The acts of several congresses of Nicaragua in after years indicated that the treaty was recognized beyond cavil or dispute. Not a word was officially uttered by Nicaragua in seven years against its validity. After such a period had elapsed, Tomás Ayon, her minister of foreign affairs, in a report to the national congress, disputed its validity, and the boundary question was reopened,[XI-70] giving rise to grave diplomatic discussions, and no little ill feeling between the citizens of both countries from 1868 to 1883.[XI-71] At last, early in 1883, a treaty was signed in Granada by plenipotentiaries of both countries to bring the dispute to an end.[XI-72] President Cárdenas, in laying the treaty before the Nicaraguan congress early in 1885, urged its favorable consideration; but no action was taken. [Illustration: COSTA RICA.] [Sidenote: DIVERS TREATIES.] [Sidenote: DISPUTED TERRITORY.] Under the Gual-Molina treaty, concluded at Bogotá, March 15, 1825, the Provincias Unidas del Centro de América and the Republic of Colombia agreed to respect the boundaries then existing between them, and to enter at an early convenient opportunity into a special convention directed to fix the dividing line.[XI-73] The antecedents of the subject will be found in a note at foot.[XI-74] All subsequent royal provisions, down to 1803, tend to confirm the limits of Costa Rica that were fixed for Cherino on the Atlantic side. But on the 20th of November, 1803, a royal order placed the island of San Andrés, and the coast of Mosquito from Cape Gracias á Dios to the River Chagres, under the supervision of the viceroy at Bogotá. Nueva Granada, now República de Colombia, has maintained that this royal order made a new territorial division between the capitanía general of Guatemala and the vireinato of Nueva Granada; and to the latter belongs all the territory alluded to in the royal order, and that said territory was recognized as hers by the Gual-Molina treaty. On behalf of Costa Rica, it has been alleged that the Spanish crown never made a territorial division with a mere royal order. The division of provinces, vice-royalties, and captain-generalcies was effected under a pragmatic sanction, a royal decree, or a royal cédula. The royal order aforesaid made no division of territory, but merely placed San Andrés and the Mosquito Coast under the care of the viceroy at Bogotá because Spain at that time had military and naval resources at Cartagena. Nevertheless the order had no effect; it became a dead letter, the viceroy never having protected that coast. Such was the impression of the Central American negotiator of the treaty of 1825.[XI-75] With this same understanding the federal government of Central America made a contract in 1836 to settle an Irish colony in the region of Boca del Toro,[XI-76] which was not carried out because the New Granadan authorities drove away the settlers, and have ever since held control of the region, disregarding