ever "occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume or
exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast or
any part of Central America," nor make use of any protectorate or
alliance, present or future, to such ends.

The treaty was signed on the 19th of April, and was ratified by both
governments; but before the exchange of ratifications Lord Palmerston,
on the 8th of June, directed Sir H. Bulwer to make a "declaration" that
the British government did not understand the treaty "as applying to Her
Majesty's settlement at Honduras, or its dependencies." Mr Clayton made
a counter-declaration, which recited that the United States did not
regard the treaty as applying to "the British settlement in Honduras
commonly called British-Honduras ... nor the small islands in the
neighbourhood of that settlement which may be known as its
dependencies"; that the treaty's engagements did apply to all the
Central American states, "with their just limits and proper
dependencies"; and that these declarations, not being submitted to the
United States Senate, could of course not affect the legal import of the
treaty. The interpretation of the declarations soon became a matter of
contention. The phraseology reflects the effort made by the United
States to render impossible a physical control of the canal by Great
Britain through the territory held by her at its mouth--the United
States losing the above-mentioned treaty advantages,--just as the
explicit abnegations of the treaty rendered impossible such control
politically by either power. But great Britain claimed that the excepted
"settlement" at Honduras was the "Belize" covered by the extreme British
claim; that the Bay Islands were a dependency of Belize; and that, as
for the Mosquito Coast, the abnegatory clauses being wholly prospective
in intent, she was not required to abandon her protectorate. The United
States contended that the Bay Islands were not the "dependencies" of
Belize, these being the small neighbouring islands mentioned in the same
treaties; that the excepted "settlement" was the British-Honduras of
definite extent and narrow purpose recognized in British treaties with
Spain; that she had not confirmed by recognition the large, indefinite
and offensive claims whose dangers the treaty was primarily designed to
lessen; and that, as to the Mosquito Coast, the treaty was
retrospective, and mutual in the rigour of its requirements, and as the
United States h