NICAEAGUA: 
 
 \Var of the Filibusters, 
 
 BY JUDGE DANIEL B. LUCAS, 
 
 \ 
 
 Late President of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 By Hon. LEWIS BAKER, 
 United States Minister to Central America. 
 
 THE NICARAGUA^ CANAL, 
 
 BY HON. W. A. MAcCORKLE, 
 
 Governor of West Virginia. 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE, 
 
 BY J. FAIRFAX McLAUGHLIN, LL. D. 
 
 RICHMOND, VA.; 
 
 B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 1896. 
 
COPYRIGHTED, 1896, 
 B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING Co. 
 
L o 
 
VJVAR.8U 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 AT five o'clock on the morning of May 1st of this 
 year, I wa awakened, in San Jos6, Costa Bica, by 
 the firing of cannon and the noise of a brass band 
 parading the streets. On picking up the morning 
 papers I learned that the demonstration was an act 
 of rejoicing over the surrender in Nicaragua of " el 
 filibustero Yankee William Walker," on the 1st of 
 May, 1857 thirty-eight years ago. With my coffee 
 I glanced over that morning's issue of six of the 
 eight daily papers of the city, and each one con- 
 tained an editorial glorification of the heroic action 
 of the Central Americans in expelling Walker and 
 his followers from their soil. These articles were 
 pitched on a high and patriotic key; and some of 
 the papers denounced in manly terms all species of 
 interference in the Home Rule of these countries by 
 outsiders. 
 
 On the evening of the same day, a distinguished 
 local orator delivered an address in Congress Hall 
 before an interested audience of the representative, 
 ruling citizens of Costa Rica, having the Walker in- 
 vasion as his theme. 
 
 My attention having thus been drawn to the gen- 
 eral subject, I found, on looking around, many evi- 
 
 [3] 
 
Introductory. 
 
 dences in Costa Rica of the lively interest still felt 
 in the effort of William Walker to subjugate Nicara- 
 gua, with a view of planting therein another race of 
 people. 
 
 I also remembered that in Nicaragua, the 14th of 
 September, the anniversary of the defeat of Walker's 
 forces at San Jacinto in 1856, in which skirmish 
 Byron Cole lost his life, is annually celebrated ; and 
 that in March of last year, the present Liberal Gov- 
 ernment of Nicaragua disinterred the bones of Gen- 
 eral Maximo Jerez, which had been smouldering in 
 the church-yard at Rivas, and with much pomp of 
 parade, carried them across the Republic, exhibiting 
 them in state at Granada and Managua, and deposit- 
 ing then in a vault at Leon.* 
 
 These ceremonies, which extended over more than 
 one week, were given all the significance which pub- 
 lic speeches, flags and banners, parades and music, 
 cannon and skyrockets could bestow. The day upon 
 which General Ortiz would arrive at Leon with his 
 troops fresh from their victorious campaign in ex- 
 pelling the Conservative President Vesquez from 
 Honduras and installing Dr. Policarpo Bonilla, a 
 Liberal, in his stead, was selected as that upon which 
 
 * Leon had been adopted by the Directory of the Liberal Revolutionists 
 of 1854, as their capital of Nicaragua; while tho Legitimate government, 
 whose President was Fruto Chamorro, continued to administer its au- 
 thority at Granada. Cole, who was killed at San Jacinto, was the Ame- 
 rican with whom the Liberal Directory made the first contract to bring 
 immigrants, with the guaranteed right to bear arms, into Nicaragua; and 
 this was the invitation which Walker accepted. 
 
Introductory. 6 
 
 the climax of the celebration was to take place. The 
 country people and the soldiery of the Republic over- 
 ran the quaint old city which had been a seat of 
 many a destructive quake, both of the earth and of 
 political factions. 
 
 I have thus briefly pointed to some of the evidence 
 that, after the lapse of nearly forty years, the Walker 
 invasion is a reality with the people of Costa Rica 
 and Nicaragua. The generation which knew Walker 
 has, with Walker himself, passed over the Divide, 
 but the patriotic spirit which repelled his intrusion 
 is as bright in this generation as it was in 1856-'7. 
 At that time there were a few intelligent citizens who 
 believed at first that the United States Government, 
 under the influence of the slaveholding element then 
 dominant at Washington, was either openly backing 
 Walker or giving him its covert encouragement, and 
 Walker shrewdly disseminated that idea apparently 
 believing it himself. Some of these people hoped 
 that this incursion of filibusters would result in the 
 incorporation of these countries as a part of the Great 
 Republic of the North. There are even now a few 
 good citizens, natives, who would be pleased to see 
 annexation and who could be induced to occupy 
 seats in the Senate and in the House of Representa- 
 tives at Washington from the States of Nicaragua 
 and Costa Rica, but they are intelligent enough to 
 understand that there is but little desire on the part 
 of the people of the United States for the annexation 
 of a foot of territory lying south of that country. 
 
6 Introductory. 
 
 They appreciate the impolicy of the Great Republic 
 bringing into its political system a territory peopled 
 almost exclusively by another race, who speak an- 
 other language, profess a different religion, who are 
 accustomed to a code of laws foreign to our jurispru- 
 dence, whose modes of thought and social habits are 
 widely dissimilar from ours, and who, while aspiring 
 to the advantages of Republican institutions, are, by 
 all of the above reasons, not yet prepared to enter the 
 family of the Federal States. These men well under- 
 stand that, while all Americans have a keen sympa- 
 thy with any people who may be struggling for inde- 
 pendence from a tyrannical foreign master, they are 
 not reaching out for the annexation of such people. 
 Uncle Sam prefers to have them as friendly neigh- 
 bors rather than as members of his own household. 
 There is no longer any delusion among the intelli- 
 gent people of Central America upon this point. 
 
 It was in Leon that the revolution of July, 1893, 
 in Nicaragua, was organized and carried to a suc- 
 cessful conclusion, by which the Conservative Ad- 
 ministration of President Machado was driven out 
 and the Liberal Administration of President Zelaya 
 was brought into power. General Zelaya, who had 
 been one of the bravest and most skillful leaders of 
 the Conservative revolt in the preceding April, now 
 cast his fortunes with the Liberal up-rising and led 
 the Leon forces to victory. In this manner was 
 inaugurated the first administration pledged to the 
 
Introductory. 7 
 
 principles of the Liberal party since the days of 
 Walker. 
 
 The fact that the Liberal leaders of 1854 invited 
 Walker to come to their aid against the Granada 
 (Conservative) government and that they afterwards 
 joined the latter, and even invited aid from the 
 sister Republics, in expelling the armed immigrants 
 from their soil, will not appear in an inconsistent 
 light when a clear view is had of the whole situation. 
 
 When the Liberal leaders contracted with Walker 
 and his associates, they had only in mind the idea 
 of utilizing the Americans in acquiring political 
 power for themselves at the expense of the Conserva- 
 tive faction. The Americans were hired with sala- 
 ries and lands for this purpose only. They were to 
 fight as the Hessians fought for Great Britain in the 
 American revolution as mere mercenaries. They 
 were to fight in a cause which appealed to no senti- 
 ment of patriotism, to kill people with whom they 
 had no quarrel. They were to have no social posi- 
 tion in the community ; no position except that of 
 hired butchers of one faction of natives in order that 
 another faction might hold the reins of government. 
 With this understanding of the mission of the 
 American immigrants, the latter were given a 
 genuinely hearty welcome by the Liberals. The 
 dignitaries of the Provisional government and of 
 Leon, which city was at that time the second in size 
 and importance in Central America, went out to 
 meet them with cordial greetings. On their arrival, 
 
8 Introductory. 
 
 the streets overflowed with crbwds of people who 
 vied with each other in demonstrations of good 
 will toward their American deliverers. A great 
 feast was spread, and sympathetic women, with 
 beaming faces, sparkling eyes, arrayed in the attrac- 
 tive soft colors worn by the sex in the tropics, 
 thronged around them and poured forth most grate- 
 ful thanks for the protection promised them, their 
 children and their homes, from their Granada rulers. 
 These simple hearted people meant it all. They 
 were sincere in their exhibition of good will. But 
 their enthusiasm rested upon a misapprehension. 
 
 Notwithstanding, Walker and his men were to 
 receive moneyed salaries and lands from the Liberals 
 for their military services, they had no intention of 
 fighting the battles of one native faction against 
 another faction of natives. They did not come to 
 raise up the down trodden, nor to defend the weak 
 against their qppressors. Walker came to prosecute 
 a war, having quite a different object. He came in 
 the character of a conqueror. His mission was to 
 overthrow the then existing social conditions and to 
 reconstruct the industrial system. He was a believer 
 in an irrepressible conflict between races ; a believer 
 in the theory of a survival of the fittest. He came 
 to plant a colony of Anglo-Saxon civilization ; and 
 he recognized that this could only be done over the 
 graves of the mixed races which then occupied the 
 country. He took early steps for the transfer of the 
 lands to the conquerors, for he reasoned rightly that 
 
Introductory. 9 
 
 only by the possession of the soil could the con- 
 querors hold permanent control. His object was to 
 " regenerate " the country, as he called it, by the 
 establishment of a labor system which would secure 
 the highest cultivation of the rich soil, and coin the 
 valuable forests and mines into gold. Being a son 
 of a slave-holding State, he proposed to erect his 
 social, political, and industrial fabric with African 
 slavery as its corner-stone. 
 
 Walker's eye had not caught even a glimpse of 
 the first rays of the new day of universal freedom 
 throughout all the Americas, which was about to 
 dawn. He had no prophetic vision which enabled 
 him to see that within ten years from that time the 
 foot of no black slave would press the soil of the 
 United States, and that within the life of a genera- 
 tion liberty to the African would Drevail from Alaska 
 to Patagonia. 
 
 But it is not a matter of wonder that this fair land, 
 lying waste for the want of a stable government and 
 a reliable labor system, should strongly attract a 
 talented, ambitious, resolute, restless man. That 
 such a man, who was at the same time a devout be- 
 liever in the beneficence of the institution of negro 
 slavery to both the white and black races, should 
 have coveted this field for an exhibition of his 
 prowess, the exercise of his statemanship, and the 
 introduction of a system of labor to which he was 
 attached, is not surprising. 
 
10 Introductory. 
 
 Walker found here a country as picturesque in its 
 mountains, plains, and lakes ; as rich in its produc- 
 tions ; as equable in temperature ; as salubrious in 
 climate in most of its area as was ever created for 
 the use of man ; a country whose soil is as fecund 
 as the banks of the Nile, whose rains are as fertiliz- 
 ing as the dews of Egypt, whose sunshine is as fruc- 
 tifying as the heat of a conservatory ; a country 
 where frosts never come to chill the tender fruits, 
 nor burning heats to blast the growing crops. 
 
 He found here the perfect combination of soil and 
 climate for the production of the choicest qualities 
 of coffee ; of the most aromatic cacao ; of the sweetest 
 sugar cane ; of the toughest rubber ; of the bluest 
 indigo ; of corn, fruits, vegetables, and grasses. He 
 found a vast park of the choicest woods mahogany, 
 ebony, cedar, rosewood, dye woods, and other varie- 
 ties nearly as valuable ; a country within whose hills 
 gold and silver abound. 
 
 In this natural garden he found a peon popula- 
 tion as simple in their habits as were the occupants 
 of the garden of biblical history ; a population whose 
 food came without toil, and who never thought of 
 clothing as a matter of comfort, who labored, if at 
 all, on the homoeopathic principle, and who con- 
 tributed but little to the commerce of the world. 
 He argued that, as these Indians, docile, listless, 
 without aim or ambition, languished and died under 
 a system of enforced labor, and the negro multiplied 
 and waxed fat under a similar system, the substitu- 
 
Introductory. 11 
 
 tion of the black for the bronzed race, would be wise 
 and just. 
 
 Walker found a country rent by factions, mar- 
 shalled by ambitious leaders, under whose alternate 
 domination the public service was arbitrarily admin- 
 istered; a country whose population had been de- 
 creasing by reason of these factional wars, and 
 whose once productive farms were on the road to 
 ruin. Political parties, divided upon important ques- 
 tions of governmental policy, did not exist. Two 
 political factions, one with headquarters at Gra- 
 nada, the other at Leon, pretended to govern the 
 country, each under a different constitution. There 
 was no government in the better sense of the word 
 at that time; the people were divided into clans, 
 which had no further significance than attachment 
 to the ambitions of a chieftain ; there was no peace, 
 no tranquility, no security of person or property; a 
 man was liable to be shot at any moment for being 
 a traitor to one faction or another; the collection of 
 revenue was nothing more than a process of garrot- 
 ing and bleeding. And, to be faithful to the truth 
 of history, Walker's methods of government did not 
 rise much above those theretofore prevailing. In 
 carrying out his plan for supplanting the Spaniard 
 with the Anglo-Saxon, he did not hesitate to confis- 
 cate and sell to his friends the estates of his political 
 enemies. Even a distinguished United States Sena- 
 tor, who came to Nicaragua to advise with him, 
 seemed to find it not inconsistent with his estimate 
 
12 Introductory. 
 
 of his high position to bid in a valuable cocoa haci- 
 enda at a figure much below its true value. 
 
 The expulsion of Walker was the turning point 
 in the history of Nicaragua. From that time until 
 1893, the country had a stable government, and, in 
 the main, an honest one. The people remained at 
 peace with themselves and with their neighbors. 
 During these years much land was brought under 
 cultivation; many large coffee farms were opened 
 and planted; modern machinery brought in for pre- 
 paring the berry for market; sugar plantations suc- 
 cessfully established, and public roads constructed. 
 A railroad which, in connection with steamers on 
 the lakes and the San Juan river, provides a public 
 transit across the continent, was built and equipped 
 by the government under President Cardenas. A 
 free-school system founded upon the general plan of 
 free schools in the United States, has been estab- 
 lished. Religious liberty has been secured under 
 the administration of President Zelaya. A mail 
 service is now managed by the government, and all 
 parts of the Republic are fairly served. Telegraphs 
 and telephones connect the principal towns, both 
 managed by the government, and quite reasonable 
 rates are secured. 
 
