Britain and Ireland and the Republic of Nicaragua, relative to the Mosquito Indians and to the rights and claims of British subjects, the undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Nicaragua, hereby declare that the limitation laid down in the paragraph added by the Congress of the Republic to Article VIII* of the said Treaty applies to grants of land to the west of the meridian of 84° 30′ of longitude throughout the whole extent of the territory hitherto occupied or claimed by the Mosquito Indians within the frontier of the Republic, but not to grants in any part of the said territory to the east of that meridian line.

In witness whereof the undersigned have signed the present Declaration, and have affixed thereto their respective seals.

Done at London, the 2nd day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1860.

(L.S.) J. RUSSELL.

(L.S.) J. DE MARCOLETA.

TREATY of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, between Great Britain and Nicaragua. Signed, in English and Spanish, at Managua, February 11, 1860.†

HER Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Republic of Nicaragua, being desirons to maintain and improve the relations of good understanding which happily subsist between them, and to promote the commercial intercourse between their respective subjects and citizens, have deemed it expedient to conclude a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, and have for that purpose named as their respective Plenipotentiaries, that is to say:

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Charles Lennox Wyke, Esquire, Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Her Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary on a Special Mission to the Republics of Central America;

And his Excellency the President of the Republic of Nicaragua, Don Pedro Zeledon, Minister for Foreign Affairs;

Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles :

ART. I. Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland recognizes the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Nicaragua. Consequently, there shall

* See Page 448. + Ratifications exchanged at London, August 2, 1860.

be a perfect, firm, and inviolable peace and sincere friendship between Her Britannic Majesty and the Republic of Nicaragua, in all the extent of their possessions and territories, and between their subjects and citizens respectively, without distinction of persons or places.

II. The 2 High Contracting Parties being desirous of placing the commerce and navigation of their respective countries on the liberal basis of perfect equality and reciprocity, mutually agree that the citizens of each may frequent all the coasts and countries of the other, and reside therein, and shall have the power to purchase and hold all kinds of property which the laws of the country may permit any foreigners, of whatever nation, to hold, and to engage in all kinds of trade, manufactures, and mining, upon the same terms with subjects or citizens of other countries. They shall enjoy all the privileges and concessions in these matters which are or may be made to the subjects or citizens of any country; and shall enjoy all the rights, privileges, and exemptions in navigation, commerce, and manufactures, which native subjects or citizens do or shall enjoy, submitting themselves to the laws there established, to which native subjects or citizens are subjected.

The ships of war and Post-Office packets of each Contracting Party respectively shall have liberty to enter into all harbours, rivers, and places within the territories of the other, to which the ships of war and packets of other nations are or may be permitted to come; to anchor there, and to remain and refit; subject always to the laws of the 2 countries respectively.

The High Contracting Parties further engage that neither will grant any favour to any other nation, in respect of commerce and navigation, which shall not immediately become common to the other Contracting Party.

*III. (Suppressed.)

IV. The Contracting Parties likewise agree, that whatever kind of produce, manufacture, or merchandize can be, from time to time, lawfully imported into the British dominions in British vessels, may also be imported in vessels of the Republic of Nicaragua; and that no higher or other duties upon the vessel or upon her cargo shall be levied and collected, whether the importation be made in vessels of the one country or of the other; and in like manner, that whatever kind of produce, manufacture, or merchandize can be from time to time lawfully imported into the Republic

*Article III was as follows:

"The High Contracting Parties agree that in regard to the coasting trade, the ships, subjects, and citizens of each shall enjoy, in the dominions and territories of the other the same privileges, and shall be treated in all respects in the same manner, as national vessels, and as native subjects and citizens."

It was struck out by the Congress of Nicaragua, and the Treaty was ratified without it. The numbers of the succeeding Articles not having been altered. Article III is therefore still mentioned.

of Nicaragua in its own vessels, may be also imported in British vessels; and that no higher or other duties upon the vessel or upon her cargo shall be levied or collected, whether the importation be made in vessels of the one country or of the other.

And they further agree, that whatever may be lawfully exported or re-exported from the one country in its own vessels to any foreign country, may in like manner be exported or re-exported in the vessels of the other country; and that the same bounties, duties, and drawbacks shall be allowed and collected, whether such exportation or re-exportation be made in British vessels or in vessels of the Republic of Nicaragua.

V. No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the British dominions of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Republic of Nicaragua, and no higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the Republie of Nicaragua of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the British dominions, than are or shall be payable on the same or the like article, being the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country. Nor shall any higher or other duties or charges be imposed in either of the 2 countries, on the exportation of any article to the territories of the other, than such as are payable on the exportation of the same or the like article to any other foreign country.

No prohibition shall be imposed upon the importation of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the territories of either of the 2 Contracting Parties into the territories of the other, which shall not equally extend to the importation of the same or the like article being the growth, produce, or manufacture of any other country; nor shall any prohibition be imposed on the exportation of any article from the territories of either of the 2 Contracting Parties to the territories of the other, which shall not equally extend to the exportation of the same or the like article to the territories of all other nations.

