Collection of Reports Addressed to Peter McQuhae From Various Figures in the British Foreign Office, on Subjects Including an Imminent Filibustering Attack on Cuba by a Pro-Slavery Organization from the Unted States; the Movements of a Slave Trading Brig's Fishing Rights, Relations to Spain And Other Issues of Pressing Importance to British Interests in the Caribbean

A scarce set of primary source documents relating to the protection of British territory in the Caribbean, in particular along the Mosquito Coast, during the period of varied interests in the area, in the period following the Anglo-Spanish agreement on the slave trade. Consisting of a series of secretarial copies of reports delivered to Peter McQuhae, Commodore of H.M.S. Imauam, stationed in Jamaica, these dispatches offer an overview of the issues confronting the British Navy in Jamaica during the period and in the Caribbean more broadly. Most of the documents refer to issues with Cuba, the most interesting perhaps being a letter warning of an impending filibustering expedition against Cuba by a pro-slavery faction in the American South. The group consists of five groups of bound documents, some bound out of order and likely bound later. Contents are as follows: 1. Addington, A.M. Four Page Report Concerning Placing a Ship of War at Grey Town to Discourage Invasions on the Mosquito Coast, March 13, 1851. Henry Addington writes McQuhae to recommend stationing a warship at Grey Town: ".it would be sufficient that a Ship of War should from time to time look in grey Town, without remaining there at any time long enough to endanger the health of the crew. to provide for the case which is possiblee, tho' not at all likely, that during the interval between the visits of a Ship of War, some expedition of Nicaraguan, or some of the North Americans returning from California, might take advantage of the comparatively unprotected state of the lace, to take possession of it, and that the cruiser on its return to Grey Town, might find the place so occupied, Lord Palmerston concieves taht in such an event, it would seem to be inconsistent with the Honor of this Country, that a British Ship of War, should acquiesce in such an aggression, and it would be right that the intruder should be expelled, if the Commander of the Ship of War, should find as he probably would, that he had the means of doing so, without much difficulty, and that in case he should repel the intruders and re-establish the authorities of the Mosquito Government, demanding the liberation of any British or Mosquito subjects who might have been made Prisoners, and holding hostages for their relief if they should have been removed up into the interior of the Country. It It is to be hoped however, that all questions of dispute in regard to Grey Town, will, beoon be settled, because Her Majesty's government has through Her Majesty's Minister at Washington proposed to the Government, of the United States, that an arrangement should be made, by which the Sovereignty of Grey Town. should be transferred to the State of Costa Rica. Lord Palmerston desires me to add that there are at present at Washington a plenipotentiaries, both from Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the purpose of conducting this negotiation." 2. Addington, G.M. Single Page Letter in Secretarial Hand Warning of Incoming Ships to Cuba Carrying Enslaved Individuals, January 24, 1852. Addington writes to McQuhae about two incoming vessels carrying enslaved Africans, passing on information received at Rio De janeiro by another British vessel: "I am directed by Earl GraH.M. Minister at Rio, reporting that he had recieved information that two Slavers had sailed from Havana to. the coast of Africa. with the intention of returning with Cargoes of slaves which are to be landed at the Entrade de Cuchillo, in Cuba." 3. Seymour, G.F., et al. Four Reports Bound Together on Varied Subjects, including the Case of the Creole, British Fishing Rights in Spanish Waters off of Cuba and Porto Rico, and the Case of a Detained British Vessel in Cuba, 1852. A series of four reports addressed to McQuhae on various subject, as follows: A. Report dated May 17, 1852, from Seymour, discussing the case of the Creole, detained in 1851: ".enclosing copies of a letter from the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, approving of the course I had.…