Nicaragua, commonly called St. John's River, in lat. about 10° 25', lies the fea coaft of the country commonly called the Mufquito fhore; a country on which the Spaniards never had any footing, claim of occupancy, or poffeffion, from the beginning of the world to this day. If they had, they relinquished it by the first of the foregoing articles; for the native Indians of this country, who had happily preferved their freedom and independency amidft the general carnage and defolation which the Spaniards had spread over the territories around them, had already applied for, and obtained, the British protection; acknowledging the King of England for their fovereign; as we have already fhewn: fo that in fact they were included in the very words of the above article; being at that time, to all intents and purposes, subjects of the British crown. This their fubmiffion to the fovereignty of Great Britain, was not only most folemnly renewed, by the Mufquito king in person, to the Duke of Albemarle, when governor of Jamaica, as before stated; but it is a fact not to be denied, that they have made it a point to give to almost every fucceeding governor, fresh affurances of their allegiance: in confequence of which, Great Britain did, for upwards of a century, afford them protection; and has for many years conftantly distributed annual prefents among their native chieftains.-In the year 1741, a regular establishment of troops, under the command of a fuperintendant, was fixed there; and an administration. of justice, by magiftrates and courts of quarter feffion, was conftituted in 1744, which continued to fubfift under the aufpices of government, till the last peace, when the troops and military ftores were removed, and orders given to difmount the guns, and dismantle the fortifications which our people had built, for the protection of themselves and their faithful friendly allies the native Indians, who were now to be expofed to the implacable refentment of a power from which they had every thing to dread, and by which, but for our protection, they had long ago been exterminated. Thefe impolitic orders were evidently grounded on a most unaccountable notion, that the Mufquito fhore was part of the Bay of Honduras; an aftonishing inftance of inattention, to call it by no harfher name. As it is no part of the Bay of Honduras, fo neither is it any part of the territory of Spain in that part of the world," for, admitting the Spanish claim of prediscovery of the whole of this coaft, aided as it was by the benevolent grant of Pope Alexander the Sixth, and admitting even (which I have fhewn is not the cafe) that

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the fubjects of England had no intercourfe with this country previous to the conclufion of the American treaty in 1670, will it be pretended, in a nation fo enlightened as ours, that circumstances of this kind are fufficient to juftify the pretenfions of the Spanish crown to enflave a free people, who, if not the fubjects of Great Britain, are, by the laws of God, and the unerring dictates of human nature, free, at this day, to yield allegiance to what power they please?

Having thus briefly fhewn, that the right of Great Britain to the fovereign dominion of this country is founded on the best of all titles, namely, the unreftrained and spontaneous confent of its free and ancient inhabitants, I fhall now give the best account I am able of the country itself.

The fea, coaft, as before described, extends from Cape Honduras to the northern branch of the Nicaragua, or St. John's River, a fpace of one hundred and eighty leagues; and if the diftant mountains which bound the Spanish territories behind, be confidered as the inland line, Great Britain poffeffes an extent of country here, more than half as large as the kingdom of Portugal.

Of the prefent British settlements, the three principal are Black River, about twenty-fix leagues nearly east from Cape Honduras; Cape Gracias-a-Dios in lat. 14° 54', about fiftyfour leagues nearly E. S. E. from Black River; and Blewfields, about feventy leagues, nearly fouth, from Cape Gracias-a-Dios.

From Blewfields to Black River the country is generally flat for many miles from the fea-coaft; but it rifes into hills much fooner to the weftward of Black River, and to the fouthward of Blewfields.

Every variety of animal and vegetable nature for use or beauty, for food or luxury, has been moft liberally bestowed on this country. It is every where plentifully watered; and the foil is almoft every where fertile in a very uncommon degree, and capable of producing, in the utmost perfection, whatever is produced between the tropics. The cotton bush, the cocoa or chocolate nut, and venelloes, flourish fpontaneously all over the country. Indigo, too, is a native, and appears to be of the fame fort with that of the neighbouring province of Guatimal, which is accounted the best of any. The fugar-cane arrives here to as great perfection as in any of the islands; and the quantity of mahogany and farfaparilla annually exported from hence to Great Britain, renders the fettlement already an object of no fmall importance in the scale

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of her commerce and navigation. The rivers and coasts abound with excellent fish; and the fineft turtle, both for food and fhell, is found here in greater plenty than in any part of the known world. To which it may be added, and it is a circumftance of no fmall utility in an infant fettlement, that the mouths of many of the principal rivers produce a prodigious quantity of oyfters, both of the mangrove and flat fpecies; of the latter fort, there are banks that appear inexhaustible; fo that, with regard to food, the inhabitants of this country feem almoft to be exempted from the general curfe entailed on our firft parents.

In 1770, there were, exclufive of the natives, about 1400 inhabitants, fubjects of Great Britain, of whom 206 were whites, about as many more of mixed blood, and about 900 flaves. Of thefe, 136 whites, 112 mixtures, and about 600 flaves, were at, or within a few miles of Black River; which however is, in almost every view, one of the most ineligible fituations for a capital; and, indeed, it became the first settlement, chiefly on account of what causes this ineligibility; its nearness to one extremity of the shore, and there being only about fix feet water on its bar, having rendered this river the readiest and safeft retreat for our logwood cutters, who were driven from the Bay of Honduras in 1730.

