Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/241

CH. XV.] shelter in the territory of Guatemala; conceiving they were protected by a decree of the congress of 17th April 1824, in which, after liberating all the slaves within their own territory, and abolishing future servitude, they set forth that "the schedules and orders of the Spanish government are hereby ratified as far as relates to the emancipation of the slaves who may pass over to our states from foreign nations."—Other documents were now searched for; amongst the rest, that of the treaty with Spain of 1795; but the most important was "Urrutia's letter" of 1818; and this, although these archives seemed to be kept precisely in that degree of order in which they usually are elsewhere, was, unfortunately, the very document that could not be found. The slaves in question had taken advantage of the above decree, in the latter end of 1824, and beginning of 1825.

In order to reclaim them, General Codd sent to Guatemala a gentleman of the name of Westby, with despatches for the