it was their business to attend by turns. This, indeed, is not thought any degradation, because, as I have before said, this is the only way in which moneyed people can employ their capital, except it be in farming. The next day, I called on the vice president, Don Mariano Beltranena, and was introduced by him to his brother, who, four years ago, was governor of Nicaragua. He was living in a large house, in the centre of the town: two of the rooms were filled with the archives of the old government: there was great research making for a certain treaty, which was at length found: it was that dated Versailles, 3d of September 1786, entered into between Great Britain and Spain relative to the settlement of Honduras and the liberty of cutting logwood.
The question concerning this treaty arose out of a subject of much difficulty which, now, agitated the congress: it was as follows:—some slaves belonging to the merchants of Belize, had run away and taken