 Managua, the capital, has grown from an Indian 
 village to a city of good buildings and considerable 
 commerce; the production of coffee has increased 
 from nothing to the value of nearly $2,000,000; the 
 exports of bananas have kept a good race with those 
 
pjp PH 
 
Introductory. 13 
 
 of coffee. Nicaragua cocoa has acquired a world- 
 wide reputation for its high quality and delicious 
 flavor. The Menier Brothers, of Paris, it will be 
 remembered by visitors to the Columbian Exposi- 
 tion at Chicago, made a great advertisement of their 
 10,000 acres model cocoa plantation in this country. 
 The Nicaragua devotee of chocolate will not hesitate 
 to pay one dollar a pound for the home product in 
 preference to accepting the cocoa sometimes im- 
 ported from South America and offered at one-half 
 that price. You can depend upon his judgment, or 
 rather, that of his wife, as to the quality of cocoa. 
 In the quality of its coffee, Nicaragua is equally for- 
 tunate. An Englishman, proprietor of a 1,500 haci- 
 enda, claimed, in a recent conversation with me, 
 that as good coffee is grown in that country as either 
 the Java or Mocha of commerce. Not being an ex- 
 pert in coffee, I do not vouch for this statement, but 
 many other persons do claim for the Nicaraguan pro- 
 duct a very high grade. Be this as it may, the aver- 
 age coffee planter in Nicaragua and Costa Eica con- 
 siders himself in poor luck if he fails to realize out of 
 his crop twenty-five per cent, to thirty per cent, net, 
 on the money invested in his farm and machinery 
 each year. The Englishman further remarked : " The 
 elevation where I am located is exactly right for the 
 production of a big crop of coffee ; the soil of loam 
 and volcanic matter is deep, apparently inexhausti- 
 ble in fertility, and is composed of precisely the 
 right elements compounded in correct proportions; 
 
14 Introductory. 
 
 the rains come at the right time and in the proper 
 quantities; the days are just hot enough, the nights 
 just cool enough to maks perfect berries; the sun 
 and the clouds perform their proper functions to per- 
 fection; the winds keep the air pure and healthy. I 
 cannot see," he added, " wherein I could suggest an 
 improvement upon the job of the Creator, in soil, 
 climate or other natural conditions." This gentle- 
 man lives among the Sierras south of Managua in 
 the region which has given to this city its chief 
 wealth. Her principal citizens own coffee farms in 
 the same general section. And just beyond, where 
 the alluvial plains are not much above the level of 
 the lakes, are located the many plantations of cocoa, 
 extending over to Rivas and beyond to the line of 
 the Maritime canal. 
 
 Around Matagalpa, in the northern part of the Re- 
 public, is being developed an extensive coffee region. 
 There any altitude desired can be had. The soil is 
 as rich as the valley of the Red river of the North ; 
 the land is watered by many mountain streams ; 
 labor is abundant at fair wages. The climate is de- 
 lightful. It is equable, seldom reaching 80 per cent, 
 of heat. The trade winds in their sweep from ocean 
 to ocean, are a security of healthfulness. 
 
 The chief banana development for commercial 
 purposes is in what is known as the Musquito Terri- 
 tory. The Escondido river is navigable for ocean 
 steamers some sixty miles above Bluefields. On 
 both sides of this river and on up its branches for 
 
Introductory. 15 
 
 many miles further, bananas in sufficient quantities 
 to load many ships each month of the year are 
 grown, which are marketed in the States. 
 
 There are yet in Nicaragua thousands of square 
 miles of lands suited to the culture of bananas, 
 coffee, cocoa, sugar, rubber and rice, still covered 
 with deep, dark, almost impenetrable forests. As in 
 Walker's day there are thousands of natives still 
 living in groups of huts, thatched with palms, sur- 
 rounded by patches of corn, beans and plantains, 
 who, philosophers in their way, think it better to en- 
 joy life than to die rich. They prefer cock-fighting 
 to labors of the field; and, so long as their daily 
 wants are supplied, the morrow may care for itself. 
 Generous, indolent, good-natured and improvident, 
 they are true children of this sensuous clime, where 
 open-handed nature would shame a grasping race. 
 Missionaries would persuade them that man was 
 made to labor and to mourn, but they prefer to loaf 
 and to laugh. There is a flavor of Orientalism, a 
 southern luxuriousness, a more than ordinary love 
 of the bright and beautiful, among the race. Per- 
 haps, in the lower classes, it touches the line of bar- 
 baric taste ; but it, nevertheless, exists, and as refine- 
 ment and education elevate, it develops into artistic 
 qualities. No home is so humble as to be without 
 flowers ; few women so poor as to be without a, 
 bright-colored "rebozo" about their shoulders, even 
 though they have little additional apparel. Not- 
 withstanding their lack of fondness for work, the 
 
16 Introductory. 
 
 men are many grades superior to the universal 
 tramp with whom civilization is now contending. 
 Each succeeding year a greater number of natives 
 join the ranks of labor in the coffee 4 and banana 
 fields. And year by year a greater number of the 
 young men of the country go abroad to school or to 
 travel, and come back with more liberal and progres- 
 sive ideas, with new ambitions, and with these a 
 greater fondness for American push and American 
 progress. No longer do the intelligent people believe 
 that the government of the United States was behind 
 Walker in his raid or that the people of the Republic 
 of the North desire either to conquer or annex them. 
 
 When we reflect upon the condition in which the 
 people of Spanish America were at the close of their 
 struggle for independence ; in what dense ignorance 
 they had been kept by their bestial oppressors; with 
 what degrading superstitions the latter had filled 
 their minds; with what barbarity they had been 
 driven, robbed and murdered, we may well be aston- 
 ished at the progress they have made rather than be 
 disappointed that they have not done better. 
 
 The Nicaraguans look forward to the building of 
 the Maritime canal to bring capital and enterprise 
 to develop their lands. They have looked for the 
 coming of this savior for, lo ! these many years. 
 Squier tells of an old lady who, as long as 1848, in 
 trying to sell him a hut and ground on the banks of 
 picturesque Managua lake for the modest sum of 
 $100, offering to throw in her two plump daughters, 
 
Introductory. 17 
 
 added : " Los Norte Americanos are building a canal, 
 and in a few months the property will be worth four 
 times that money!'* Another writer says: "Its 
 inhabitants, high and low, have been praying in all 
 tunes of their musical language to all the saints in 
 the calendar, ' Ojala que venga el canal/ and with it 
 redemption from existing conditions. And when the 
 long expected Messiah came they bound him hands 
 and feet and cried ' crucify Him.' ' : But I believe the 
 Nicaraguans will give the canal a genuine welcome. 
 
 Desiring to gather from intelligent native citizens 
 of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and from the surviving 
 contemporaries of Gen. William Walker some im- 
 pressions of his personal appearance, habits, and 
 career in Central America, as remembered by them, 
 and to ascertain what measure of courage and ability 
 they now accord him, after a lapse of forty years, I 
 questioned several in person and wrote to others. 
 
 The first answer I received by mail was from an 
 American who came to Nicaragua with Walker, and 
 is a highly respected and successful business man 
 there at this time. " A comrade and friend of Gen. 
 Walker, it would be an agreeable task for me to tell 
 you about this remarkable man. In my youthful 
 enthusiasm I thought our chief was a hero, and 
 though in after years I learned to judge his character 
 more dispassionately I have no reason to change my 
 general estimate of him. He was probably the 
 greatest of all the soldiers of fortune." 
 
 From others I gather that, in personal appearance, 
 
18 Introductory. 
 
 Walker was tall and handsome, with, a muscular 
 though slender frame and a commanding figure. His 
 forehead was prominent, his lips firm, his big grey 
 eyes keen and penetrating, and his well-set jaws in- 
 dicated decision of character. His mind was active, 
 alert, and exceedingly vigorous. In manner he was 
 dignified and calm, suave, and winning ; in action 
 self-possessed and deliberate ; in speech easy, fluent, 
 and forceful. While he made no pretense to oratory, 
 he had a faculty of stirring the souls of his followers 
 and swaying the multitude when he addressed them. 
 While kind to aH and merciful to prisoners, he was 
 strict in discipline, scrupulous in the observance of 
 law, and stern in the enforcement of military decrees. 
 His courage was unquestioned. He flinched from 
 no duty ; he evaded no responsibility. He was an 
 ambitious, restless, daring man, but not a successful 
 one. By turns he had been doctor, lawyer, jour- 
 nalist, politician, a military leader in an expedition 
 into Mexico, prior to his campaign in Nicaragua, and 
 he was yet a young man. He was a man of genius. 
 His imagination was a gem of the first water. But 
 I am impressed with the belief that not a majority 
 of those whose opportunities of judging were best 
 would award to Walker the possession of the higher 
 qualities of a statesman or a military chieftain. At 
 least, he did not exhibit the breadth of knowledge, 
 the prudence, the sagacity, the calm, clear vision 
 and force that combination of qualities which go to 
 equip a man for every emergency. But who can 
 say that success were possible under any leadership ? 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE8 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 8-18 
 
 GENERAL WILLIAM WALKER, OR THE WAR OF 
 THE FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Picturesque Nicaragua 27-38 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Descent of Walker upon Nicaragua " La Falange Ameri- 
 cana "Repulse at Rivas, June 29, 1855 Defeats Gar- 
 diola September 3, 1855 '. . . 39-48 
 
 CHAPTER IH. 
 
 Granada captured by a coup ffaudace, October 13, 1855 
 Treaty of October 23rd Provisional Government Don 
 Patricio Rivas, President; Walker, Commander-in-Chief, 49-58 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Costa Rica declares war A new election decreed Walker 
 becomes Dictator Rivas and Jerez abandon Leon and 
 proceed to Chinandega Central American alliance against 
 Walker First battle of Masaya, October 13, 1856 Second 
 battle of Masaya, November 15, 1856 59-82 
 
22 Table of Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 Abandonment of the Occident Defence of the Guadalupe 
 
 "Aqui fue Granada" Spencer on his raft The Transit 
 closed The Allies close around Walker at Rivas He 
 surrenders to Captain Davis of the United States war- 
 schooner, Saint Mary, May 1, 1857 83-104 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 "Walker makes another attempt against Nicaragua Is ar- 
 rested and brought back by Commodore Paulding, of the 
 United States Navy Is tried for a violation of American 
 Neutrality laws and acquitted His descent with ninety 
 followers upon Truxillo, August 6, 1860, in Honduras 
 His surrender to Captain Salmon, of the British ship 
 Icarus Is delivered over to the Hondurans and con- 
 demned to death by General Don Mariano Alvarez His 
 death on the fatal "Cauquette" Buried in the Campo 
 Santo of Truxillo 105-118 
 
 THE NICARAGUAN CANAL. 
 
 Introductory note 121 
 
 Nicaraguan Canal , 123-194 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 197-216 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 PAGES 
 
 1. WILLIAM WALKER FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 2. MAP OF NICARAGUA 2-3 
 
 3. A COFFEE- YARD IN MANAGUA 12-13 
 
 4. THE PRINCIPAL STREET IN GREYTOWN 30-31 
 
 5. A WATER-CART IN RIVAS 42-43 
 
 6. PEON'S CABIN, BREAD-FRUIT AND COCOANUT PALM. . . . 54-55 
 
 7. SCENE ON SAN JUAN RIVER 66-67 
 
 8. RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CHURCH, GRANADA 78-79 
 
 9. MARKET PLACE, GRANADA 90-91 
 
 10. GARDEN SCENE IN GRANADA 102-103 
 
 11. CEMETERY IN GRANADA 114-115 
 
 12. CASTILLO, SAN JUAN RIVER 130-131 
 
 13. THE BREAKWATER AT GREYTOWN LOOKING SEAWARD. 144-145 
 
 14. RAILROAD THROUGH THE SWAMP BACK OF GREYTOWN. . 158-159 
 
 15. DREDGES WORKING IN CANAL LOOKING WESTWARD .. 172-173 
 
 16. RAILROAD BRIDGE ACROSS BENARD CREEK 186-186 
 
WAR OF THE FILIBUSTERS, 
 
GENERAL WILLIAM WALKER, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE WAR OF THE FILIBUSTERS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PICTURESQUE NICARAGUA. 
 
 THE student of American history finds in the con- 
 quest of Nicaragua, by William Walker, the fili- 
 buster, a startling episode in the progress of a 
 country upon which the eyes of civilized America 
 are now turned as upon the most interesting spot 
 on the continent perhaps in the world. 
 
 The peculiar circumstance which attracts this 
 interest was doubtless that which then directed 
 Walker's selection in the choice of a republic in 
 which to inaugurate his scheme for the " regeneration 
 of Latin America." 
 
 This all important circumstance is the fact that here 
 is, so to speak, the waist of the continent, capable of 
 being spanned by the commerce of the world. 
 
 At the time of Walker's venture, Cornelius Van- 
 derbilt, sometimes called Commodore Vanderbilt, 
 had conceived and executed a transit across the ter- 
 ritory of Nicaragua for travel and transportation. 
 What was known as the " Overland Route," from 
 
 [27] 
 
28 Nicaragua. 
 
 Washington, say, to California, was a primitive con- 
 ception, almost like Hannibal's crossing the Alps. 
 Jefferson Davis might, without impropriety, be 
 called the father of the Pacific railroads. In the 
 Senate of the United States, he was the pioneer ; and 
 as Secretary of War, he ordered a survey to deter- 
 mine the best route for constructing such a railway, 
 which he regarded as a military necessity. 
 
