MOSQUITO COAST

also spelled Miskito, Spanish Costa de Mosquitos coastal region of Nicaragua and Honduras. It comprises a band approximately 40 miles (65 km) wide of lowland that skirts the Caribbean Sea for about 225 miles (360 km). Although it was visited by Columbus in 1502, Europeans had little contact with the area until the rise of the buccaneers in the 17th century, after which the English established a protectorate over the Miskito Indians, for whom the region is named. Spain, Nicaragua, and the United States disputed this claim until the matter was finally settled by the occupation of the Mosquito Coast by the Nicaraguan government and by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850 between the United States and Great Britain. The Mosquito Coast's principal city is Bluefields; other centres, also in Nicaragua, are Puerto Cabezas and San Juan del Norte. A majority of the population is Miskito Indian.