Star.
London, England, 1823-08-30 00:00:00

POYAIS SPECULATION.

PROCLAMATION OF THE KING OF THE
MOSQUITO SHORE.
(COPY.)
g. I, George Frederic the Second, by the grace of GOD, King
of the Mosquito Nation, do hereby decree, That the grant of
land given to Sir Gregor M' Gregor is null and void, he not
having fulfilled, his contract with me agreeable to his stipulations'
and having contracted a debt upon a part of my territory with-
out my consent, assuming to himself the title of Cazique of
Poyais, and declaring the aforesaid grant to be an Independent
State.
" Be it known to all persons who have purchased lands, that
the aforesaid lands shall be their lawful property after the grant
being signed by me; and that all persons holding grants of land
shall make their claim to me before the Ist of January, 1824,
or they will be forfeited after that date; and all grants of land
sold by M'Gregor after the Ist day of January, 18423, are de•
eared titan and void.
" Given under my hand, at Cape Gracias a Dios, this 28th
day of March, in the year of our Loma, 1823.
(Signed) " GEORGE FREDERIC,
King of the Mosquito Nation."
REPORT.
" Belize River's Mouth, Bay of Honduras, May 13,1823.
" SIR—We, the undersigned, having had the honour
to receive your commands, to carry into effect the
wishes of his Majesty's Government, in conveying
presents to the King of the Mosquito Nation, and also
having been honoured with your instructions relative
to certain information you had received fit:nu five
persons of a party of six, who had recently arrived
in this settlement, from the establishment of Sir Gre-
gor M'Gregor, on the lands adjacent (and one of
whom had died of famine and fatigue on the pas-
sage), in order.to enable you to afford his Majesty's
Ministers the fullest information of the nature of this
settlement, its situation, strength, and probable result.
" We proceeded from Belize on the 15th of April, in
the schooner Mexican Eagle, and not being exactly
aware, from our information, where the seat of the
Poyais Government was situated, we deemed it most
_ prudent to proceed to Black River, on the Mosquito
shore, that being the most direct mode of communi-
cation with the Poyais Indians, and amongst whom,
we of course concluded to find the heads' of Sir Gre-
gor's Government, and that being also a ready way
of communicating with the Mosquito King, in pre-
ference to occupying much time in beating up to
Cape Gracias a Dios, and where we arrived on the
V.6th of, the same month ; but judge, Sir, of our sur-
lulu when, on ascending that river a short distance,
we found a camp and huts commenced erecting, and
cannon ball and other stores landed, not on Poyais
Indian grounds, but on the spot formerly occupied
by the British Settlers of the Mosquito shore; nay,
on the very former seat of Government, arid which
was, in 1787, in obedience to the orders of his Ma-
jesty, evacuated with great loss and expense to the
unfortunate inhabitants of that place, in conformity
to the convention treaty of 1786 with Spain, and we
cannot possibly conceive his Majesty's Government
can be aware of this circumstance.
" Scarce had we effected a landing, when we were
surrounded by objects the most distressing; a num-
ger of unfortunates crowded around us, pale, wan,
avid deplorable, scarce able to stand, sinking under
their own weight with disease; mothers tottering
under fatigue and want, with their almost crying in-
fants in their arms: most of those that were capable
of Movement flocked about us, greeting us with ex-
tatic pleasure, and imploring, for the sake of the FA-
. TILER of us all, to have mercy and charity upon them,
and take them from the certaindeath that awaited*
" Seeing such accnmulated distress around us, we
were induced te inquire into the origin of so much
human misery.; we were informed by almost every
• tongue that they had left their native country with ,
the highest and most flowery views before them, and
.had been deceived beyond belief: that they had been
led to aspect to find a well established settlement,
Ind a very considerable population, with every com-
fort around it, and means ready to afford them com-
.parative ease and success in cultivating the soil ; that
they almost all of them came out under engagements
-to the Government of which Sir Gregor M'Gregor
was - the bead, under the style and title of his
highness the Cazique of Poyais, and who positively
contracted with them that their wages should be
paid monthly ; but how great had been their disap-
pointment ! they had been landed in a wilderness,
where they found three miserable huts, inhabited by
three or four Americans, with scarce a sign of culti-•
vasion around them ! that instead of the fine settle-