 When Walker conceived his dream of redeeming 
 Nicaragua, there was prevalent in the United States 
 a doctrine, the outgrowth of over-prosperity, called 
 "Manifest Destiny." To thoughtful persons, given 
 to tracing the genesis and progress of ideas, nothing 
 could excite more decided interest than this sudden 
 frenzy in the people of the United States to annex 
 the remainder of the continent especially when we 
 consider that they were just on the verge of a life- 
 and-death struggle to hold on to what they had 
 
 The doctrine of Manifest Destiny is supposed to 
 have an accredited father in one of the greatest of 
 our party leaders Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 I prefer to have it stated in the language of a 
 statesman now living, and whose voice is still poten- 
 tial in the conduct of public affairs. Succinctly, 
 here is the doctrine; 
 
 " Examine your maps, commence at the mouth of the Rio Grande, 
 trace along down through the waters of the bay of Vera Cruz, around 
 that high headland of Yucatan, down through the Caribbean Sea, 
 across the Tropic of Cancer into the Gulf of Darien ; cross the Isth- 
 mus there into the Gulf of Panama, follow up the Pacific coast 
 through twenty-two degrees of latitude to the boundary line of the 
 
Nicaragua. 29 
 
 treaty of 1854, and all within those limits is fastened to the interests 
 and wrapped up in the destiny 'Of American institutions by the great 
 God whose hand shapes the continents of the earth, and scoops out 
 its oceans, gulfs, and harbors. The great law of self-defence and 
 national security, a law of nations paramount to all other laws, calls 
 imperatively for the practical recognition of this fact in the diplomacy 
 and legislation of the Government. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico 
 on its northern and eastern coast now wash the borders of five States 
 of the Union, and its tide rises to the wharf of the commercial metro- 
 polis of the South. Over on the opposite side lie the distracted 
 States of Mexico, and lower down those of .Central America. They 
 would constitute an easy acquisition to any European power with 
 sufficient boldness to defy the Monroe policy of this Government, 
 and from that line of coast the hostile armaments of all Europe 
 could be equipped in sight of American soil. If the American Union 
 shall be preserved, its wisest statesmen will be the first to look 
 steadily and boldly to these facts, and to shape the policy of the 
 nation toward its lawful and inevitable expansion." * 
 
 Here, then, we have the cult of " Manifest Des- 
 tiny," as portrayed by a western statesman of that 
 era. The absorption of the Continent. 
 
 That Walker, when he started out, was a disciple 
 of this school, seems manifest. 
 
 Fortunately, he was a literary man, sometime 
 editor of a Democratic newspaper. A writer of rare 
 lucidity and vigor. After escaping from Nicaragua, 
 he published " The War in Nicaragua," and we have 
 thus a singularly full and detailed account of his 
 adventures, and the aims and ambitions which in- 
 spired them. Except for the accidental good for- 
 tune which placed this rare volume, now out of 
 print, in my hands, I should never have undertaken 
 
 * Senator Voorhees. 
 
30 Nicaragua. 
 
 the task before me, unless I had gone to Nicaragua 
 and possessed myself of the information contained 
 in the files of his organ " El Nicaragua en se " 
 established by him in Nicaragua, and conducted 
 under his auspices. 
 
 Walker has furnished us with the data which 
 alone can justify a biography namely, what did the 
 hero himself say and do in the prosecution of his 
 life-work? These actions and sayings constitute the 
 mirror in which, as in a camera, is photographed 
 the individual. Whatever is received at second hand, 
 is open to suspicion. 
 
 I have suggested one consideration that determined 
 the point which Walker selected as best for his in- 
 vasion, namely the inter-oceanic highway which the 
 Accessory Transit Company had established across 
 the Isthmus from Greytown or San Juan del Norte, 
 on the Atlantic or Caribbean Sea, to San Juan del 
 Sur, on the Pacific, a distance something less than 
 one hundred and seventy-five miles. Its route lay 
 through the San Juan river and lake Nicaragua, 
 along the southern border of the Republic, adjoin- 
 ing her neighbor, the Eepublic of Costa Rica. At 
 an early day, after their independence, these Central 
 American States, Honduras, Guatamala, San Salva- 
 dor, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, had welded them^ 
 selves together in a Federal Republic modeled after 
 their more powerful neighbor of the north. The 
 result of federation, however, was only discord and 
 confusion, and secession and disintegration soon 
 
Nicaragua. 31 
 
 followed, until in 1855 when Walker made his de- 
 scent, not a vestige of the Confederation remained. 
 
 As late as 1839, there seemed to be left in Central 
 America some shadow of Federal authority. John 
 L. Stevens, the celebrated traveller, it appears, 
 was engaged in chasing this phantom upon some 
 mysterious mission for the Government of the 
 United States, the nature of which he fails to dis- 
 close. 
 
 The problems presented to humanity and civiliza- 
 tion by Tropical America are replete with interest, 
 and full of difficulty. The physical conditions of 
 nature, have not these a mysterious and controlling 
 influence over the character of the inhabitants? 
 over the institutions of the country over its pro- 
 gress and destiny? 
 
 Where volcanic peaks, now dormant, now active, 
 answer to each other, through the heart of a tropical 
 region, which is shaken also, by corresponding or 
 consequential seismatic vibrations ; is not the heart 
 of man there subject to like eruptive and violent 
 demonstrations? Do, or do not, Rome and Syra- 
 cuse from out their ruins visible from Vesuvius, and 
 overlooked by Etna, speak a language akin to that of 
 Leon and Granada, dominated as they are by the 
 smoking heights of Mombacho and Masaya? 
 
 Humboldt, in describing these very regions, stand- 
 ing amid the overwhelming majesty of Nature and 
 the Eternal Summer of organic life, points out 
 the great advantages which the inhabitants of the 
 
32 Nicaragua. 
 
 United States have over the Spanish Americans. 
 He then proceeds to remark : " Internal dissensions 
 are chiefly to be dreaded in regions where civiliza- 
 tion is but slightly rooted, and where, from the 
 influence of climate, forests may soon regain their 
 empire over cleared lands if their culture be aban- 
 doned." 
 
 Let us devote our attention for a moment to Pic- 
 turesque Nicaragua. Of the Central American Re- 
 publics, she is the largest. According to Mr. Squier, 
 her area, including the disputed Mosquito Coast, is 
 about 60,000 square miles. The hand-book of Ame- 
 rican Republics (1891) places it, in round numbers, 
 at 50,000, excluding such disputed territory. This 
 is 14,000 miles less in extent than the two Virginias. 
 
 There are two distinct geographical divisions ; the 
 Western, lying upon and encircled by the Pacific 
 coast, and the Eastern, girdled by the Atlantic and 
 its arm, the Caribbean Sea. 
 
 The Western division is essentially tropical, while 
 the Northern and Eastern division displays many 
 characteristics of the temperate zone. 
 
 It is the Western or Pacific coast that we shall 
 have to traverse, in considering the invasion of Gen- 
 eral Walker. From the Bay of Fonseca and the mag- 
 nificent harbor of Realejo, on the Pacific, southward 
 to San Juan del Sur, and thence across a narrow 
 strip of land to Rivas and Virgin Bay, on the Gulf 
 of Nicaragua, the operations of Walker were confined. 
 
 Indeed, it may be said that on the Western or Pa- 
 
Nicaragua. 33 
 
 cific side only was the essential statehood of Nicara- 
 gua embraced. 
 
 At that date (1855), she had five distinct depart- 
 ments, the Meridional, Oriental, Occidental, the Sep- 
 tentrional of Matagalpa, and Septentrional of Sego- 
 via;* these departments were subdivided into dis- 
 tricts for municipal purposes. The districts were 
 named from the principal towns therein respectively 
 situated. Thus, we had Leon, Granada, and Kivas 
 on the Pacific side, and Matagalpa and Segoria in the 
 Northern department. 
 
 It was principally between these cities, Leon, 
 Granada, and Rivas that Walker operated. Leon 
 was farthest north, towards Honduras, and Rivas 
 farthest south towards Costa Rica ; while Granada 
 was situated on the Lake between the two, being 
 sixty-five miles south of Leon, and about thirty-five 
 or forty north of Rivas. The population of Granada 
 was put at 15,000, that of Leon at 35,000, and of 
 Rivas at 4,000 inhabitants. The port of Realejo, on 
 the Pacific, was about fifteen miles southwest of Leon, 
 while that of San Juan del Suf was about half that 
 distance from Rivas ; the distance between the two 
 harbors coastwise being about one hundred and 
 twenty-five miles. Immediately north of this Pe- 
 ninsula, which stretched from the Bay of Fonseca to 
 San Juan del Sur, lay the two magnificent inter-com- 
 
 * There was likewise the department of Guanacosta, lying south of the 
 San Juan river, much of which was disputed territory between the adjacent 
 republics Costa Rica and Nicaragua. 
 3 
 
34 Nicaragua. 
 
 municating lakes, Nicaragua and Managua, at an av- 
 erage of about one hundred and forty feet above the 
 level of the Pacific Ocean. The waters of these lakes 
 are drained by the river San Juan, commencing at 
 San Carlos on Lake Nicaragua, and emptying into 
 the Caribbean Sea at the Eastern port, called San 
 Juan del Norte. This was the route of the Vander- 
 bilt Transit Company, viz : from San Juan del Norte 
 by the San Juan River to Fort San Carlos, on Lake 
 Nicaragua, thence across the lake to Virgin's Bay, 
 and thence across a narrow strip of land to San Juan 
 del Sur the total distance being something less than 
 one hundred and seventy-five miles. 
 
 It was this Isthmus, engirdled by the Pacific on 
 the west with one hundred and twenty-five miles of 
 seacoast, and bounded on the east by the two great 
 Lakes, that Walker selected as the scene of his ope- 
 rations in Central America. Sentinelled on the one 
 side by a chain of volcanic peaks, many of them 
 wreathed in smoke, and shaken on the other by the 
 pulsations of the mighty Pacific, the intervening 
 country is as full of natural beauty and as prolific in 
 the productions of the soil, as any similar spot on 
 the continent. 
 
 It is essentially an equinoctial region, and charac- 
 terized by the marked features of tropical America. 
 For summer, it has the wet season, from May to Oc- 
 tober, and for winter, the dry, extending from Octo- 
 ber to May. The atmosphere, observes Walker, is a 
 fluid altogether different from the atmosphere of 
 
Nicaragua. 35 
 
 northern climates as if a thin and vapory exhala- 
 tion of opium, soothing and exhilarating by turns, 
 was being mixed at intervals with the common ele- 
 ments of the air. 
 
 When, on his march from the Occidental Depart- 
 ment to surprise and capture Rivas, at sunrise the 
 American came in sight of Lake Nicaragua. Valle, 
 a faithful Indian auxiliary and guide, exclaims sim- 
 ply : "Ometepec ! " without other phrase or emotion. 
 
 But Walker was awestruck and lost in admiration, 
 as he beheld the tall and graceful cone of the grand 
 volcano rising out of the bosom of the lake, like a 
 giant taking his siesta, his sides covered with the 
 dark verdure of the tropics in repose, but liable to 
 awaken at any moment. 
 
 Perhaps no equal extent of the earth's surface, 
 remarks Mr. Squier, exhibits so many and such 
 marked traces of volcanic action as that part of 
 Nicaragua intervening between its lakes and the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 All of the travellers in this region describe the 
 curious remains of former volcanic action. In some 
 places near these craters the ground is encrusted 
 with sulphur, and dried and baked by subterranean 
 fires ; in others, there are orifices from which steam 
 rushes out violently, and with noise ; in the nearer 
 approach, pools or lakes of dark brown water are 
 discovered, with monstrous bubbles, three or four 
 feet high. In fine, it required no remarkable stretch 
 of imagination on the part of the natives when they 
 
36 Nicaragua. 
 
 named the crater of Mt. Masaya " the Hell of 
 Masaya," while they styled the smaller, and extinct, 
 though still smoking orifices, " Infernillos " or Di- 
 minutive Hells. 
 
 The tropical vegetation so often described by trav- 
 ellers, presents the same general features in all 
 the regions of equatorial America in such manner 
 that when we follow Stephens (1839) and Ford 
 (1891) in Nicaragua, we seem to be going up the 
 same streams ascended by Agassiz (1868), in Brazil. 
 A narrow opening with high perpendicular banks, 
 covered with bushes, wild flowers and moss, roofed 
 over with branches of large trees, sometimes inter- 
 lacing from the opposite banks, and always covered 
 with lianes vines more or less luxuriant in growth. 
 
 The peninsula we are considering produces all the 
 staples of the tropics coffee, sugar, cacao (chocolate- 
 nut), bananas, and the rest. Columbus skirted along 
 the eastern coast, and with a geographical instinct 
 was persuaded that there was a connecting water- 
 way to the Pacific. 
 
 Lord Nelson, then captain, occupied San Juan, 
 and captured the castle by that name from the 
 Spaniards in 1780. 
 
 Here are monuments and idols of the pre-Colum- 
 bian era, and evidently of Aztec origin ; and here, 
 likewise, are the ruins of Mooresque Castillian 
 structures, as melancholy as those of Babylon or 
 Rome. 
 
 Here are ancient cities whose streets are paved 
 
Nicaragua. 37 
 
 with the marble of their own decay, spacious plazas, 
 lofty faades, with turrets and spires gorgeously 
 ornamented with stuccoed figures, magnificent cathe- 
 drals, arched and covered bridges, stately palaces 
 all now ruins ! 
 
 Ah ! but the laboring peasant, the simple hus- 
 bandman, paid for these in their day and genera- 
 tion just as the humble laborer and sturdy plough- 
 man are paying for many an empty pageant of to-day. 
 
