make a wide détour to the south. There was the longer way, by sea, around the Horn, and, in order to provide for all contingencies, Great Britain now took care to make good her rather shad owy claim to the Falkland islands, and thus secure the key to this route. The short cut across the isthmus also lay open before her. British settlers and agents had already blazed the way, and the troops had only to follow. The time was now ripe, and the English Home government accordingly took matters entirely into its own hands, and was prepared to act with decision. Macdonald, the irresponsible filibuster,who, like Hodgson of old, had played his part in the comedy, and was now of no further use,—was thereupon recalled, and in his place a regular Governor was sent out to Belize, accompanied by a Chief Justice, a Queen's Advocate, and all the paraphernalia of a legitimate British colony. Guatemala was then informed officially by the English Secretary of State for the Colonies, that Belize was henceforth to be known as the colony of British Honduras, and that Her Majesty considered its boundaries to extend to the Rio Sarstoon. Honduras was next told in the same way, that Macdonald's act in seizing upon the island of Roatan had been recognized by the Crown, and that the island must now be con sidered as officially under British control. Everything was thus placed in readiness for the contemplated move on the Nicaraguan canal route. It was at this juncture that Lord Palmerston, who had rendered such yeoman's service to Great Brit ain's eastern advance toward the Pacific in the ministry of Lord Grey and under the Melbourne administration, was now once more called upon to take the reins of England's foreign policy in the Lord John Russell cabinet. Palmerston was thoroughly conversant with the course of events on the isthmus, and no longer had any doubts as to the successful outcome of the war that we were still waging with Mexico. He felt, therefore, that his own government must lose no more time if Great Britain were to gain equal rights with the United States on the Pacific, and he resolved to act accordingly. In January, 1847, Palmerston instructed the British agents on the isthmus to hand in their reports, and inform the Home government, first, in regard to the exact boundaries of Mosquitia, and, secondly, concerning the rights of English settlers there. Mr. Chatfield answered from Guatemala that the Mosquito territory properly extended from the Roman river in Honduras to the mid-course of the San Juan, and westwards to the highest crest of the Eastern Cordillera. Mr. Walker, writing from Bluefields, concurred in these boundaries, but suggested, further, that a claim might well be made as far south as the Chiriqui lagoon, considering the former grants to MacGregor's colony along this shore. Mr. O'Leary, in Bogota, finally called the attention of his government to New Granada's claim to all this eastern shore, and proposed that, by supporting Costa Rica in her rights, Great Britain might well gain a foothold south of the San Juan in much the same way as she had already acquired her dominion farther north. |