the settlement are still to be seen."

This book, however,

was originally compiled in 1829, and it is probable that the original remarks have been retained, as the place is so far out of the way.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century surveys were executed by Don Augustin Cramer and Don Miguel del Corral in Tehuantepec, and by Yzasi and Alexandre in Nicaragua, but no result followed.

In 1780 Nelson made his expedition to seize Castillo Viejo with a view to securing command of the lakes and the communications between the two oceans, but sickness broke out among his men, and, the rains setting in, the expedition had to be abandoned. Nelson himself broke down, and the subsequent ill-health from which he suffered dates from this period.

In the following year a survey was made for the Spanish Government by Manuel Galisteo in Nicaragua, who reported that it was impossible to make a canal between the lake and the Pacific, and in 1791 Martin de la Bastide published a memoir on the passage between the North and the South Seas through Nicaragua.

M

A

CHAPTER VII.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF INTER

OCEANIC PROJECTS.

1800 TO 1884.

POWERFUL impetus was given to the whole question of inter-oceanic communication by the travels and writings of the great Humboldt, especially his account of the comparative merits of the various routes across the Isthmus. Five years were spent by him, 1799-1804, in explorations and scientific investigations throughout the Spanish-American States and the Isthmus, from Peru to Mexico. In his "Personal Narrative of Travels;" he discusses the practicability of opening direct communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a subject which he had treated in the first volume of the "Political Essay on New Spain."

He proposed five schemes for uniting the two oceans and pointed out the great advantage possessed by Nicaragua in having an abundant water supply to fill the canal.

"Such is the happy position of these five points," he 1 Vol. vi., pp. 239-298.

wrote, "that they are placed at the centre of the New Continent, at an equal distance from Cape Horn and the north-west coast. . . . Opposed to each (in the same parallel), are the seas of China and India, an important circumstance in latitudes where the trade-winds prevail; all are easily entered by vessels coming from Europe and the United States." 1

Elsewhere, in discussing the far-reaching effects of an inter-oceanic passage through the Isthmus, he says:— "Then only can any great changes be effected in the political state of Eastern Asia, for this neck of land, the barrier against the waves of the Atlantic Ocean, has been for many ages the bulwark of the independence of China and Japan.""

Finally, he pronounced such an undertaking to be one "calculated to immortalize a government occupied with the true interests of humanity." 3

The most brilliant prophecy ever made concerning the Nicaragua Canal was that of Goethe in 1827. In the "Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret," + occurs the following passage:

"February 21, 1827. Dined with Goethe. He spoke much, and with admiration, of Alexander von Humboldt, whose work on Cuba and Columbia he had begun to read, and whose views as to the project for making a passage through the Isthmus of Panama appeared to

1

"Personal Narrative of Travels," vol. vi., p. 242.

2 "Political Essay on New Spain,” vol. i., p. 43.

3 Ib., p. 43.

4

Pages 222, 223. Oxenford's translation, ed. 1883.

have a particular interest for him. 'Humboldt,' said Goethe, has, with a great knowledge of his subject, given other points where, by making use of some streams which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, the end may be perhaps better attained than at Panama. All this is reserved for the future and for an enterprising spirit. So much, however, is certain, that if they succeed in cutting such a canal that ships of any burden and size can be navigated through it from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean, innumerable benefits would result to the whole human race, civilized and uncivilized. But I should wonder if the United States were to let an opportunity escape of getting such a work into their own hands. It may be foreseen that this young State, with its decided predilection to the West, will, in thirty or forty years, have occupied and peopled the large tract of land beyond the Rocky Mountains. It may, furthermore, be foreseen that along the whole coast of the Pacific Ocean, where nature has already formed the most capacious and secure harbours, important commercial towns will gradually arise, for the furtherance of a great intercourse between China and the East Indies, and the United States. In such a case, it would not only be desirable, but almost necessary, that a more rapid communication should be maintained between the eastern and western shores of North America, both by merchant ships and men-of-war, than has hitherto been possible with the tedious, disagreeable, and expensive voyage round Cape Horn. I therefore repeat, that it is absolutely indispensable for the United States to effect a

passage from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean; and I am certain that they will do it.

"Would that I might live to see it!--but I shall not. I should like to see another thing,—a junction of the Danube and the Rhine. But this undertaking is so gigantic that I have doubts of its completion, particularly when I consider our German resources. And, thirdly, and lastly, I should wish to see England in possession of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. Would I could live to see these three great works! It would be well worth the trouble to last some fifty years more for the very purpose.

In 1814, the Spanish Cortes, realizing too late the importance of the question, decreed that the canal should be built, but the liberation of the Spanish. Colonies put an end to the proposal, though Spain continued to hold the Atlantic coast for some years longer, and even undertook the fortification of San Juan del Norte.

In 1825 the Congress of the United States of Central America decreed the cutting of an inter-oceanic canal through Nicaragua, and called for proposals, a concession being given to a Mr. Beniski.

In 1826, Mr. Clay, U.S. Secretary of State, ordered an examination of the route.

The Congress of Panama took place in 1825, at which the canal question was discussed, and General Werweer, the representative of Belgium, was so impressed with the idea of a Nicaragua Canal that on his return he endeavoured to establish a company to carry it out. Between