 Such, then, in brief and blurred outline was the 
 Picturesque Physical Nicaragua of 1855 ; a country 
 in which the forces of nature agitate themselves in 
 an extraordinary manner, superinduced, no doubt, 
 by their proximity to the sun. 
 
 In 1855, according to Squier, the population of 
 Nicaragua was 300,000, distributed as follows : 
 Whites, 30,000 ; Negroes, 18,000 ; Indians, 96,000 ; 
 Meztizos, 156,000. 
 
 The Meztizos (which means in reality the Amalga- 
 mated races), it will be seen outnumbered all the 
 individual types combined. The pure Indians were 
 largely preponderant in the northern departments. 
 Some of them constitute a hardy, unconquered race 
 of people, resisting and defying the domination of 
 the Spaniards, while adopting their religion. No- 
 thing can convey to our minds a more realistic con- 
 ception of Nicaragua of 1855 than to suppose that 
 northern New York, for example, embracing half of 
 the State, were inhabited by a race of unconquered 
 Indians superior in numbers to the white population. 
 
38 Nicaragua. 
 
 Howeyer, these unconquered savages, Indian 
 bravos, as they were called, were beyond the region 
 which we necessarily penetrate in the history of 
 Walker. Walker's description of the native Indians 
 in the latter region answers very accurately to that 
 given by Agassiz of those he saw in Brazil. They 
 are ignorant, simple, docile and easily imposed 
 upon.* Walker was so impressed by these admir- 
 able qualities, that as we shall see, he proposed to 
 utilize them by reducing these Indians to slavery. 
 
 f ' The people of Nicaragua (says Stephens) are said to be the worst 
 in Central America, and they are proportionately devout, "t 
 
 Another traveller tells us they are much darker in 
 complexion than those of Costa Rica. Mr. Ford, 
 however, dwells enthusiastically upon the honesty 
 of the men and the homely virtues of the women as 
 witnessed by him in San Juan. Not even the hack- 
 men in that city are sufficiently civilized to cheat 
 the tourist ; a deficiency which certainly cannot be 
 attributed to the cabmen of Washington or London. J 
 
 Upon the whole, I think we may conclude that 
 the native population with which Walker had to 
 deal was about the same in character as that of 
 other Latin-American republics neither much bet- 
 ter, nor manifestly worse. 
 
 * A journey to Brazil. 
 
 + 2 Stephen's Travels in Central America, Ac., 19. 
 
 J Ford's Tropical Am., 880. 
 
Nicaragua. 39 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1854. 
 
 DESCENT OF WALKER UPON NICARAGUA LA FALANGE 
 
 AMERICANA REPULSE AT RIVAS, JUNE 29, 1855 
 
 DEFEATS GARDIOLA SEPTEMBER 3, 1855. 
 
 WALKER commences his narrative by an account 
 of his descent with a small party of " Filibusters '' 
 upon Sonora in Mexico. He says that that invasion 
 was instigated by a desire to protect the inhabitants 
 of that state from hostile Indians ; a proposition so 
 preposterous and improbable, that did not the au- 
 thor's fatal earnestness of disposition forbid, we 
 should think it intended for a grim bit of humor.* 
 
 His ventures against Mexico were closed by his 
 surrender to an American military officer, after re- 
 treating before a greatly superior force of Mexicans, 
 to whom he had given battle at La Paz. 
 
 The last remains of this unfortunate expedition 
 reached San Francisco about the middle of May, 
 1854. 
 
 After almost insuperable difficulties, Walker and 
 Cole succeeded in getting a liberal colonization 
 grant, under which three hundred Americans were 
 to be introduced into Nicaragua, "and were to be 
 guaranteed forever the privilege of bearing arms." 
 
 This grant was from D. Francisco Castellon, Pro- 
 
 The War in Nicaragua, 22. 
 
40 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 visional Director of Nicaragua, and leader of the 
 Democratic party. The republic was, as usual, in a 
 state of revolution, the Democrats being represented 
 as we have seen by Castellon, and the Legitimists by 
 D. Jose Maria Estrada. 
 
 After a stormy voyage from San Francisco, in his 
 vessel, the Vesta, Walker and his little band of fifty- 
 eight adventurers, armed with rifles and revolvers, 
 reached the port of Realejo on the 10th of June, 
 1855. 
 
 In the meantime the fortunes of Castellon had 
 been much impaired since his grant to Cole and 
 Walker in December, 1854. 
 
 Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatamala, having a 
 temporary respite from domestic revolution at home, 
 were paying some attention in a military way to the 
 civil war in Nicaragua. 
 
 From the harbor Walker and his party were con- 
 veyed up the river five miles to the town of Realejo 
 where they disembarked. In the ascent they passed 
 over the very ground trodden by the great English 
 buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan. We may here pause 
 to reflect that the same England that acquitted and 
 knighted her own free-booter afterwards captured 
 our American adventurer and turned him over to be 
 shot. 
 
 Walker was received with open arms by Castellon, 
 and the Americans were invited to enter his service 
 as a separate corps, to be called " La Falange Ameri- 
 cana" The American Phalanx. 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 41 
 
 On the 20th of June, Walker received his com- 
 mission as colonel in the Democratic army, and the 
 Minister of War informed him that commissions 
 would issue to others of his party as he might suggest. 
 
 This was accordingly done, and the Falange was 
 organized into two companies. He remained inac- 
 tive but three days, and at the expiration of that 
 time he is found again on board the Vesta, with his 
 Americans, and one hundred native troops, bound 
 for Rivas in the Meridional Department, then in the 
 possession of the Legitimists. The army of Estrada, 
 the Legitimist, was commanded by General Corral, 
 and that of Castellon, the Democrat, by General 
 Munoz. On the 27th of June, Walker landed at San 
 Juan del Sur and made preparations to attack Rivas. 
 On the 25th he captured the little village of Tapa, 
 and on the 29th assaulted Rivas. The Legitimists, 
 with about 500 men, were concentrated in the Plaza, 
 and the Americans entered the town and took pos- 
 session of the houses crowning the summit of the 
 hill of Santa Ursula. 
 
 The native troops, under Colonel Ramirez, did 
 not support Walker, but failed to advance. In the 
 meantime the enemy was reinforced by seventy-five 
 or eighty fresh troops from San Juan del Sur, under 
 Colonel Arguello, and these falling on Walker's 
 flank interposed themselves between him and the 
 native Democrats, whereupon the latter inconti^ 
 nently marched away toward Costa Rica, leaving 
 Walker to his fate. The gallant little band made a 
 
42 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 desperate sally, however, and made good their retreat. 
 The fight lasted four hours, and of his handful of 
 Americans Walker lost six killed, and twelve 
 wounded, of whom five were left in the town, only 
 to be captured and barbarously murdered. The 
 enemy lost, some seventy killed and as many 
 wounded. Walker had thus in less than a fortnight 
 after his arrival sailed a distance of 125 miles, and 
 lost more than one-fifth of his small band, including 
 some of his bravest officers Crocker and Kewen 
 killed, while Doubleday, Anderson, and De Brissot 
 were wounded. 
 
 On the 30th of June the little band, numbering 
 forty-five, reached San Juan del Sur in safety, though 
 a good deal the worse for wear, but " still clinging to 
 their rifles." 
 
 The Vesta not being in sight, Walker pressed 
 into service a Costa Rican schooner, San Jose, and 
 made his way back to sea, keeping a sharp look-out 
 for his own brig, which he subsequently overtook. 
 
 While Walker was waiting to embark on the San 
 Jose, two irresponsible persons, not connected with 
 his command, set fire to the barrack of the Legiti- 
 mists, just vacated by Colonel Arguello when he 
 marched to the assistance of Rivas. One of these 
 men was an American from California, and the other 
 a drunken sailor called Sam. Walker having got 
 possession of these men ordered them to be shot 
 without any form of trial. Sam, however, escaped 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 43 
 
 from his guards, but Dewey, defying Walker's au- 
 thority, was shot and killed. 
 
 Thus, before he had been in Nicaragua two weeks, 
 our adventurer had given the natives two signal 
 illustrations of traits which characterized his career 
 rashness and cruelty. It must be admitted, how- 
 ever, that when subsequently at San Juan del Sur, 
 he ordered his surgeon to treat the wounded prisoners 
 of war with the same care and attention bestowed 
 upon his own wounded, contrary to the prevailing 
 Central American custom of killing them on the 
 spot, Walker taught the natives a much more 
 salutary lesson. 
 
 When he got back to the port of Realejo, whence 
 he had sailed, he made an elaborate report to Cas- 
 tellon of his proceedings, and openly accused Gen- 
 eral Mufioz, who had opposed the expedition, of bad 
 faith, and charged that in deserting Walker at Bivas 
 Ramirez had behaved treacherously at the instiga- 
 tion of Mufioz. Castellon was too hard pressed, 
 however, to take up Walker's quarrels, and so he 
 endeavored to patch up a truce between him and 
 the commanding general. The opposing general, 
 Corral, had advanced northward from Granada and 
 was reported to have reached Managua at the head 
 of 1,000 Legitimists. 
 
 Now, Managua is but fifteen miles from Granada 
 and only forty from Leon, so that two days' forced 
 march would bring him upon the Democratic capi- 
 tal, Walker was a very good ally to have on hand 
 
44 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 in such an emergency, as he was entirely unac- 
 quainted with fear and given to exaggerating, as 
 with the wand of a wizard, his own resources. The 
 people were likewise partial to the Americans, be- 
 cause they cherished the hope that their presence 
 would ameliorate the horrors of the press-gang, that 
 scourge of Tropical America. 
 
 The cholera had now broken out at Managua, and 
 this proved a more efficient ally than Walker. If 
 Corral had any real design of a speedy march upon 
 the Democratic capital the ravages of the epidemic 
 among his troops soon drove him back to Granada. 
 
 Walker had determined upon another expedition 
 against the Meridional Department. His object was 
 manifest ; it was his fixed policy to get as near the 
 Transit as possible, in order to recruit from the pas- 
 sengers to and from California, and to have the 
 means of easy and rapid communication with the 
 United States. As a preliminary step, he gave up 
 his colonization grant and received in return author- 
 ity to recruit 300 men who were to be paid one hun- 
 dred dollars a month while in service, and a grant of 
 five hundred acres of land at the close of the cam- 
 paign. 
 
 About the middle of August, Walker got his 
 Falange aboard the Vesta at the port of Realejo, to- 
 gether with his friend Valle alias Chelon, at the 
 head of from 160 to 170 native recruits, considerably 
 weakened by desertion, however, and cholera. Valle, 
 who was a true Nicaraguan, did not like to let such 
 
1855]. Nicaragua. 45 
 
 a fine opportunity for counter-revolution escape him, 
 and but for Walker's dissuasion would have erected 
 his own Democratic standard, and the Red Ribbon 
 of Chelon in opposition to that of Castellon. 
 
 On the 29th of August, the Vesta made the port of 
 San Juan del Sur. She was too small to carry all of 
 Walker's army, and was followed by a " ketch," 
 (whatever that may be), containing a portion of the 
 native volunteers. 
 
 Upon landing at San Juan del Sur, Walker found 
 himself at the head of a force, consisting of fifty Ame- 
 ricans and one hundred and twenty natives; a num- 
 ber of the latter, however, sick with cholera, or 
 colerin. 
 
 From this period, say September 1st, commenced 
 a series of brilliant achievements by our adventurer, 
 which, had only judgment been vouchsafed him, must 
 have assured a career of extraordinary brilliancy, if 
 not of permanent success. 
 
 In some manner, not entirely explicable, one Gar- 
 diola, a professional revolutionist, distinguished by 
 his cruel and bloodthirsty career, had descended from 
 Honduras (for want of a convenient revolution at 
 home, perhaps), to take a hand in the civil war of 
 Nicaragua. When Walker was in the Occidental 
 Department, it was rumored that Gardiola was in 
 the north, and great apprehension prevailed at Chi- 
 nandega, where Walker was encamped, of his de- 
 scent upon that region. No sooner, however, does 
 Walker reach San Juan del Sur than Gardiola ap- 
 
46 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 pears at Rivas, and leaving there with six hundred 
 chosen men; and learning of Walker's march to Vir- 
 gin's Bay, the Legitimist captain follows close upon 
 him, and finally coming up with him on the 3rd of 
 September, vigorously attacks him in the town of 
 Virgin, on Lake Nicaragua. Walker's disposition of 
 his little force of 170 men seems to have been admi- 
 rable. He had now the advantage of the barricades 
 on his own side, and the deadly rifles of the Falange 
 did fearful execution among the advancing Legiti- 
 mists. Walker had his back to the Lake and his 
 front to the foe, and nobody, not even the natives 
 under Chelon alias ValU, expecting any quarter at 
 the hands of Gardiola, the struggle was to the death. 
 Victory declared for the Democrats, and Gardiola re- 
 treated, leaving sixty dead on the field, while Walker 
 had of the Falange only three or four wounded and 
 none killed, and of the natives (who under the faith- 
 ful Vall6 behaved quite differently from their conduct 
 at Rivas in June) two were killed and three wounded. 
 Walker himself made a narrow escape, having been 
 knocked down by a spent ball which struck him on 
 the throat. It was here that Walker again exhibited 
 a civilized example to the Nicaraguans, by directing 
 every care and attention to be bestowed upon the 
 wounded of the enemy who fell into his hands, not- 
 withstanding the fact that Gardiola was supposed to 
 fight under the black flag. 
 
 On the afternoon of September 4th, Walker con- 
 ducted his troops back to San Juan del Sur, elated by 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 47 
 
 victory, and enriched by over one hundred and fifty 
 muskets, and considerable ammunition, taken from 
 the enemy. 
 