Blew fields has very greatly the advantage over Black River in feveral refpects, and bids fair to become a place of importance. There is generally twelve or thirteen feet water at the entrance into the harbour. The Bluff, an extensive rocky eminence, of very easy defence, has naturally almost every requifite for a town; and prefents fo bold a bank to the harbour, that veffels of any burden may lie clofe to it when they load; and several noble rivers, after having watered fome of the richeft land, perhaps, in the world, empty themfelves in the vaft lagoon, of which this harbour is part. But it is full of worms, and much too far to the fouthward.

The harbour of Cape Gracias-a-Dios is formed by an arın of the fea, large enough to hold the navy of Great Britain, and open only from E. by S. to S. S. W. from which points the wind feldom blows there. The inhabitants live on the edge of a very large favanna, perpetually covered with the most fattening pafturage, and bounding on the river Wanks, which arifes very near the South Sea, and after fucceffively paffing the Spaniards, Indians friendly to the Spaniards, Indians friendly to us, and Mufquito Indians, rolls over a fhallow bar into the fea at this cape.

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The ftrength of current, and various courfe of this river, and many other obftructions to measurement of distance, make it very difficult to ascertain the breadth of the continent; but mules have been brought down to the cape from a place fuppofed to be confiderably more than a hundred leagues up the river, from whence it is faid to be only two days ride through the woods to the Spanish city of Leon. There are feveral fmall fettlements between this cape and Blewfields, and one still farther to the fouthward.

The Mufquito Indians, properly fo called, and who have been fo juftly remarkable for their fixed hereditary hatred of the Spaniards, and attachment to us, were formerly very numerous; but they were much reduced fome years ago by the fmall-pox. Their prefent number is from feven to ten thoufand fighting men, formed into different tribes, both by nature and policy; by nature, from the general distinction of pure Indians and Samboes; by policy, as living and acting under feveral chieftains, called king, governor, general, and admiral, each of whom has a different territory, and nearly independent jurifdiction, though the king has an im, perfectly defined fupremacy both in power and dominion.

The general's people are Samboes, and stretch from Black River to near Cape Gracias-a-Dios. The king's chief refidence is about twelve leagues fouth of the Cape; his people are also Samboes, and his immediate precinct reaches to the Cape, and runs far up the country. The governor's precinct joins to the king's, and extends between twenty and thirty leagues to the fouthward, till it meets the admiral's. The people under these chieftains are pure Indians.

The Samboes are fuppofed to derive their origin from a Guinea fhip, which, it is faid, was wrecked on the coaft above a century ago. Certain it is, that their hair, complexion, features, and make, clearly prove an African anceftry; from whom they have alfo inherited fome of the worft characteristics of the worst African mind; for they are generally false, defigning, treacherous, knavish, impudent, and revengeful.

The pure Indians are fo called, becaufe they are free from any mixture of negro blood; and their general conduct gives a very favourable idea of Indian nature. They are feldom guilty of pofitive evil, and often rife to pofitive good, when pofitive good does not require much exertion of mind. Their modefty, docility, good faith, difpofition to friendlinefs and gratitude, ought to engage equally our regard and protection;

protection; for the fame virtues that render them amiable, will be likely to bring on their deftruction from the enterprifing ambition of the Samboes.

The proper management of thofe heterogeneous people, watching over, guiding, and tempering the Sambo reftleffness, and giving encouragement and activity to the inoffenfive but indolent difpofition of the pure Indians, feem to be some of the most important objects of our policy.

The British fettlers have hitherto been employed chiefly in cutting mahogany, digging farfaparilla, getting tortoifefhell, and purchafing fkins from the Indians; of which the far greater part has been fhipped to England in British veffels. The exports in 1769 were about 800,000 fuperficial feet of mahogany, 200,000lb. of farfaparilla, and 10,000lb. of tortoife-fhell. There is also a small trade with the bor

dering Spaniards, and a few mules are occafionally fent to Jamaica.

But a little encouragement would foon roufe a more extenfive and liberal fpirit; the fpirit of cultivation; which, even in the prefent ftate of the colony, has begun to exert itself with the fairest appearanre of fuccefs; a little industry would foon difcover an almost inexhauftible variety of woods, gums, and dyes, and the country abounds in very valuable. fhip-timber.

Much, however, remains ftill to be done, before much benefit can be derived, either to the colony or to the mothercountry, from what has been done already. Of the motives which have hitherto prevented the British ministry from giving form and permanency to the fettlement, and affording it that open countenance and full fupport, under which it would certainly and rapidly rise to a place of the first importance, it becomes me, perhaps, to pronounce with caution; but I hope I fhall not offend in obferving that the dubious and unavowed plan of conduct, with which government has conducted itfelf, in regard to this colony, ever fince the conclufion of the laft peace, neither tends to its speedy increase, nor much redounds to the honour and dignity of a great and powerful nation. Either the native Indians have purchased our protection, by the ceffion of their country, and an uninterrupted allegiance of upwards of a century, or they have not. If they have, and the contract was reciprocal; if the fulleft protection and fupport was repeatedly promised them, on the part, and by the authority, of the British crown; if, in confequence thereof, they have hitherto received our peo

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