Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/440

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OFFICIAL VISIT
[CH. XXXI.

it should appear, my informants were avowedly and warmly attached. The latter party were great slavery abolitionists, and advocates for free labour; and the former, they affirmed, were the more inimical to the Central Republic, on account of its having passed its act emancipating not only the slaves within its own territory, but those of other states who might pass over into it. This was certainly a very serious evil, which required redress; for the slaves belonging to the British inhabitants of Belize had passed over to Guatemala to the number of between two and three hundred. It is but justice to General Codd, the intendant of the colony, to repeat that he used his best exertions to procure their restoration, though without effect. It was my firm but humble opinion that the Guatemalan government ought to have restored them; and it was hoped that the matter would be speedily and satisfactorily adjusted in a treaty between Great Britain and that republic.

As a British settlement, this colony is