 General Munoz (who seems to have been a pretty 
 considerable man, notwithstanding Walker's dislike 
 to him), had defeated Gardiola at Savce in the Occi- 
 dental Department, but had died of a wound received 
 in the engagement. 
 
 And now Castellon, worn out by the cares and 
 vexations of revolution, succumbed to the prevailing 
 scourge, just as Walker's courier arrived with the 
 glad tidings of his victory. 
 
 Castellon was a man of confiding, gentle nature, 
 much beloved and respected by his followers. 
 
 He was succeeded in the Provisional Directorship 
 by D. Nasario Escoto, being the senator designated 
 for the office by the Constitution of 1838. 
 
 At this point, in the outset of his career, Walker 
 set another worthy example to the Nicaraguans. 
 He would receive of native troops only volunteers, and 
 refused the forced levies which were, and still are, the 
 curse of Latin-America. He discouraged also the 
 seizure of private property by impressment. 
 
 The native troops, therefore, which the Provisional 
 Director forwarded to San Juan del Sur were but 
 few. On the other hand, many recruits Democrats 
 and exiles began to join Walker's standard in the 
 Meridional Department. 
 
 There was still another very bad practice pre- 
 valent in Nicaragua, which Walker found himself 
 
48 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 obliged to adopt, and that was forced contributions 
 from business men and traders to carry on the cam- 
 paign. While deprecating the necessity, he excuses 
 himself by saying that " reforms in revenue," as to 
 the method either of raising or collecting it, can- 
 not well be attempted in the midst of war. 
 
 The wisdom of his policy in establishing himself 
 in close proximity to the Transit now became appa- 
 rent. 
 
 Recruits were obtained from the passengers to and 
 from California, until by the middle of September he 
 had in his Falange sixty effective men, while Valle, 
 in spite of loss by cholera, had over two hundred 
 native troops. On the 3d of October, one Col. Charles 
 Gilman, a companion of Walker in lower California, 
 who had lost a leg there, arrived with thirty-five 
 stalwart recruits from California. 
 
 In the meantime Corral had come from the Occi- 
 dental Department, and assumed command of the 
 Legitimists at Rivas. 
 
Nicaragua. 49 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1855. 
 
 GRANADA CAPTURED BY A COUP D*AUDACE, OCTOBER 
 
 13, 1855 TREATY OF OCTOBER 23D PROVISIONAL 
 
 GOVERNMENT DON PATRICIO RIVAS, PRESIDENT ; 
 
 WALKER, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 
 
 WALKER now conceived the design of capturing 
 Granada, the capitol of the Legitimists, not for per- 
 manent occupation, but to gain vantage ground 
 whence he could treat for peace on better terms. 
 
 Accordingly, he marched to Virgin's Bay, and 
 there awaited the arrival of La Vergen, a steamer of 
 the Transit Company, engaged in transporting pas- 
 sengers and freight across the Isthmus. Notwith- 
 standing the protest of her captain, Walker em- 
 barked all of his force, and after employing every 
 precaution to conceal his movement from Corral, 
 who was still at Rivas, he landed his troops on the 
 night of the twelfth of October, and early the next 
 morning entered Granada. The Granadinos were 
 taken completely by surprise, and although there 
 were but few troops there, Walker was enabled to 
 capture many distinguished adherents and officials 
 of the party of the Legitimists. These, old Chelon, 
 alias Valle, proposed at once to shoot, in retaliation 
 for a similar favor the Legitimists had done to one 
 of the old Indian's brothers. But Walker sternly 
 interdicted all executions, and put a very peremp- 
 
50 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 tory stop to everthing like pillage or disorder. It 
 must have struck the inhabitants that after all the 
 scheme of the lamented Castellon "for the regenera- 
 tion of Nicaragua by the introduction of a new element " 
 was beginning to realize the dream of a better civili- 
 zation. 
 
 The United States minister, Hon. John W. Wheeler, 
 resided in Granada, and he consented to act for 
 Walker as one of a commission to wait upon Gen. 
 Corral and negotiate for terms of peace. This com- 
 mission reached Rivas about the middle of October, 
 but found that Corral had marched North on the 
 afternoon of the fourteenth. This interposition on 
 Wheeler's part, Corral highly resented, and the for- 
 mer returned to Granada without an interview. The 
 other commissioners met Corral on his march north- 
 ward and communicated to Walker that it was impos- 
 sible to get Corral to treat on any terms whatever. 
 
 In a few days Walker was reinforced by a party of 
 sixty filibusters from California, commanded by 
 Parker H. French and Col. Birkett D. Fry, the latter 
 a veteran of the Mexican War. These people came 
 from Virgin Bay to Granada in a vessel belonging to 
 the Transit Company, doubtless, so used under com- 
 pulsion, as had been " the Virgin " by Walker. This 
 so incensed the Legitimists that their soldiers com- 
 mitted sundry outrages upon the American passen- 
 gers at Rivas, plundered the building of the Transit 
 Company, and from Fort San Carlos fired upon one 
 of the steamers with fatal effect. 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 51 
 
 Walker in retaliation for these outrages ordered 
 one of his most distinguished prisoners, Mayorga, a 
 member of Estrada's cabinet, to be shot, which order 
 was promptly executed on the Plaza at Granada on 
 the twenty-second of October. 
 
 This murder of Mayorga led to consequences much 
 more fortunate for all parties than could have been 
 anticipated. For no sooner did the intelligence 
 reach Corral, who had now entered Masaya, and was 
 behind its barricades, than he and the other Legiti- 
 mists, many of whom had friends and relatives in 
 Granada, began to sue for peace. Accordingly, on 
 the twenty-third of October Corral and Walker agreed 
 upon the terms. On the part of the Legitimists 
 Corral had full powers omnimodamente to execute 
 the treaty, but on the part of the Democrats it had 
 to be sent to Leon for ratification. 
 
 In due time, however, it was confirmed at the 
 Democratic capitol, and became the law of the land. 
 By its terms Walker was to be placed at the head of 
 the army, and .all the other officers on both sides 
 were to retain their existing rank and pay. The 
 Americans were to be retained in the service of the 
 Republic, and the debts contracted by either party 
 were to be provided for. At Walker's suggestion the 
 articles of the Constitution of 1838, concerning natu- 
 ralization, were to remain in force. This must have 
 been inserted out of abundant caution, since there 
 was no suggestion from any quarter that the Consti- 
 tution should be abrogated, or in any manner im- 
 
52 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 paired. The white and red ribbons were to be 
 thrown aside, and the troops of the Republic were 
 to wear a blue ribbon with the device 
 
 NICAKAGUA INDEPENDIENTE. 
 
 Don Patricio Rivas, a man of moderate political 
 views, but inclined toward the Legitimists, was made 
 Chief Executive under the new Provisional Govern- 
 ment, to remain such for fourteen months, unless 
 his successor was sooner elected. The treaty was 
 ratified amid great popular acclaim, and with all due 
 solemnities of religion, Walker and Corral knelt side 
 by side and swore to observe and cause to be ob- 
 served the treaty of October the 23d, 1855. Rivas 
 assumed his new duties as Provisional President, 
 and appointed Corral Minister of War, and also Pre- 
 mier, or Chief Minister. On October 31st, General 
 Jerez arrived from Leon, accompanied by other pro- 
 minent Democrats. The new Cabinet was com- 
 pleted, there being one American in it, Parker H. 
 French, who was made minister of Hacienda, or, as 
 we would say in the United States, Minister of Agri- 
 culture. 
 
 The other Cabinet officers were Jerez, Minister of 
 Foreign Relations, and Ferrer, Walker's late Prefect, 
 Minister of Public Credit. 
 
 The point now reached, being the acme of Walk- 
 er's fortunes, is an appropriate one whence to take a 
 retrospect of what he has accomplished. It is now 
 but four months and a half since he landed at 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 53 
 
 Realejo in the Occident a.t the head of fifty-eight 
 American adventurers, with nothing in his pocket 
 but a land grant for colonization. In these four and 
 a half months he has invaded the Meridional Depart- 
 ment and fought two pitched battles, in the latter of 
 which he signally defeated an experienced general 
 of the Legitimist army, and captured large stores of 
 small arms and ammunition. He next embarks his 
 whole force on a steamer, which he runs past the 
 enemy and almost under his guns, and by a forced 
 march surprises and captures the capital city of the 
 Granadinos without loss to himself, but with fatal 
 damage to the Legitimists, in the important stores 
 and prisoners secured, but above all in the prestige 
 which he acquired by such bold, rapid and success- 
 ful operations. He finds himself now at the head of 
 nearly 600 volunteers American and native with 
 no conscripts and no traitors in his ranks. He nego- 
 tiates a peace whereby he is made Commander-in- 
 chief of the Army of the Republic. In the new Pro- 
 visional administration, his friends preponderate in 
 the Cabinet, in the proportion of three to two. He 
 has, moreover, relieved the Transit of the presence 
 of all menace and obstruction, for even before the 
 proclamation of peace the garrisons at San Carlos 
 and Rivas have disappeared. 
 
 Now, or never, are those roseate visions of a re- 
 generated Nicaragua, to be redeemed by the " infu- 
 sion of the new element/' and to lift themselves 
 above the horizon of doubt and incredulity. If our 
 
54 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 hero has the stuff of which great men are moulded, 
 from the pinnacle now attained, achievements worthy 
 of civilization will avouch that immortality, which 
 " All-telling Fame doth noise abroad." 
 
 On the 5th of November, amid the general rejoic- 
 ing at the return of peace, a startling event occurred 
 well calculated to shake the stability of the modus 
 vivendi which had taken shape in the new Pro- 
 visional Government. 
 
 General Corral, late at the head of the Legitimist 
 armies, had been chiefly instrumental in drawing 
 up the treaty of October 23d. Both he and Walker 
 had sworn to obey its terms. One of its conditions 
 was that Martinez, the Legitimist general, should 
 remain in command at Managua, and Zatruch at 
 Rivas. On November the 5th, Valle brought to 
 Walker intercepted communications sent by Corral, 
 the new Minister of War, to General Gardiola, who, 
 along with General Zatruch, had fled to Honduras. 
 
 There can be 110 manner of doubt that these letters 
 were directly aimed at the destruction or expulsion 
 of the Americans ; that their spirit was in violation 
 of the new treaty, and hostile to the new govern- 
 ment ; and as they called for assistance from other 
 Central American States, it may not be doubted that 
 they were overt acts of treason. Walker, as com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army, summoned a court- 
 martial, by whom Corral was arraigned, convicted 
 and sentenced to be shot. The court, which by the 
 choice of the defendant himself, was. composed en- 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 55 
 
 tirely of Americans, unanimously recommended the 
 minister to mercy. The principal citizens, includ- 
 ing many ladies of distinction, waited upon Walker 
 and united in the recommendation of the court. The 
 daughters of the accused fell upon their knees before 
 him and besought his mercy. But he remained in- 
 exorable, and at two o'clock in the afternoon of 
 November the 9th, the rifles are heard to ring out 
 on the Plaza, and the " New Element " has proved 
 itself a convert to the practices of the " Old Regime." 
 
 The vacancy occasioned by the death of Corral 
 was filled by the appointment of D. Buenaventura 
 Salva, a Democrat, so that the new ministry, with one 
 exception, was composed entirely of Walker's friends. 
 
 On the 10th of November, the new provisional 
 government was recognized by Mr. Wheeler, the 
 Minister of the United States. 
 
 But now, just at the very threshold of the new 
 administration, a blunder in policy is conceived and 
 executed, under Walker's auspices, which in due 
 season let loose the winds of .ZEolus, whose howl 
 became the Iliad of all his woes. 
 
 To maintain himself in Nicaragua, it was abso- 
 lutely essential that Walker should receive acces- 
 sions of Americans, and these could only be intro- 
 duced by way of the Transit across the Isthmus from 
 San Juan del Norte to San Juan del Sur. This 
 route had been opened in connection with a conces- 
 sion to a company of Americans made for the purpose 
 of connecting the two oceans by a ship canal. 
 
56 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 There were two companies, one owning the con- 
 cession, or franchise (as we would say), called the 
 Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company, and the 
 other the Accessory Transit Company, the latter 
 holding the relation to the main corporation of the 
 modern " Construction Company." The construc- 
 tion of this canal was an enterprise which every 
 loyal citizen of the United States should encourage, 
 and which no true American would oppose. Had 
 Walker had the sublime ideal of a redeemed and 
 regenerated Nicaragua really and sincerely at heart 
 he would have realized the importance of the con- 
 struction and opening of this great artery through 
 which the pulsations of two oceans would give re- 
 newed vitality to the commerce of the world. This 
 enterprise presented an opportunity of advancement 
 far greater than any which he or Castellon or Rivas 
 had devised, or were capable of executing. 
 
 So far, however, from rising to the height of the 
 grand argument, Walker regarded the Inter-Oceanic 
 canal in the light only of an adjunct to his own fili- 
 bustering scheme of self-aggrandizement and power. 
 
 At the instigation of one or two personal friends 
 in San Francisco representing the interest of a pro- 
 jected new company, he entered into a conspiracy to 
 declare the charter of the canal company forfeited, 
 and to seize their property and place it in the hands 
 of a commission of his own selection. His course 
 in this matter was utterly unjustifiable either under 
 the Constitution of 1838 or under the laws which 
 
1855.] Nicaragua. 57 
 
 regulate international comity in civilized commu- 
 nities. 
 
