Spinden Tells Romantic History of Guatemala Mosquito Indians

Mr. H. J. Spinden '06, Curator of the Peabody Museum, recently related to a CRIMSON representative the strange narrative of the Mosquito Kings, a story worthy of the imagination of Dean Swift. The Mosquito Coast is a small jungle district of Guatemala in Central America inhabited by some 8000 Indians and famous for its abundance of insect life. Its history runs back to the dim ages of Maya supremacy in Yucatan to the days when the Tolters ruled Mexico with their thousands of plumed warriors.

But the period of which Mr. Spinden tells is from 1670 to 1894 when the Mosquito Kings ruled a wide territory of swamp and jungle and the Mosquito fleets barred a thousand miles of reefrimmed shore line. The dynasty of Oldman the First ruled through these two and a quarter centuries.

Charles II Recognizes Dynasty

"Oldman was established upon the Indian throne after Charles II of England had hailed him as a brother monarch in order to further his colonial schemes," stated Mr. Spinden, "From this time on, the Mosquito Kings were pawns in, an intricate game of empire-building.

"When Columbus first saw the Mosquito Indians on his fourth voyage to America he was depressed rather than impressed by the sight. They were low barbarians without even strings of pearls diplomats.

England Establishes Relations

"England first established friendly relations with them in order to procure ports from which to raid the Spaniards, for her buccaneers. Oldman, after a visit to London, received a royal commission from Charles Stuart and ruled his people in nominal independence.

"His son, Jeremy, in turn, received a 'crown' from England which was but a ridiculous laced hat yet helped to confirm his sovereignty in Central America.

"The royal palace of Jeremy at King-town was an old hut open on all sides and with a roof of palm leaves supported on sticks about 16 feet apart. His court with pirates and shipwrecked negroes, the Mosquito nation emerged a composite people to be reckoned with by European fury and a half of racial intermixture or gorgets of gold to relieve their paint-streaked. But after a con-consisted of two elderly wives, a son, and three daughters. Yet the astonishing fact remained that this barbarian wielded great power on the Caribbean.

"Piracy became unpopular at the end of the 17th Century; it was no longer a proper adventure for the gentry. But the Mosquito Indians, mindful of the exploits of the English buccaneers, persisted in the good work. For a hundred years, they ravaged the Spanish settlements, exacted tribute from Costa Rica, and expelled other tribes from the coast regions, driving them to a nomadic existence in the interior.

Gold Discovered in Realm

Then in the reign of Robert II, the 14th lineal hair of Oldman, gold was discovered in the Mosquito realm. Santos Zelaya, the heavy-fisted dictator of Nicaragua, promptly led an invading army into the Indian territory. Thus perished in 1894, after a short, sharp struggle, the sovereignty of the Mosquito Kings. Soldiers of fortune, gold-hunters, and all the scavengers of the Caribbean flocked into the conquered realm. Guatemala emerged after several years of political juggling, the owner of the Mosquito coast.