salsify, peas, lima beans, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, and various other classes, grown in our southern climate, would flourish upon the plains of Leon, and in the neighborhoods of Managua, Masaya, Granada, and Rivas.

Nine-tenths of the settlers in new countries neglect certainties, and avariciously seek the mines for the gold, which is obtained only by toil and great privations. Every useful pursuit is neglected, and even comfort, too, in the search for hidden treasures, which, when found, often prove disadvan⚫ tageous to the mass, by increasing the idleness of the finders. Very few, whether owners or operators, are wealthy, few even comfortable. Those curving shores before us especially invite the agriculturist. In almost every city there are numbers of foreigners, and the vegetables and melons not only would find a profitable market among these, but the natives would also purchase.

The mineral districts of Spain, and of North, South, and Central America, are the poorest. Where one man becomes opulent, fifty are rendered the more wretched. The miners are paid well, consequently they spend the more carelessly; the vice of gambling succeeds, and is established as a pastime. For example, Capon, in Brazil, is celebrated for its topaz mines, Villa Rica, the rich village, the capital of the province of Minas Geraes, is reputed the richest in the country, and the Cerro of San Antonio, is a place famed for diamonds; the

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country surrounding each of these is fertile, producing the finest woods for cabinet-ware, fruits and vanilla, and possessing plantations of cotton, equal in color and quality to any in the world, yet their inhabitants are degraded. Little can be expected from those who have been reared from infancy to consider labor as degrading; but he who will settle in Nicaragua, willing "to take the chances," may rest assured he holds trumps in the plow, the hoe, and a civil tongue.

CHAPTER XVII.

GREYTOWN-TOPOGRAPHY-EXTENT OF MOSQUITO TERRITORY-INDIAN TRIBES -POPE'S BULL-SPAIN'S CLAIM AND ENGLAND'S, ALSO NICARAGUA'S—WHOSE 18 VALID?-CORONATION OF A MOSQUITO KING-HIS DRESS-THE DRESS OF HIS CHIEFS-ENGLISH OFFICERS-THE KING'S DIGNIFIED MANNER OF EXPRESSING HIMSELF-BAPTISM-SUPPER AND FINALE TO THE FARCE-GRANT TO THE SHEPHERDS-THEIR TITLE-CONVEYANCE TO THE CENTRAL AMERICAN COMPANY-ISSUING OF STOCK-OBJECTS OF THE COMPANY.

LEAVING the interior, let us descend the Rio San Juan to Greytown, or San Juan del Norte, where we may glean from floating chronicles and "old inhabitants" something of interest relative to that portion of country known as the Mosquito territory or kingdom. It commences at Cape Honduras, the extreme northwestern part of the territory, and extends thence southwardly to the said coast, including Boca del Toro and Chiriqui Lagoon, to King Buppan Rock, adjoining New Granada, thence southwestwardly to the ridge of mountains dividing the two oceans up to the old Spanish lines, and thence northwest

CONFLICTING CLAIMS TO THE COUNTRY.

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wardly, passing eastward of Tayagalpa and Matagalpa, and thence north to Cape Honduras, containing about seven thousand one hundred square miles. From the earliest auhentic period subsequent to the discovery of America, it was inhabited by different tribes of Indians, the most warlike and numerous of which were the Mosquito and Valientes. They neglected the tillage of the soil, had made little or no progress in the arts of civilized life, and had no fixed habitations, but were a wandering race without a home, subject to the promptings of fancy or necessity.

The followers of Cortés, or Pizarro, who had over-run Mexico and Peru, from the jeweled palaces of the Incas or Aztecs did not seek these barren heaths or rocky recesses; and thus with nought to attract the avaricious Spaniard, it is averred the Mosquitos maintained their primal independence. Upon the King of Spain, by virtue of a bull issued by the Pope, the right to this territory, as well as to the major portion of the American Continent, was conferred, as also to his descendants, but as to its occupation, according to the principles of the Law of Nations, there was nothing recognizable. Per virtue of the bull referred to, Spain claimed this territory, and said title was recognized by Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris negotiated in 1783; and yet Great Britain practically repudiated this claim both before and since. For nearly two hundred years, even to the present hour, she has maintained the right of the

Mosquito king to this domain; and in 1848, when Nicaragua invaded his rights, Great Britain sent a force to expel the latter from the country.

But the question of the entire freedom of this coast should be calmly inquired into; for under subsequent acts of King Robert, American interests became involved here. By a decree issued in July, 1824, this country was also claimed by the Colombian Government, and all foreigners were forbidden to colonize without the permission of this Republic. By a convention made between Great Britain and Spain in 1786, 'tis true, His Britannic Majesty agreed to evacuate all this coast; but as the Indians showed the same inveterate dislike to the Spaniards as formerly, they, (the natives), were permitted to consider themselves under the protection of Great Britain. Here, then, is a power delegated by Spain to Great Britain, for the guardianship of this people and their homes by the party who claimed this territory, at that time, to the utter exclusion of all other nations. Subsequently, Spain desired to repudiate this jurisdiction, vested by her in Great Britain, which, however, the latter refused to sanction.

Some of the Mosquito kings were educated in Jamaica. A prior king, on his accession to the throne, January 18th, 1816, desired to be crowned at Belize, Honduras, and orders were received by His Britannic Majesty's superintendent to gratify his wish, and to defray the attendant necessary expenses. It