 Except in countries absolutely despotic, there is 
 no authority to annul charters by executive decree, 
 and, still less, to seize private property or appoint 
 commissions to hold, administer, convert or dis- 
 tribute it. All this is matter of judicial cognizance, 
 and the exercise of any such authority by the execu- 
 tive is usurpation, and in the highest degree tyran- 
 nical and oppressive. The Constitution of Novem- 
 ber 12th, 1838, divides the government into three 
 departments, and defines the duties of each ; and 
 Walker, who had been a student of law, must have 
 known that in giving to executive "decree" the 
 authority of a judicial inquisition, or legislative en- 
 actment, he was trampling the constitution of his 
 adopted country under his feet. In due time it will 
 appear what bitter fruit this high handed measure 
 bore for its unfortunate projector. When these un- 
 justifiable proceedings had been concluded, Walker 
 proposed his new charter, and submitted it to Presi- 
 dent Rivas. 
 
 That there was a commercial deal in these trans- 
 actions, conducted upon a low personal plane, must 
 have become apparent to Rivas, prematurely for the 
 designs of Walker, for we are told that the Provi- 
 sional President signed the new charter, which dated 
 February 19, 1856, with extreme reluctance. 
 
 To show the folly of Walker's conduct toward the 
 Accessory Transit Company, we may mention that 
 
58 Nicaragua. [1855. 
 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt, its president, just before the 
 destruction and confiscation of his property, shipped 
 at his own expense two hundred and fifty recruits to 
 reinforce Walker's army. This was the friend, a 
 prince of financiers, whom our short-sighted ad- 
 venturer exchanged for some obscure friends of his 
 own, who finally deserted and abandoned him, even 
 before their own lamentable failure had lost to Nicara- 
 gua and to the world all present prospect of the execu- 
 tion of the most important work of modern times. 
 Had Vanderbilt been let alone, it is probable that 
 his genius might have accomplished this great work, 
 now again (1895) in process of construction. 
 
 Notwithstanding this stupendous blunder, Walker's 
 fortunes continued to thrive until in March, 1856, 
 he numbered 1,200 Americans citizens and soldiers 
 under his command or influence in Nicaragua. 
 With a cool, deliberate pilot at the helm, the vision 
 of regeneration, or at least palpable reform, ought now 
 to have shaped itself clearly above the horizon as 
 something capable of substantial realization "a 
 dream that was not all a dream." 
 
 Among the first acts of the new commander-in- 
 chief was to disband the native Nicaraguan troops, 
 and thus leave the military arm of the republic in the 
 control of the Americans. Now, as the latter were all 
 Democrats, this action would seem to be in violation 
 of, if not the letter, at least the spirit of the new treaty. 
 
 It needs no further comment to show the extreme 
 imprudence and impolicy of such a proceeding. 
 
Nicaragua. 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1856. 
 
 COSTA RICA DECLARES WAR A NEW ELECTION DE- 
 CREED WALKER BECOMES DICTATOR RIVAS AND 
 
 JEREZ ABANDON LEON, AND PROCEED TO CHINAN- 
 
 DEGA CENTRAL AMERICAN ALLIANCE AGAINST 
 
 WALKER FIRST BATTLE OF MASAYA, OCTOBER llTH, 
 
 1856 RELIEF OF GRANADA, OCTOBER 13TH, 1856 
 
 SECOND BATTLE OF MASAYA, NOVEMBER 15TH, 1856. 
 
 THE Republic under her new auspices had sent, 
 through General Jerez, Minister of Relations, the 
 terms of the treaty of October 23rd, with friendly 
 greetings, to the several Central American Republics. 
 To this circular only one State, San Salvador, re- 
 turned a favorable response. The others maintained 
 an ominous silence. Many Legitimists of Nicaragua 
 had taken refuge in Costa Rica, including Generals 
 Zatruch and Martinez. 
 
 Through the agitation of these and other influ- 
 ences a very hostile feeling towards the new order of 
 things in her northern neighbor was soon developed 
 in the little republic. 
 
 She soon began active preparations for war, and 
 was furnished arms and encouraged in her hostile 
 demonstrations by the government of England. 
 Similar hostile elements existed in the other repub- 
 lics. Honduras had just driven into exile her Lib- 
 
60 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 eral president, General Trinidad Cabanas, and no 
 less person than General Gardiola was canvassing 
 there to succeed in the presidential office. The pro- 
 fessional revolutionist of Central America is like 
 the professional politician in the United States, when 
 defeated in one quarter he turns up somewhere else, 
 with the irrepressible audacity of a loon of the Adi- 
 rondacks, or an ignis fatuus of the Dismal Swamp. 
 
 On the 1st of March, 1856, Costa Rica formally de- 
 clared war against the " Filibusters " in Nicaragua. 
 
 The president and leading spirit of Costa Rica was 
 D. Rafael Mora, a man of supreme energy, and by 
 nature as well as habit a revolutionist. 
 
 His declaration of war was not against the State of 
 Nicaragua, but distinctly against the colonized Ame- 
 ricans, whom he designated as " Filibusters." In this 
 declaration he raised and nourished the black flag, 
 declaring that all prisoners taken with arms in their 
 hands were to be shot. It may be appropriate here to 
 remark that during the late war between the United 
 States there arose ever and anon a hoarse cry upon 
 either side for the black flag ! This was resisted by 
 military men*, and was regarded by moderate men 
 of all parties as the echo of semi-civilization. 
 
 Let us see how General Walker was prepared to 
 meet the threatened invasion, which was aimed di- 
 rectly against himself and his American " Filibus- 
 ters." 
 
 "Among the original black flag idiots was General Fremont, whom Mr. 
 Lincoln rebuked. See Van Buren's Lincoln, page 116. 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 61 
 
 On the 1st of March, 1856, the regular American 
 force in the service amounted to six hundred men. 
 In addition to these there were several irregular 
 bodies of men along the line of the Transit Company, 
 amounting to about six hundred more, whom Walker 
 thought could be relied upon for defensive purposes 
 in case of foreign invasion. 
 
 About the 9th of March two hundred and fifty 
 fresh recruits arrived under direction of one Goicou- 
 ria, who was a Cuban, and in some way connected 
 with the Transit, and interested in Walker in a man- 
 ner commercial rather than military. On the llth 
 of October, Walker organized the new recruits into a 
 battalion of five companies and placed them under 
 command of Colonel Schlessinger. 
 
 On the same day (March llth, 1856,) the General- 
 in-Chief issued a proclamation declaring war against 
 the Legitimist party, and called upon the army to 
 throw aside the Blue Ribbon of October 23rd and re- 
 sume the Red Ribbon of Democracy. 
 
 General Walker, ever ready to act on the offensive, 
 determined to strike the first blow. There is in the 
 department of Guanacaste, which lies in the South, 
 immediately binding upon Costa Rica, much terri- 
 tory disputed between the two adjoining republics. 
 It was towards this territory that Walker sent a force 
 which was to intervene between the army of General 
 Mora and the Transit, it being a matter of deadly im- 
 portance to Walker to protect the Inter-oceanic com- 
 munication, whence his recruits were to be intro- 
 
62 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 duced. With this view, General Walker sent his 
 newly arrived battalion, under the command of Colo- 
 nel Schlessinger, consisting of two hundred and forty 
 men, divided into four companies, into the Meridional 
 Department. Two of these companies were Ameri- 
 can, and of the remaining two one was German and 
 the other French, with captains corresponding to 
 these respective nationalities. It was on the 16th of 
 March Schlessinger reached San Juan del Sur. 
 
 On the 20th he had reached what Walker styles 
 the "country-house"* of Santa Rosa, which is in 
 Costa Rica about a day's march south of San Juan 
 del Sur. Here Schlessinger was surprised, defeated, 
 and his battalion dispersed by the advanced forces 
 of Mora's army of Costa Ricans. 
 
 All of the Nicaraguans who were captured were put 
 to death without remorse nothing being permitted 
 to intervene between them and their fate except that 
 murderer's phrase "Court-martial" or "Military Com- 
 mission." 
 
 So ended the first expedition of the war with Costa 
 Rica. The incompetent Schlessinger was put upon 
 trial, but managed to desert and escape punishment. 
 
 This unfortunate disaster to his army at their out- 
 set had a most discouraging effect upon Walker's fol- 
 lowers. Desertions and applications for furloughs 
 were beginning to deplete his ranks. He determined 
 to carry his army southward towards the seat of war, 
 and to establish his headquarters at Rivas, in the 
 
 *On the maps it is put down as a town. 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 63 
 
 Meridiem. This he accordingly did before the 1st of 
 April, and the seat of government was at the same 
 time removed from Granada to Leon. Before leaving 
 Granada, however, the Provisional President issued 
 a decree placing the Meridional and Oriental Depart- 
 ments under martial law, whereby, as to these de- 
 partments, Walker was made substantially Dictator. 
 
 On March the 30th Walker had his whole army 
 concentrated at Rivas, and there addressed them on 
 the Plaza in language which seemed to inspire new 
 confidence and put a check to despondency and de- 
 sertion. 
 
 Meanwhile, his capital blunder in destroying Van- 
 derbilt's transit began to bear its legitimate fruit. 
 
 Not a recruit has reached him since Cornelius Van. 
 derbilt sent, at his own expense, the battalion of two 
 hundred and fifty men. 
 
 The transit had become apparently useless to 
 General Walker, and as the Occidental Department 
 was being threatened from the north by Guatamala, 
 he determined to march or sail back to Leon. Ac- 
 cordingly, on the 5th of April he embarked all his 
 force on the steamer San Carlos, and on the 8th all 
 were disembarked safely at Granada. No sooner had 
 Walker left Virgin Bay than General Mora, who had 
 crossed the frontier without Walker's knowledge^ 
 moved forward and took possession of the town. 
 Here his troops fired upon the American laborers 
 employed by the Transit Company, and broke open 
 and robbed the Company's building and burned 
 
64 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 their wharf to the water 's edge. Walker at Granada, 
 hearing of these proceedings by Mora, determined at 
 once to reverse his steps and attack Mora in Rivas. 
 The very next morning after landing, on the 9th of 
 April, Walker, at the head of 550 Americans, marched 
 out of Granada at daylight and took the road to Rivas. 
 Walker had discharged and disbanded all soldiers 
 that could not speak English a proceeding which 
 would seem to be unwise in the extreme. He had left 
 at Rivas a small body of native troops, and these, 
 under command of one Machado, a Cuban, escaped 
 Mora and rejoined Walker on his march. On the 
 morning of April llth Walker assailed Rivas, taking 
 the Costa Ricans entirely by surprise. The number 
 of the latter under Mora was estimated at three thou- 
 sand no doubt an overestimate. 
 
 Walker's information enabled him to locate the 
 headquarters of the Costa Rican general, and his 
 plan of attack was to concentrate around the house 
 occupied by Mora, and, if possible, capture him. in 
 person. 
 
 The attack was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Sanders 
 on the north of the Plaza with four companies, and 
 Major Brewster with three companies on the south, 
 while Colonel Natzmer with the Second Rifles was 
 to threaten the enemy's right flank while he kept in 
 supporting distance of Sanders. 
 
 Machado, with the natives, was to enter the Plaza 
 on the north and to the right of Sanders, while 
 Colonel Fry's light infantry was to be held in reserve. 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 65 
 
 The attack was well planned and gallantly exe- 
 cuted. In a short time the Americans had full pos- 
 session of the Plaza and all the houses around it. 
 The Costa Ricans took refuge in the western portion 
 of the town and fortified themselves in the adobe 
 houses, through which they cut loop-holes for defen- 
 sive firing. 
 
 The American troops with their rifles did deadly 
 execution, but they could not be brought to storm 
 the houses in which the enemy had taken refuge. 
 The latter did not remain entirely on the defensive, 
 but made one or two unsuccessful sallies after the 
 Americans had ceased to advance. 
 
 When night came on both parties seemed to be 
 exhausted, and Walker having no artillery and 
 despairing of storming the barricades of the Costa 
 Ricans determined to withdraw his force. With due 
 precaution and silent deliberation, shortly after mid- 
 night, the command left the Plaza and the town, the 
 wounded in the centre, and Major Brewster com- 
 manding the rear guard. 
 
 The Costa Ricans never discovered the departure 
 till after daylight, when they had crossed the river 
 Gil Gonzales, near Obraje. That night the command 
 encamped again on the banks of Ochamago Walker's 
 loss in the action was fifty-eight killed and sixty-two 
 wounded, in all, counting those missing, about 120 
 men. He estimates that of the enemy at about 200 
 killed and 400 wounded. On the Serapagui the 
 Costa Ricans, about 250 strong, were cutting a road 
 
66 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 to the San Juan river, to cut off Walker's communi- 
 cations, when they were, on the 10th of April, attacked 
 and routed by an inferior force under Captain Bald- 
 win. They retreated back to San Jose. 
 
 After his return to Granada, Walker had Father 
 Vigil, a worthy Catholic priest, appointed as Minister 
 to the United States by the Bivas administration. 
 The good father repaired to Washington, and on 
 reaching there was recognized by the American 
 Government. 
 
 The attack on Rivas, while unsuccessful in re- 
 deeming the Meridional Department from the Legiti- 
 mists and Costa Bicans, was, as an exhibition of bold 
 and dashing military operations, of great service to 
 the Americans. They had marched forty miles and 
 surprised the enemy in his barricades, inflicting 
 severe punishment ; had returned in good order, 
 and with but slight loss compared with that of the 
 enemy. 
 
 The march of Mora northward was effectually 
 checked, and his adherents much demoralized. 
 
 About the 21st of April, 200 new recruits were 
 brought in by General Hornsby, and twenty volun- 
 teers were added, who had come to join Walker at 
 their own expense. 
 
 Although the General-in-Chief had obeyed the 
 instincts of humanity in his treatment of defenceless 
 sick and wounded prisoners, yet his arbitrary char- 
 acter could not let the occasion of his regaining the 
 Meridional Department go by without some irregular 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 67 
 
 and unlawful execution. Accordingly, Francisco 
 Ugarte, a leader of the Legitimists, was seized, tried 
 by a " military commission/' and sentenced to be 
 hung a mode of execution "unusual in the country" 
 says Walker, "shooting being resorted to rather than 
 hanging.' 
 
