Conquest of Boca Toro

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The Conquest of Boca Toro was a military campaign carried out by the Kingdom of Mosquitia under King George I and his Governor Timothy Briton in August 1758, resulting in Mosquitian control over the Bocas Toro Archipelago on the Caribbean coast of Central America.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Conquest of Boca Toro

Map inscription (1780): “The Mosquito King extirpated the whole race of Boca Toro Indians in the year 1757; they were a race who gave no quarters, nor shew’d mercy to any people who fell into their hands.”
DateAugust 1758
Location
Bocas del Toro Archipelago
Result Mosquitian victory
Territorial
changes		 Conquest of Bocas del Toro Archipelago by Mosquitia
Belligerents
Mosquitia Naso people

Before the Mosquitian conquest of Boca Toro in 1758, the island—called by the natives as Tojar and its surrounding coastal territories—was inhabited by the Toxares (Naso) and Dorasque.[7] These Indigenous groups occupied the area extending from the Teribe and Changuinola rivers to Bahía del Almirante and Bocas del Toro, maintaining active trade and cultural exchange networks across the Caribbean and Pacific slopes of Veragua.

Spanish colonial sources from the 17th century describe these communities as numerous, warlike, and independent of Spanish authority. Repeated conflicts among the native polities, coupled with Spanish missionary relocations, gradually weakened their resistance. In 1697, Franciscan friars, fearing the growing influence of the Miskito and English coastal raids, forcibly resettled many Térraba families to the Pacific side, founding new mission towns such as San Francisco de Térraba and Cabagra. This displacement reduced the Indigenous population along the Caribbean littoral but did not bring the region under effective Spanish control.

By the early 18th century, the Bocas del Toro archipelago had become infamous as a refuge for independent native groups who fiercely resisted all outsiders. The Toxares, described by contemporary British sources as “perfidious and savage,” were said to attack foreign traders and seafarers who entered their domain. In 1757, when a Miskito crew was massacred near Boca del Drago,[8] Superintendent Robert Hodgson urged King George I of Mosquitia and his governor Timothy Briton to suppress the hostile groups.

The following year, in August 1758, a coordinated Mosquitian expedition led by the King and Governor Briton attacked and destroyed the Toxares strongholds on Tojar Island (Colon). The assault—carried out with hundreds of Zambo-Miskito warriors and a small number of British mariners—resulted in the annihilation or enslavement of the island's inhabitants. Contemporary Spanish and British accounts describe the campaign as marking the end of the Toxares dominance and the establishment of Mosquitian sovereignty over Boca Toro and its adjoining islands and lagoons.

Map showing the “Territory conquered by the King of Mosquito 1758”

This conquest consolidated Mosquitian influence across the western Caribbean frontier, extending its recognized domain from the Aguán River to Boca Toro. It was later acknowledged by Spain in 1803, which officially admitted the territory to be “in the power of the Mosquito Indians.”[9]

References

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  1. ^ The Nautical Magazine: A Technical and Critical Journal for the Officers of the Mercantile Marine. James Brown & Son. 1845.
  2. ^ Araya, Giselle Marín (2004). "La población de Bocas del Toro y la comarca NGÖBE-BUGLÉ hasta inicios del siglo XIX". Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos (in Spanish): 119–162. ISSN 2215-4175.
  3. ^ García, Claudia (2007). Etnogénesis, hibridación y consolidación de la identidad del pueblo miskitu (in Spanish). Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press. ISBN 978-84-00-09052-4.
  4. ^ The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle: A Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected with Maritime Affairs. 1844. Simpkin, Marshall, and Company. 1844.
  5. ^ Long, Edward (1774). The History of Jamaica. Or, General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of that Island:: With Reflections on Its Situation, Settlements, Inhabitants, Climate, Products, Commerce, Laws, and Government. In Three Volumes. Illustrated with Copper Plates. T. Lowndes, in Fleet-Street.
  6. ^ Naylor, Robert A. (1989). Penny Ante Imperialism: The Mosquito Shore and the Bay of Honduras, 1600-1914 : a Case Study in British Informal Empire. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-0-8386-3323-6.
  7. ^ Peralta, Manuel María (1890). Límites de Costa-Rica y Colombia: nuevos documentos para la historia de su jurisdicción territorial (in Spanish). M. G. Hernández.
  8. ^ Araúz, Celestino Andrés (2007). Bocas del Toro y el Caribe occidental: periferia y marginalidad, siglos XVI-XIX (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Editorial Mariano Arosemena. ISBN 978-9962-659-14-3.
  9. ^ Office, Great Britain Foreign and Commonwealth (1862). British and Foreign State Papers. H.M. Stationery Office.