2-913-650 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Burning of Greytown, 1854. 'Post-office and Mosquito flag-staff; Hanseatic Consulate; Lyons' Hotel; American Consulate; British Consulate; house containing the powder'. Bombardment of San Juan del Norte by the US Navy, '...perpetrated for the most part on defenceless Indians...the houses being principally composed of wood, and for the most part thatched - many of the stores, also, containing large quantities of spirits - the fire was most rapid and destructive...the house at the lower extremity of the town contained some hundred and sixty barrels of powder, which was fired by train and blown up...Some of the crew of the Cyane being Englishmen, positively refused to fire, as they considered the Mosquito flag under the protection of the British Government...they were immediately put in irons, to be tried as mutineers, on the arrival of the ship in the United States'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.