 We have now reached another crisis in the history 
 of Walker in Central America. 
 
 In October, 1855, he had beaten the army of the 
 Legitimists before Rivas, and compelled them to sue 
 for peace. Now, has the tide of his adverse fortune 
 turned in his favor by dashing itself against the an- 
 cient capital of the Meridion. The attack of the 
 llth of April, though apparently a defeat, bore the 
 fruit, not of a single victory, but of a successful 
 campaign. Not only were the Costa Ricans ex- 
 pelled and humiliated, but in the north and east 
 in Segovia and Chantales the plots of the Legiti- 
 mists are quelled, and Mariona Salazar, who has 
 been sent as commissioner to Matagalpa and faithful 
 old Valle, who has been rewarded by a similar 
 appointment, both report entire order and submis- 
 sion to the Rivas administration in the northeastern 
 or temperate latitudes of the Republic. Father 
 Vigil, a Democrat, has been appointed Minister to 
 the United States, and what is more to the purpose, 
 has been recognized by the Great Republic of the 
 North. 
 
 Walker, as General-in-Chief of the army, seemed 
 now to enjoy the confidence of the natives, and is 
 
68 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 still receiving recruits from America. His main- 
 tenance of order in Nicaragua, and with it, a new 
 departure in Central American civilization, depend 
 now entirely upon himself. 
 
 Fortunately for history, he has furnished us in 
 the clearest and most accurate English, the form 
 into which his policy and designs at this crisis had 
 developed themselves. 
 
 (1.) Although, as I have intimated, Walker was 
 originally, perhaps, a disciple of the Manifest Des- 
 tiny cult, yet now that he has met with success, he 
 distinctly, almost scornfully, repudiates all idea of 
 annexation. 
 
 (2.) As for Republicanism and Civil Liberty, he 
 has not retained a vestige of veneration or regard 
 for them. His maxim of government for Nicaragua 
 is that " there can be but one head." His ideal is 
 the " Military Republic," in other words, that child 
 of Anarchy, called Dictatorship, is to this genuine 
 convert to Central American methods, the only 
 government for Nicaragua. 
 
 (3.) We are not left long in doubt as to the nomi- 
 nation and selection of this Dictator. Walker him- 
 self is to be the Santa Anna of Nicaragua. 
 
 (4.) Slavery is to be introduced. Perhaps of all 
 the rampant vagaries of American political agitators 
 of the nineteenth century, two forms will stand out 
 most prominently, like the Pillars of Hercules, be- 
 tween which the seas of disorder and the waves of 
 faction have lashed themselves to fury. One of 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 69 
 
 these is Abolitionism and the other that offspring of 
 Abolitionism, called the Slave Propaganda. To the 
 professional office-seeker in the United States, ideas, 
 platforms, principles, are only the hobby-horses 
 whereby men may ride into power. But under their 
 persistent stump oratory a few persons, generally 
 esteemed cranks, begin to think their indoctrination 
 sincere, and hence they advance upon action as the 
 fruit would follow the blossom. 
 
 So it was that John Brown not only became pos- 
 sible, but advanced from the criminal classes to the 
 ranks of the saints. 
 
 And so our poor unfortunate adventurer, after 
 having coined everything but his heart's blood into 
 the most astonishing career on record, begins from 
 fighter to turn philosopher. 
 
 (5) Not only does this achiever of astonishing tri- 
 umphs seek to reintroduce slavery into Nicaragua, 
 but he tells us that the native Indian would prove 
 the full equal of the negro as a slave, in docility and 
 behavior, and could no doubt be readily reduced to 
 that relation. In order to further this idea really 
 incapable of language Walker repeals all ordi- 
 nances which precede the Constitution of 1838, in- 
 cluding that which prohibited slavery. 
 
 Our adventurer, however, overlooked the fact that the 
 Constitution of 1838 did itself prohibit slavery, in any 
 form whatever. 
 
 But I am persuaded that my readers of the narra- 
 tive of this Central American John Brown are now 
 
70 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 prepared to understand the causes of his failure. He 
 was a man capable of producing great opportunities, 
 but without the power to subdue them. 
 
 It was necessary to group these principles and 
 designs of Walker in advance of his own narrative, 
 in order to understand the unfolding of events in 
 Nicaragua, and especially his abandonment by the 
 Democratic party, at whose invitation he had entered 
 the Republic, and whose crimson colors decorated 
 his army. 
 
 Being a fearless, outspoken man, there can be 
 no doubt that the prominent men of all parties 
 began to understand something now of his real de- 
 signs, and the methods by which he proposed to 
 accomplish them. What he calls " the defection of 
 Rivas " would appear a most natural and patriotic 
 proceeding, when the lofty ambition and real char- 
 acter of Walker were revealed to the Provisional 
 President. 
 
 About the period we have reached say June 9th, 
 1856 rumors were authentic that President Carrera, 
 of Guatamala, had sent a large force southward, then 
 on the march against Nicaragua. This fact Rivas 
 made the subject of proclamation to the people, pub- 
 lished on June the 3d. 
 
 It may not be amiss at this point to inquire who 
 this Carrera was, that his name should inspire such 
 terror in Central America. There can be no doubt 
 that since the historic era, from the aboriginal stock 
 there has sprung no man at all comparable to Car- 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 71 
 
 rera.* In the north we have had Philip, Black 
 Hawk and Tecumseh, and in the south we have golden 
 myths of Montezuma and Guatemozin. But it was 
 reserved for Carrera alone to take up successfully 
 the gage of battle for his native race, to be hailed 
 by them as their savior, f To bring to his feet the 
 old Spanish aristocrats, to defend the church, to 
 organize government, evoke order out of chaos, and 
 subduing the restless elements of a mixed Central 
 American population, to remain steadily at the helm 
 of state for fourteen consecutive years. The regret 
 that all must experience is that this truly great man 
 has had no historian, and like so many others, is as 
 yet only to be seen as depicted by his enemies. His 
 career had commenced under a flag inscribed " Death 
 to whites, foreigners and heretics." 
 
 Mr. Squier, who visited Central America about 
 this time, places the peace footing of Carrera's army 
 at 1,550 men, and 125 officers; but adds that in an 
 emergency 10,000 men could be raised in the Re- 
 public. Such was the army, and such the captain 
 that was threatening Nicaragua from the north. 
 
 Walker concentrated his command at Granada, 
 and having now thoroughly mastered the science of 
 government as administered in Central America, he 
 issued a pronunciamento constructing a new pro- 
 visional government, with his old friend, D. Ermin 
 Ferrer at its head. Rivas rescinded his election 
 
 * Unless we should except President Diaz, of Mexico, 
 t Squier, 514, 517. 
 
72 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 decree, which Walker had forced upon him; but in 
 the Oriental and Meridional Departments, the elec- 
 tion was proceeded with, and the commander-in- 
 chief was chosen, and on the 12th of July, cere- 
 moniously inaugurated as president of Nicaragua. 
 
 In his pronunciamento, Walker had based his 
 action upon the treaty of October 23d, which he had 
 sworn to obey and cause to be obeyed, but he con- 
 veniently overlooked the fact that the treaty ex- 
 pressly recognized the Constitution of 1838, (which 
 the contracting parties had no power to abrogate, 
 even if so inclined), which, modeled after that of the 
 United States, required the president to be a native of 
 the Republic. Neither do we hear anything more 
 about those representatives and senators, who were 
 to be elected at the same time. 
 
 A few of the leaders among the natives adhered to 
 Walker's fortunes, notably the faithful old Indian, 
 Valle. But a large majority joined the allies along 
 with Rivas, Jerez, and Salazar. The last named 
 having subsequently fallen into Walker's hands was 
 forthwith shot by his order in the Plaza of Granada, 
 doubtless, near the very spot where Corral was exe- 
 cuted in the same way a few months before. Upon 
 this coincidence Walker remarks with grim satisfac- 
 tion : "There was the same joyful feeling shown by 
 the old Legitimists at the death of Salazar as had been 
 shown by the Democrats at the execution of Corral." 
 
 In the latter part of June and 1st of July, Walker 
 received over 200 new recruits from various sections 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 73 
 
 of the United States. He also seized a Costa Rican 
 schooner, the San JosS, and converted her into a 
 vessel of war called the Granada. Armed with two 
 six-pound carronades she was placed under command 
 of Lieutenant Faysson, a native of Missouri, and an 
 adventurer, but of high courage and ability. 
 
 The forces of the allies were under the command 
 of General Ramon Belloso, a San Salvadorian, and 
 numbered probably 1,800 men, namely 500 from 
 Guatamala, 500 from San Salvador, and 800 native 
 Nicaraguans. The Guatamalans, under General 
 Paredes, were nearly all Indians. 
 
 Walker ought to have had from 700 to 800 Ameri- 
 cans under him. As early as the month of August, 
 however, he begins to complain that desertions were 
 thinning his ranks, though these were principally 
 confined to the Europeans whom he had enlisted. 
 
 The Republic was now blessed with only three 
 presidents : Walker in the Meridional Department, 
 with headquarters at Granada ; Rivas in the Occi- 
 dental, at Leon ; and Estrada, the Legitimist, who, 
 after having taken refuge in Honduras, had again 
 stepped upon the revolutionary stage, and was star- 
 ring, so to speak, in the Septentrional regions, with 
 headquarters at a mountain village called Samoto 
 Grande. The situation was somewhat relieved, 
 however, by the early murder of Estrada by a band 
 of Democrats from Leon, who came upon him in his 
 mountain retreat unawares. Thereafter the Legiti- 
 mists gave in their adherence to President Rivas. 
 
74 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 If ever there was a time in which a ruler needed 
 to conciliate his people and weld them together in 
 the bonds of a common patriotism, Walker had 
 reached that crisis in the course of his affairs. 
 
 So far, however, from yielding to these dictates of 
 rational judgment, the new President, surrounded 
 by a cabinet of shadows, the Premier being his old 
 Prefect, Ferrer, enters forthwith upon his schemes 
 by promulgating a series of most despotic and extra- 
 ordinary decrees, every one of which was calculated 
 to alienate his people, outrage their feelings, and 
 concentrate all Central America against him. 
 
 The first of these decrees was intended practically 
 to substitute the English language for the Spanish 
 in all public and official proceedings. 
 
 Then came a decree declaring the property of all 
 enemies of the State forfeited to the Republic, and a 
 board of commissioners was appointed to take pos- 
 session of and sell all such confiscated properties. 
 At these sales military scrip was receivable in pay- 
 ment, thus enabling those engaged in arms with 
 Walker to. seize the estates of those opposing him. 
 Thirdly, a registration law was decreed whereby all 
 land titles and claims were to be recorded within six 
 months. With a frankness worthy of Carrera, Walker 
 tells us that the tendency and object of these decrees 
 were to place the lands of the country into the hands 
 of the white race. But his crowning act of folly, if 
 not insanity, was the decree of September 22d, which 
 was intended to legitimate the institution of slavery. 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 75 
 
 I have before shown how futile this decree was for 
 any such purpose, because, though reciting the Con- 
 stitution of 1838, its effect, if such as our Dictator in- 
 tended, would have been in direct violation of that 
 Constitution, which defines the rights of man to be 
 " Liberty, equality, security of life and property, all 
 of which are inseparable and inalienable, and inhe- 
 rent in the nature of man/' Again : " Every man 
 is free, and can neither sell himself nor be sold by 
 others.'' 
 
 But enough of this dreary review of Walker's fatu- 
 ity and pre-ordained hurdle-race to his own over- 
 throw and destruction. 
 
 We may dismiss his political efforts and philoso- 
 phies by calling attention to the fact that the Na- 
 tional Democratic platform of the United States, 
 adopted at Cincinnati June 2d, 1856, contains a reso- 
 lution drawn, it is said, by Hon. Pierre Soule, which 
 is worthy of notice, and which Walker intimates was 
 intended as an endorsement of his career. But when 
 we remember that he was in reality the enemy of the 
 Inter-oceanic Canal, we may honor the just and pa- 
 triotic sentiments of Soule, while we deprecate the 
 insincerity of Walker. It is pleasant to reflect that 
 amidst the unseasoned and worm-eaten lumber in- 
 troduced into recent party platforms, the Democratic 
 party of the United States has again expressed its 
 desire in its platform adopted at Chicago on the 22d 
 of June, 1892, for the completion of this the most 
 important enterprise of modern times. 
 
76 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 On the 12th of September, Walker had under him 
 about 800 effective men. The First Rifles, number- 
 ing about 200, were at Granada ; the Second Rifles, 
 under Colonel McDonald, were at Tipitapa, a small 
 town twenty miles northwest of Granada, on Lake 
 Managua. Small detachments were at Masaya and 
 Managua respectively, and two companies of infantry, 
 under Colonel Rudler, were guarding the San Juan 
 river. On the 14th of September a detachment, 
 under Lieutenant-Colonel Byron Cole, assaulted a 
 country villa, or. hacienda, called San Jacinto, a few 
 miles north of Tipitapa. Cole, who was one of the 
 originators of Walker's invasion, was unfortunately 
 killed and his party defeated. 
 
 About the same time General Belloso, commanding 
 the allied forces, left Leon at the head of about 1,800 
 men, and commenced his march upon Granada. 
 Walker's detachments, stationed along the route at 
 Masaya and Managua, fell back toward Granada. At 
 Nindiri, three miles from Masaya, Belloso was joined 
 by General Martinez with a reinforcement of 400 or 
 500 native Nicaraguan recruits, gathered from the 
 Northern Department. 
 
