Page 109 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

90 The Isthmus and Sea Power.

A more important claim of Great Britain
was to the protectorate of the Mosquito Coast,
— a strip understood by her to extend from
Cape Gracias a Dios south to the San Juan
River. In its origin, this asserted right dif-
fered little from similar transactions between
civilized man and savages, in all times and all
places. In 1687, thirty years after the island
was acquired, a chief of the aborigines there
settled was carried to Jamaica, received some
paltry presents, and accepted British protec-
tion. While Spanish control lasted, a certain
amount of squabbling and fighting went on
between the two nations ; but when the ques-
tions arose between England and the United
States, the latter refused to acquiesce in the
so-called protectorate, which rested, in her opin-
ion, upon no sufficient legal ground as against
the prior right of Spain, that was held to have
passed to Nicaragua when the latter achieved
its independence. The Mosquito Coast was
too close to the expected canal for its tenure
to be considered a matter of indifference. Sim-
ilar ground was taken with regard to the Bay
Islands, Ruatan and others, stretching along
the south side of the Bay of Honduras, near