" This, Sir, is but a slight sketch-of their declara- 1
tions and complaints, and we soon found that they
had too much foundation in truth. .
" Having been thus made acquainted that such
Proclamations existed, we took measures to obtain
copies for your information, and were fortunate
enough to succeed, not only in obtaining copies, but
one original. This naturally induced us to inquire,
how far the Mosquito Indians themselves were affected
towards this Establishment, and we soon found that
they were strongly averse to it ; that they could not be
brought to believe that the settlers were British sub-
jects ; and were most explicit in their declaration, that
they would afford them no assistance, as neither
through their King, nor by hearsay, had they learnt
that his Britannic Majesty had sent them there, or
that they were established under his sanction.
" We found that they viewed with extreme jea-
lousy and concern the cannon and ball that lay scat-
tered about the settlement, as also the ammunition
buried ; and of which we were informed by one
of their Chiefs, who was expressly stationed to,
watch the motions of the settlers with the most vigi-
lant eye (and perfectly unknown to them).
" On our arrival at Black River, we did not find
Lieutenant Governor Hall, who, we understood, had,
immediately after the promulgation of the Mosquito
King's Proclamations, proceeded to Cape Gracias a
Dios, to expostulate with him on the security of

his measures.
" On the morning of the 29th of April, a memo-
rial was presented by Mr. Smith, one of the surgeons
of 'the establishment, in the name of a large maw.
rity of the settiers,-setting forth their deplorable state,
and praying for relief.
" The receipt of this Petition declaratory of so
much wretchedness, excited in us the greatest sym-
pathy ; and the more so, not knowing how far we
could be justified in granting the prayer thereof, and
therefore determined to wait the return of Governor
Hall before any reply was given ; and having in the
meantime understood from the Mosquito Chieftain in
the neighbourhood of this Establishment, that from
his knowledge of the sentiments of the King, that he
would not visit Black River, but stop at a river
at some short distance from thence, called Plantain
River; and being anxious to have an interview with
him on the subject of the presents and other objects
connected.with the welfare of his country, we pro-
ceeded there on the 2d of May. It was in this se-
questered spot that we had further opportunity of
discovering the unfavourable sentiments of a number
of the Mosquito Chiefs, relative to the new Establish-
ment. Having remained there until the morning of
the sth, and received no information whatever of the
King, we decided on returning to Black River, and
where we arrived on the evening of that day.
" On the afternoon of the following day the Mos-
quito King, accompanied by Governor Hall, arrived
at Black River; and in our first interview with him,
lie acquainted us he had stopped at Plantain River,
and having there learnt we had returned, and being
very desirous to see us, he had proceeded on to the
new establishment, and appeared highly gratified at
our arrival, observing, that it enabled him fully to
convey his sentiments to his Majesty's superintend-
ant at Honduras on the subject. His Mosquito Ma-
jesty then expressed to us his very marked disapproba-
tion of the Establishment; and also informed us of the
decided measures he, had adopted, and that he was
determined, under no consideration, to allow the se-
parate Government of Sir Gregor M'Gregor there, i
dependent of himself; not that he felt the smallest
disposition to injure the unfortunate people, who, he
saw, had been deluded there, but that it was his firm
determination that whoever resided. in his territories
should be subject to his ordinances ; neither would
he ever have contemplated the Establishment of a
separate Government in his country without the sanc-
tion and guidance of the King of England.
" That he had been greatly deceived by Sir Gregor
*Greg& in the nature of the transfer oc grant as
now promulgated to-the world, and used by him;
and, moreover, he now understood that this indivi-
dual had claimed a much larger extent of territory
than ever was intended by him should be occupied
by new settlers ; and
.that it never was his intention
either to sell to Sir Gregor M,Gregor, or permit him
to sell land in his territory ; but his understanding
was, that did Sir Gregor bring settlers'out,he would
allow lands to be parcelled out to ahem, still subject
to him, and assigned certain parts for that purpose ;
and expressed considerable concern to hear of his
country being publicly advertised for sale in Europe,
and his subjects declared to be transferred to Sir
Gregor; and from what he has heard and then saw
of military preparations, it appeared evident to him
if this Establishr icceeded, bienself and

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