VI. No duties of tonnage, harbour, pilotage, lighthouse, quarantine, or other similar or corresponding duties, of whatever nature or under whatever denomination, levied in the name or for the profit of the Government, public functionaries, corporations, or establishments of whatever kind, shall be imposed in the ports of either country upon the vessels of the other country, which shall not be equally imposed in the like cases upon national vessels.

VII. In order to prevent the possibility of any misunderstanding, it is hereby declared that the stipulations contained in the preceding Articles are, to their full extent, applicable to British vessels and their cargoes arriving in the ports of Nicaragua, and reciprocally to the vessels of the said Republic and their cargoes arriving in British ports, whether they proceed from the ports of the country to which they respectively belong, or from the ports

of any other foreign country; and, in either case, no discriminating duty shall be imposed or collected in the ports of either country on the said vessels or upon their cargoes, whether such cargoes shall consist of native or of foreign produce or manufacture.

VIII. All vessels which, according to the laws of Great Britain, are to be deemed British vessels, and all vessels which, according to the laws of the Republic of Nicaragua, are to be deemed vessels of that Republic, shall, for the purposes of this Treaty, be deemed British vessels and vessels of Nicaragua respectively.

IX. It is likewise agreed, that it shall be wholly free for all merchants, commanders of ships, and other subjects or citizens of both countries, to manage, by themselves or agents, their own business in all the ports and places subject to the jurisdiction of each other, as well with respect to the consignments and sale of their goods and merchandize, by wholesale or retail, as with respect to the loading, unloading, and sending off their ships; they being, in all these cases, to be treated as subjects or citizens of the country in which they reside or are conducting their business, and to be subject to the laws of that country.

X. Whenever the citizens of either of the Contracting Parties shall be forced to seek refuge or asylum in the rivers, bays, ports, or dominions of the other, with their vessels, whether merchant or of war, public or private, through stress of weather, pursuit of pirates or enemies, or want of provisions or water, they shall be received and treated with humanity, and all favour and protection shall be given to them for repairing their ships, procuring provisions, and placing themselves in a situation to continue their voyage without obstacle or hindrance of any kind.

XI. If any ship of war or merchant vessel of either of the High Contracting Parties should be wrecked on the coasts of the other, such ship or vessel, or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto, and all goods and merchandize which shall be saved therefrom, or the produce thereof, if sold, shall be faithfully restored to the owners, upon being claimed by them or by their duly authorized agents; and if there are no such owners or agents on the spot, then the said ships or parts of ships, furniture, appurtenances, goods, and merchandize, or the proceeds thereof, if sold, as well as all the papers found on board such wrecked ship or vessel, shall be delivered to the British Consul or Vice-Consul, or to the Consul or Vice-Consul of the Republic of Nicaragua, in whose district the wreck may have taken place, upon being claimed by him, and on his giving a receipt or acknowledgment for the same; and upon payment by such Consul. Vice-Consul, owners, or agents, of only the expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, and of the salvage or other expenses which would have been payable in the like case of a wreck of a national vessel. The charge for such salvage or other expenses shall be made and settled immediately, subject to such

right of appeal on the part of the person paying the same as may exist in the respective countries. The goods and merchandize saved from the wreck shall not be subject to duties, unless cleared for consumption; in which case they shall be liable only to the same duties as if they had been imported in a national vessel.

XII. The subjects and citizens of either of the 2 Contracting Parties in the territories of the other shall be at full liberty to acquire, possess, and dispose of, whether by purchase, sale, donation, exchange, marriage, testament, succession ab intestato, or in any other manner whatever, every description of property which the laws of the country may permit any foreigners, of whatsoever nation, to hold. Their heirs and representatives may succeed to and take possession of such property, either in person or by agents acting on their behalf, in the ordinary form of law, in the same manner as subjects or citizens of the country; and in the absence of such heirs and representatives, the property shall be treated in the same manner as the like property belonging to a subject or citizen of the country under similar circumstances.

In none of these respects shall they pay upon the value of such property any other or higher impost, duty, or charge, than is payable by subjects or citizens of the country. In every case the subjects and citizens of the Contracting Parties shall be permitted to export their property, or the proceeds thereof; British subjects from the territory of Nicaragua, and Nicaraguan citizens from the British territory, freely, and without being subject on such exportation to pay any duty as foreigners, and without having to pay any other or higher duties than those to which subjects or citizens of the country are liable.

XIII. Both Contracting Parties promise and engage formally to give their special protection to the persons and property of the subjects or citizens of each other, of all occupations, who may be in the territories subject to the jurisdiction of one or the other, transient or dwelling therein, leaving open and free to them the tribunals of justice, for their judicial recourse, on the same terms which are usual and customary with the native subjects or citizens of the country; for which purpose they may either appear in proper person, or employ, in the prosecution or defence of their rights, such advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, and factors as they may judge proper, in all their trials at law; and such citizens or agents shall have free opportunity to be present at the decisions or sentences of the tribunals in all cases which may concern them, and shall enjoy in such cases all the rights and privileges accorded to native subjects or citizens.

XIV. In the event of any subject or citizen of either of the 2 Contracting Parties dying without will or testament in the dominions or territories of the other Contracting Party, or in the absence of lawful heirs or representatives, the Consul-General, Consul, or Acting Consul of the nation to which the deceased may