or were assisted to the
frontier, where, in wretched plight, they were quarantined by the Texas
authorities. Learning of their destitute condition, I directed rations
to be temporarily furnished them through the War Department. At the
expiration of their quarantine they were conveyed by the railway
companies at comparatively nominal rates to their homes in Alabama, upon
my assurance, in the absence of any fund available for the cost of their
transportation, that I would recommend to Congress an appropriation for
its payment. I now strongly urge upon Congress the propriety of making
such an appropriation. It should be remembered that the measures taken
were dictated not only by sympathy and humanity, but by a conviction
that it was not compatible with the dignity of this Government that so
large a body of our dependent citizens should be thrown for relief upon
the charity of a neighboring state.

In last year's message I narrated at some length the jurisdictional
questions then freshly arisen in the Mosquito Indian Strip of Nicaragua.
Since that time, by the voluntary act of the Mosquito Nation, the
territory reserved to them has been incorporated with Nicaragua, the
Indians formally subjecting themselves to be governed by the general
laws and regulations of the Republic instead of by their own customs and
regulations, and thus availing themselves of a privilege secured to them
by the treaty between Nicaragua and Great Britain of January 28, 1860.

After this extension of uniform Nicaraguan administration to the
Mosquito Strip, the case of the British vice-consul, Hatch, and of
several of his countrymen who had been summarily expelled from Nicaragua
and treated with considerable indignity provoked a claim by Great
Britain upon Nicaragua for pecuniary indemnity, which, upon Nicaragua's
refusal to admit liability, was enforced by Great Britain. While the
sovereignty and jurisdiction of Nicaragua was in no way questioned by
Great Britain, the former's arbitrary conduct in regard to British
subjects furnished the ground for this proceeding.

A British naval force occupied without resistance the Pacific seaport
of Corinto, but was soon after withdrawn upon the promise that the sum
demanded would be paid. Throughout this incident the kindly offices of
the United States were invoked and were employed in favor of as peaceful
a settlement and as much consideration and indulgence toward Nicaragua
as were consistent with the natu