ART. I. The United States of Colombia and the Republic of Costa Rica agree and declare that notwithstanding the decease of His Majesty Don Alfonso XII, the Government of Spain is comDetent to continue the arbitration proposed by the two Republics, and to pronounce, irrevocably and without appeal, a definitive judgment in the dispute respecting the territorial limits pending between the two Contracting Parties.

II. The territorial limit claimed by the United States of Colombia ›xtends, on the Atlantic side, as far as Cape de Gracias à Dios incluive; and, on the Pacific side, as far as the mouth of the River Golfito in Dulce Gulf. The territorial limit claimed by the Republic of Costa Rica on the Atlantic side extends up to the Island of the Escudo de Veragua and the River Chiriqui (Calobebora) inclusive; and, on the Pacific side, as far as the River Chiriqui-Viejo inclusive, so the east of Punta Burica.

III. The case for arbitration shall be restricted to the disputed cerritory contained within the extreme limits here described, and shall not in any manner affect the rights of a third party who, having taken no part in the arbitration, may lay claim to the ownership of territory included within the indicated limits.

IV. If from any cause the Umpire shall be unable to deliver his Award within the period stipulated in Article II of the Arbitration Convention of the 25th December, 1880, the High Contracting Parties may agree to extend the said period for a further ten months to be reckoned from the date of the expiration of the first term.

V. Except for the foregoing additions and modifications the Arbitration Convention of the 25th December, 1880, shall, in all its parts, remain in force.

In faith of which we have signed this in duplicate and sealed it with our respective seals, at Paris, on the 20th January, 1886.

(L.S.) CARLOS HOLGUIN. (L.S.) LÉON FERNANDEZ.

CONVENTION between Colombia and Costa Rica, for submitting the Question of the Boundary between the two States to the Arbitration of the President of the French Republic.—| Signed at Bogotá, November 4, 1896.

[Approved by the Legislatures of the two Countries.]

(Translation.)

THE Republic of Colombia and the Republic of Costa Rica, desiring to put an end to the boundary question now pending between them, and to arrive at a definite territorial adjustment, have decided to put into effect, with the additions and modifications here below expressed, the Arbitration Conventions entered into in San José de Costa Rica the 25th December, 1880,* through their Plenipotentiaries Dr. José Maria Quijano Otero and José Maris Castro, and in Paris the 20th January, 1886,† through their Plenipo tentiaries Dr. Carlos Holguin and Don Leon Fernandez; and to this end have named as Plenipotentiaries:

The Government of Colombia, General Don Jorge Holguin, Minister for Foreign Affairs; and

The Government of Costa Rica, M. Ascencion Esquivel, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia;

Who, after having shown their full powers, found to be in due form, have agreed upon the following Articles :

ART. I. The above-mentioned Arbitration Conventions are hereby declared in force, and they shall be observed and executed with the modifications expressed in the following Articles:

II. The High Contracting Parties name as Arbitrator his Excellency the President of the French Republic, or, should he be unable to accept, the President of the United States of Mexico, and in case that he should also refuse to accept, the President of the Swiss Confederation, in all of whom the High Contracting Parties without any difference have the most unlimited confidence. The High Contracting Parties hereby state that, if in declaring the validity of the Arbi tration Conventions, they have not chosen the Spanish Government Arbitrator, which had previously accepted this office, it is because Colombia hesitates to ask so many continuous services from the said Government, having but recently signed with Ecuador and Peru a Treaty in regard to frontiers wherein His Catholic Majesty is named Arbitrator, and this after the laborious question of the Colombian-Venezuelan frontier question.

III. The acceptance of the first Arbitrator on the list shall be

* Vol. LXXI, page 215.

+ Page 1034.

equested within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present Agreement, and in case one of the Arbitrators should xcuse himself, and it should be necessary to apply to the next in ›rder, the request to accept shall be made within three months after he day on which the excuse has been notified to the Parties.

Should the three months elapse without one of the Parties having requested the acceptance, the Party present is thereby authorized to request it, and the acceptance shall be as valid as if the two Parties ad solicited it.

IV. The Arbitration Court shall be governed by the following Rules :

Within the limit of eighteen months, counted from the time when the acceptance of the Arbitrator shall have been notified to he High Contracting Parties, they shall present their pleadings and locuments.

In order that the acceptance may have been duly notified to the Parties, so that they cannot allege ignorance of it, it is sufficient that it should be published in the official Gazette of the country of the Arbitrator.

The Arbitrator shall present the Representative of each Government with a copy of the pleadings of the other three months after having been presented, in order that he may refute them, during the following six months.

The decision of the Arbitrator, to be valid, must be given within a year, counting from the date upon which the time for the reply to the pleadings shall have elapsed, whether they have or have not been presented.

The Arbitrator may delegate his authority, provided that he take part, personally, in drawing up the final decision.

The decision of the Arbitrator, whatever it may be, shall be considered as a perfect and obligatory Treaty between the High Contracting Parties, and shall be final. Both Parties bind themselves to comply faithfully with the decision of the Arbitrator, and renounce all rights of appeal, pledging thereto their national honour.

V. Articles II and IV of the present Agreement are substituted for Articles II and VI of the Agreement of the 25th December, 1880, and for Articles I and IV of the Agreement of the 20th January, 1886. Excepting these modifications and expressed additions, which are binding, the Arbitral Agreements referred to shall again become valid and in force.

