Among the groups found along northern coast and in neighboring Nicaragua were the Miskito, who although organized in democratic and egalitarian way, had an institution of king, and hence were known as the Mosquito Kingdom.

Around 1638, the king of the Miskito visited England and made an alliance with the English crown.

Meanwhile the English captured Jamaica in 1655 and soon were seeking allies on the coast, and hit upon the Miskito, whose king Jeremy visited Jamaica in 1687.

Although English accounts refer to the ruler as a " king " and subsequently to other noble titles, Miskito social structure does not appear to have been particularly stratified.

One of the more famous settlement schemes was the Poyais scheme in 1820, in which a land speculator used a grant from the Miskito king to draw settlers to the coast, but left them without the means to manage themselves and the settlement failed.

The Miskito king and the British concluded a formal Treaty of Friendship and Alliance in 1740 and John Hodgson was appointed as Superintendent of the Shore.

About a century ago it was considered to be the second capital of the Miskito Kingdom when the last Mosco king took up residence in the city.

A more lasting result of this formal relation was that Edward and other Miskito rulers who followed him allowed the British to establish settlements and plantations within his realm, and issued the first land grants to this effect in 1742.

* 1739 – 1755 H. M. Edward I, King of the Miskito Nation

It was rechristened Greytown after the then Jamaican Governor Charles Edward Grey and nominally ceded to the Miskito Kingdom, a British protectorate to the north.

British colonization was particularly strong in the Bay Islands, and alliances between the British and Miskito as well as more local supporters made this an area the Spanish could not easily control and a haven for pirates.

It was named after the local Miskito Indians and long dominated by British interests.

The British and Miskito definition applied to the whole eastern seaboard of Nicaragua — and even to La Mosquitia in Honduras, i. e., the coast region as far west as the Río Negro or Tinto – the Mosquito Coast more came in the later part of the century to be considered a narrow strip of territory, fronting the Caribbean Sea, and extending from about 11 ° 45 ’ to 14 ° 10 ’ N. It stretched inland for an average distance of, and measured about from north to south.

The language of the treaty includes what amounts to a surrender of sovereignty, and is often taken by historians as an indication that a British protectorate was established over the Miskito Kingdom.

This military cooperation would prove important as Miskito forces were vital to protecting not only English interests in the Miskito Kingdom, but also for British holdings in Belize.

However, the new colony was immediately beset with problems, many of the settlers died in route, and the Miskito were dissatisfied with the " stupid little things " the Spanish offered as gifts, which had been a mainstay of the British welcome in previous years.

In 1844, the British government decided to return to formal relations with the Miskito Kingdom and formally declared a protectorate.

In 1848, the seizure of San Juan del Norte, subsequently renamed Greytown by the Miskito supported by a British warship, aroused great excitement in the United States, and even involved the risk of war.

The Miskito kingdom aided Britain during the American Revolutionary War by attacking Spanish colonies and gained several victories alongside the British.

Their military capacity and British support allowed the Miskito people to retain their independence when the Pacific side of Central America was in Spanish hands and through the Federation of Central American States.

British governors in Belize began issuing commissions and appointments to Miskito kings and other officials, such as King Robert Charles Frederick, crowned in Belize in 1825, and British officials regularly recognized the various Miskito offices and protected Miskito interests against the Central American republics and against the United States, which protested British interference under the Monroe Doctrine.

For this, the alliance of the English Miskito ethnic group was decisive, and the British provided them with armaments that allowed them to subdue the other ethnic groups of the Caribbean coast, the Sumu, and the Rama.

This caused great dissatisfaction among the Miskito, who shortly afterwards revolted ; and on 28 January 1860, Britain and Nicaragua concluded the treaty of Managua, which transferred to Nicaragua the suzerainty over the entire Caribbean coast from Cabo Gracias a Dios to Greytown but granted autonomy to the Miskito in the more limited Mosquito Reserve ( the area described above ).

These communities, which began forming in the seventeenth century, include areas of Nicaragua and Honduras that made up the Miskito Kingdom which was under British protection after 1740, the Garifuna community which was deported to the coat in 1797 and took up English as its language, and the many and numerous Anglophone Caribbean people who were brought to Central America by the canal companies ( the French and American Panama canal efforts ), railroad companies, and particularly the fruit companies, such as United Fruit after the 1870s and particularly in the first decades of the twentieth century.

Miskito kings began being crowned in Belize, as was George Frederic Augustus I ( 1816 ) and Robert Charles Frederic ( 1845 ), and commissions along the lines of those issues in Jamaica continued to be administered.

So the Miskito Kingdom, where there were still mahogany trees, became of interest to Belize based traders and wood cutting companies who obtained, in turn concessions and grants from King Robert Charles Frederic.

Robert Henry Clarence, Hereditary Chief of Miskito

* 1824 – 1842 H. M. Robert Charles Frederic, King of the Miskito Nation

Robert Henry Clarence, Hereditary Chief of Miskito

* 1908 – 1928 Robert Frederick, Heir Apparent to the Miskito Kingdom and hereditary chief of the Miskito Nation

Jonathan Charles Frederick, Hereditary Chief of the Miskito Nation, was the son of Princess Matilda, daughter of H. M. Robert Charles Frederic, King of the Miskito Nation, by a junior wife.

The western-central part of Honduras was inhabited by the Lencas, the central north coast by the Tol, the area east of Trujillo by the Pech ( or Paya ) and the Miskito and Sumo.

The U. S. government produced a photo alleged to showed Miskito bodies being burned by Sandinista troops ; however, the photo was actually of people killed by Somoza's National Guard in 1978.

The Mosquito Coast was generally defined as the domain of the Miskito Kingdom ( Mosquito Kingdom ), and expanded or contracted as that domain expanded or contracted.

England's primary motive and the most immediate result of the treaty was to secure an alliance between the Miskito and English for the War of Jenkin's Ear, and Miskito and English cooperated in attacks on Spanish settlements during the war.

Most of the labor on the estates was supplied by African slaves and by indigenous slaves captured in Miskito and English raids into Spanish territory.

A number of elite members of Miskito did accept this, but it was cut across by underlying tensions between the northern regions that were controlled by Zambos and were always loyal to George II, and the Tawira southerners, who aligned with the Admiral, Brinton that became more partisan of Spain.

The Miskito kings also continued to encourage settlement by foreigners in their lands as long as their sovereignty was respected.

The Miskito continued to enjoy a certain autonomy under Nicaragua, though there was considerable tension between the claims of the government and those of the indigenous people.

The other survivor of the Whydah, a Miskito Indian named John Julian, was not tried but rather is believed to have been sold into slavery after his capture.

A protectorate was established over the Miskito Nation, often called the Mosquito Coast.

The establishment of Nicaraguan authority was in part supported by the various fruit companies from the United States that had begun large scale production of bananas in the Miskito reserve.

The American companies preferred Nicaraguan authority to Miskito, especially as the Miskito elite was more prepared to protect the rights of small holders than the Nicaragua government was.