VI. The present Convention shall be submitted to the approval of the Congress of Colombia, during its present Sessions, and to the Congress of Costa Rica during its next Sessions, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in Panamá, San José de Costa Rica, or Washington, within the shortest possible time.

In faith whereof the aforesaid Plenipotentiaries sign and seal the present Convention in Bogotá, the 4th November, 1896.

(L.S.) JORGE HOLGUIN. ASCENCION ESQUIVEL

(L.S.)

AWARD by the President of the French Republic in the Boundary Dispute between Colombia and Costa Rica.Paris, September 11, 1900.

Nous, Président de la République Française,

Arbitre en vertu du Traité signé le 4 Novembre, 1896* à Bogotá, par les Républiques de Colombie et de Costa-Rica, Acte qui nous s conféré pleins pouvoirs en vue d'apprécier, suivant les principes d droit et les précédents historiques, la délimitation à intervenir entre les deux États susnommés;

Ayant pris connaissance de tous les documents fournis par parties en cause, et notamment

les

1. En ce qui concerne la Colombie: de l'exposé de Don François Silvela, Avocat de la Légation de Colombie en Espagne ;

Des deuxième et troisième Mémoires, présentés au nom de la République de Colombie par M. Poincaré, Avocat à la Cour d'Appel de Paris;

D'une consultation de M. Maura, Député aux Cortès Espagnoles, Président de l'Académie Royale de Jurisprudence de Madrid, sur la question de limites entre la Colombie et le Costa-Rica;

D'une autre consultation de MM. le Dr. Simon de la Rosa y Lopez, Professeur de Droit Politique à l'Université de Séville, et ses Collaborateurs;

Du résumé chronologique des titres territoriaux de Colombie; Et des nombreuses cartes géographiques et textes, tant originaux que traduits et annotés, à nous remis par le Représentant de la Colombie, spécialement accrédité auprès de nous pour le litige actuel;

2. En ce qui concerne le Costa-Rica;

Des ouvrages de M. Manuel M. de Peralta, Envoyé Extraordinaire et Ministre Plénipotentiaire de cette République à Paris, intitulés :

"Limites de Costa-Rica et Colombia ;" "Costa-Rica y Costa de Mosquitos;'

"Juridiction Territoriale de Costa-Rica;"

* Page 1036.

De l'exposé des titres territoriaux de la République de CostaRica;

De la réplique à l'exposé de la République de Colombie;

De l'atlas historico-geografico de Costa-Rica, Veragua y Costa de Mosquitos ;

Du volume de M. de Peralta: "Géographie Historique et Droits Territoriaux du Costa-Rica," &c.;

Et, en général, de tous et toutes décisions, capitulations, ordres royaux, provisions, cédules royales, lois, édictés et promulgués par l'ancienne Monarchie Espagnole, Souveraine absolue et libre dispositrice des territoires qui ont fait partie, dans la suite, des deux Républiques;

Ayant procédé à une étude minutieuse et approfondie des dits Actes, à nous soumis par les Parties, notamment; des Cédules Royales du 27 Juillet, 1513, du 6 Septembre, 1521, de la Provision Royale du 21 Avril, 1529, des Cédules Royales du 2 Mars, 1537, des 11 Janvier et 9 Mai, 1541, du 21 Janvier, 1557, des 23 Février et 18 Juillet, 1560, des 4 et 9 Août, 1561, du 8 Septembre, 1563, du 28 Juin, 1568, du 17 Juillet, 1572, de la capitulation du Pardo du 1er Decembre, 1573, de la Recopilacion de las Leyes de Indias de 1680, particulièrement des Lois 4, 6, et 9 de ce recueil, des Cédules Royales des 21 Juillet et 13 Novembre, 1722, du 20 Août, 1739, du 24 Mai, 1740, du 31 Octobre, 1742, du 30 Novembre, 1756, des différentes instructions émanant du Souverain Espagnol et adressées tant aux autorités supérieures de la Vice-Royauté de Santa-Fé qu'à celles de la Capitainerie Générale de Guatemala au cours du dixhuitième siècle et dans les années suivantes; des Ordres Royaux de 1803 et 1805, des stipulations du Traité conclu en 1825, entre les deux Républiques Indépendantes, &c.;.

Et conscient de l'importance de notre haute mission, ainsi que du très grand honneur qui nous a été fait d'être choisi comme juge dans le présent débat, n'ayant rien négligé pour nous rendre un compte exact de la valeur des titres invoqués par l'un et l'autre des deux pays,

Arrêtons:

La frontière entre les Républiques de Colombie et de Costa-Rica sera formée par le contrefort de la Cordillère, qui part du Cap Mona sur l'Océan Atlantique et ferme au nord la vallée du Rio Tarire au Rio-Sixola, puis par la chaîne de partage des eaux entre l'Atlantique et le Pacifique jusqu'à par 9 degrés environ de latitude; elle suivra ensuite la ligne de partage des eaux entre le Chérique-Viejo et les affluents du Golfe Dulce, pour aboutir à la Pointe Burica sur l'Océan Pacifique.

En ce qui concerne les îles, groupes d'îles, îlots, bancs, situés