 The fighting was now about to recommence in 
 earnest. About the 1st of October, Walker received 
 new accessions to his forces from California and 
 other parts amounting to 175 men, also four hundred 
 minie rifles and two mountain howitzers a most 
 useful weapon in a country without railway trans- 
 portation. 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 77 
 
 Walker, following his usual tactics of assailing the 
 enemy, marched upon Masaya with 800 men, leaving 
 Colonel Fry with 200 reserves in Granada. On the 
 10th of October the American general attacked 
 General Belloso in Masaya. The San Salvadorian 
 withdrew all of his forces into the main Plaza and 
 the houses immediately around it. The Americans 
 occupied the Plazueta of San Sebastian, and com- 
 menced cutting their way through the adobe houses 
 to the Plaza. When darkness set in they had made 
 such progress under the lead of Captain Schwartz of 
 the artillery, supported by Captain McChesney of 
 the Rifles, and Dreux of the Infantry, that the tier 
 of houses fronting on the Plaza alone separated them 
 from the enemy. 
 
 What would have been the result of the next day's 
 operations when the opposing forces were brought 
 face to face on the Plaza will ever remain obscured 
 in conjecture, for the reason that startling intelli- 
 gence now recalled Walker to the relief of his own 
 capital. 
 
 General Paredes, being sick at Leon, General Za- 
 vala was in command of the Guatamalan troops at 
 Diriomo, a small village about fifteen miles south of 
 Granada. Upon learning Walker's movements, Za- 
 vala marched at once upon Granada, and had been 
 assailing the city vigorously before the news reached 
 Walker. Immediately on hearing it, Walker early 
 on the morning of October 13th put his force in mo- 
 tion and attacked the enemy on the Jaltera of Gran- 
 
78 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 ada, where he had barricaded himself. The garri- 
 son, only 200 strong, commanded by Colonel Fry, 
 were inclosed in the Plaza, where they were gallantly 
 defending themselves. 
 
 When Walker came up the fight was sharp and de- 
 cisive. They Guatamalans were put to rout with the 
 loss of two pieces of artillery, and many men killed, 
 wounded, and captured. 
 
 The Guatamalans had behaved with great bru- 
 tality, and Walker complains bitterly of the soldiery, 
 "which an unlettered savage had let loose on the 
 plains of Nicaragua." 
 
 It may not be unjust, however, to reflect that this 
 "unlettered savage" (Carrera) was fighting for the 
 existence, independence or supremacy of his native 
 race, which Walker proposed to reduce to slavery. 
 
 During the operations around Masaya, Colonel 
 Laine, a gallant Cuban, aid to the General-in-Chief, 
 was taken prisoner and shot. If, however, the al- 
 lies supposed they could monopolize the business of 
 shooting, they mistook their man. Walker retaliated 
 promptly by shooting a Guatamalan officer of equal 
 rank, and also a captain the latter thrown in by 
 way of good measure. 
 
 Up to this date, say the middle of October, the 
 allies had nothing to boast of in their unequal con- 
 flict with the filibusters. They were still in posses- 
 sion of Masaya, it is true, but they had been routed 
 with frightful loss at Granada. 
 
 Just here we may remark that whenever Walker 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 79 
 
 was present on the field wifh his men, they behaved 
 with gallantry and spirit, and if not always victorious 
 were never thrown into confusion or demoralization. 
 We may justly claim for him, therefore, one essen- 
 tial quality of the successful general the faculty of 
 inspiripg confidence. Among his subordinates, many 
 of whom were as gallant spirits as ever illustrated 
 war, there seems to have been but one officer equal 
 to an independent command. That officer is now 
 about to step upon the theatre of the war in Nicara- 
 gua, made memorable by the achievements and ruins 
 with which his name is inseparably connected. 
 
 A few days after the battle of the 13th of October, 
 Colonel C. F. Henningsen arrived from New York 
 in charge of arms and ordnance stores for Walker. 
 The latter almost immediately conferred upon Hen- 
 ningsen the rank of Brigadier-General. 
 
 The age of adventure in America is over. We 
 have heard with our ears and our fathers have told 
 us of the achievements of such adventurers as Sir 
 Walter .Raleigh and Captain John Smith, governor 
 of Virginia, and sometime admiral of New England. 
 Had Henningsen lived in that era, he might have 
 achieved a similar renown. Born in England, in an 
 age of steam and order, he had fought with the Car- 
 lists in Spain, assisted Kossuth and his Hungarians, 
 and is now now an American filibuster. 
 
 Later on he joined the Army of Northern Virginia, 
 that superb array of soldiery of which the universe 
 will never cease to discourse. 
 
80 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 General Henningsen at once set about organizing 
 the artillery and instructing the infantry in the use 
 of the minie rifle. 
 
 On November 2d, General Hornsby was sent from 
 Granada to Virgin Bay with 175 men to protect the 
 Transit. Subsequently, he was reinforced by San- 
 ders with 150 rifles, and a howitzer under Captain 
 Dulany, his effective force being on the 10th of No- 
 vember 250 men. General Jose M. Caiias, com- 
 manding the vanguard of the Costa Rican army, 
 was threatening the Transit. Hornsby made a 
 movement against Caiias near Virgin Bay, but the 
 attack (as usually the case, Walker being absent) 
 was unsuccessful. Thereupon, on the llth of No- 
 vember, Walker, at the head of 250 men, repaired to 
 Virgin Bay, taking with him Henningsen, a how- 
 itzer, a mortar, and a squad of sappers and miners. 
 Walker, with that celerity of movement which was 
 his cardinal virtue as a military man, reached Vir- 
 gin Bay on November llth, in the afternoon, and at 
 daybreak the next morning assaulted Caiias (com- 
 manding 800 Costa Ricans) so furiously that he was 
 compelled to retreat in great disorder. He was 
 driven through San Juan del Sur across the river, up 
 the coast-trail to Rivas, where Walker left him be- 
 hind his barricades defeated and demoralized. 
 
 Walker had been diverted from his former attack 
 upon Belloso, at Masaya, by Zavala's counter-attack 
 on Granada. He seems to have been very anxious 
 to repeat the experiment against Masaya since he 
 
1856.] Nicaragua. 81 
 
 now had the assistance of Henningsen and a much 
 more effective artillery corps, which Henningsen and 
 Major Swingle had organized. 
 
 The troops were re-embarked, therefore, at Virgin 
 Bay, except Colonel Markham with the First Rifles, 
 who was left at the latter point. 
 
 On the morning of the 15th of November, the 
 Americans, 550 strong, were again on the march 
 from Granada upon Masaya. 
 
 Before half the distance was accomplished, how- 
 ever, information was received that Jerez had marched 
 to join Canas at Rivas with 700 or 800 men. To meet 
 this new danger to the Transit, General Walker or- 
 dered Colonel Jacques back to Granada with his 
 infantry, there to re-embark for Virgin Bay. Reduced 
 now to less than 300 men, the attack on Masaya, one 
 would suppose, would be abandoned. No good result 
 could be derived from such an attack unless the de- 
 feat of the enemy should be so decisive as to drive 
 him back to Leon and relieve Granada from the 
 threatened environment. Such a decisive defeat or 
 route under the circumstances would seem chimerical. 
 
 Nevertheless, our General's mania for assailing 
 fortified towns with an inferior force impelled him 
 forward, and, accordingly, on the 16th of November, 
 the enemy's pickets were driven in and a furious 
 assault made upon Masaya. The Rangers were led 
 to the attack by Waters, and the Rifles by Sanders, 
 while Henningsen poured into the enemy a most 
 destructive rain of cannister and round shot, until 
 
82 Nicaragua. [1856. 
 
 the Allies were driven from the suburbs into the 
 main town, and the Americans took possession of 
 the high ground which the former had abandoned. 
 This victory of November 15th, indecisive as it was, 
 was dearly purchased at a cost to Walker of one- 
 third of his command in killed and wounded, in- 
 cluding some valuable officers. Lieutenant Stahl 
 was killed, and Swartz, Eubanks and West wounded. 
 The attack was continued on the 16th and 17th, 
 until dark of the latter day. The Americans had 
 succeeded in driving the Allies into the Plaza, and 
 were within twenty-five or thirty yards of the houses 
 which were held by the enemy. 
 
 At midnight of the 17th of November, Walker, 
 concluding that more time would be required to dis- 
 lodge his adversary than he could well spare, and 
 his little force being much exhausted, resolved to 
 retire to Granada preparatory to abandoning the 
 Occidental Department. The retreat was orderly 
 and unmolested, and on the 18th Walker re-entered 
 Granada. 
 
Nicaragua 83 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1857. 
 ABANDONMENT OF THE OCCIDENT DEFENCE OF THE 
 
 GUADALUPE " AQUI FUE GRANADA " SPENCER ON 
 
 HIS RAFT THE TRANSIT CLOSED THE ALLIES CLOSE 
 
 AROUND WALKER AT RIVAS HE SURRENDERS TO 
 
 CAPTAIN DAVIS OF THE U. S. WAR-SCHOONER, SAINT 
 MARY, MAY 1ST., 1857. 
 
 IT seems probable that the Allies- had been re? 
 inforced by a large body of Guatamalans just before 
 the attack of the 15th, and it is certain their num- 
 ber was four or five times as great as that of Walker. 
 
 The abandonment of the Occident was from the 
 nature of the case, the last act in the drama of fili- 
 busterism in Nicaragua. It is only to be regretted 
 that Walker gave to it such a tragical prologue as 
 the wanton burning of Granada. 
 
 Twelve months before he had condemned to death 
 two citizens who burned an empty barrack in a 
 small town for fear he might be suspected of hav- 
 ing connived at the act. Now he has become so 
 thoroughly Central Americanized that he deliber- 
 ately devotes to destruction an ancient and beauti- 
 ful city of 10,000 inhabitants, with no conceivable 
 motive except vandalism, born of defeat, exaspera- 
 tion and revenge. 
 
 The work of burning Granada was intrusted to 
 
84 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 General Henningsen, left behind for that purpose, 
 while the general-in-chief repaired in person to Vir- 
 gin Bay, having first sent away his sick and wounded 
 to Omotepec Island, in lake Nicaragua. 
 
 Perhaps the most gifted officer in Walker's service 
 was Captain Callender Irwine Fayssoux, whom Walker 
 had placed in command of the schooner Granada. On 
 the 23d of December, on Lake Nicaragua, this gal- 
 lant officer engaged the Costa Rican brig, Once de 
 Abril. The log of the Granada tells the story briefly 
 and graphically: "At six, within four hundred yards 
 of her, she fired round shot and musketry at us. At 
 eight we blew her up. At ten we had taken from 
 the sea her captain and forty men." The brig car- 
 ried four nine-pounders and 114 men, all of whom 
 were lost, except those whom Fayssoux picked up. 
 His own loss was one killed and eight wounded. To 
 the credit of Walker, it must be stated that he treated 
 these nautical prisoners with the greatest kindness 
 and gave them passports to return to Costa Rica. 
 
 Nor did he fail to reward Fayssoux, though in 
 a manner not quite so realistic as was his kindness to 
 the captured sea-farers. " The day after the action 
 with the ' Once de Abril,' says he, ' Fayssoux was pro- 
 moted to the rank of captain, and the estate of Rosa- 
 rio, near Rivas, was bestowed on him for the signal 
 services he had rendered the Republic. 
 
 Considering that Walker had not yet captured 
 Rivas, his generosity in giving away the estates of 
 Rosario, must have appealed to Fayssoux's sense of 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 85 
 
 humor. Capture and possession in the natural 
 order of events, should precede final disposition. 
 
 We now approach one of the most remarkable 
 achievements of what General Henningsen styles 
 " irregular troops " The destruction of Granada, in- 
 trusted to General Henningsen and his successful 
 retirement therefrom, in the face of an overwhelm- 
 ing force of the enemy, is a passage comparable to 
 the retreat of the 10,000. Fortunately, Henningsen 
 lived to write out a history in daily detail of his 
 retreat, and this publication, now out of print, was 
 delivered by him into my hands, as it originally ap- 
 peared, with illustrations in the Golden Prize, a 
 periodical published in New York. 
 
 Henningsen was not a man calculated to be of any 
 service to Walker in any other than a military ca- 
 pacity. He had the simplicity of a child, with the 
 courage of a veteran. His whole nature was an ex- 
 pression of military adventure, and he knew nothing 
 of affairs. 
 
 In the military code he recognized that there was 
 but one phrase "Obedience to orders/' Although 
 his name is generally connected with the destruc- 
 tion of Granada, and although unpeopled structures 
 would proclaim to travelers 4he barbarism of their 
 destroyer, yet, in reality, Henningsen was the in- 
 strument, not the projector; the torch, not the in- 
 cendiary. 
 
 The naked cathedral walls of Leon * respond to 
 
 For a description of the ruins of Leon, see II. Stevens, 22. 
 
86 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 those of Granada, and ruins answer unto ruins. 
 Central America is herself responsible for her own 
 destruction and desolation. Walker was only a con- 
 vert to the customs of the country ; and although a 
 filibuster, yet he became a Central American. His 
 naturalization was not formal only, but real. 
 
 At three o'clock in the afternoon of the 24th of 
 November, the Allies attacked the city at three 
 points. Exclusive of officers and citizens, Henning- 
 sen's fighting men reported fit for duty amounted to 
 about one hundred of all arms. Among native sol- 
 diery, however, raised by forced levy and mostly 
 Indians, there can be no doubt that artillery, so ter- 
 ribly destructive at close range, inspired a whole- 
 some dread, otherwise it would be inconceivable why 
 Henningsen's little force was not swept out of exis- 
 tence by the simultaneous attacks. 
 
 The main part of the town was now in ruins, being 
 destroyed down to the Plaza, where the Americans 
 were concentrated. The fighting on the 24th was 
 closed by a memorable charge of Colonel Neale 
 (whose brother had been killed earlier in the day), 
 at the head of thirty-two picked riflemen, against 
 four or five hundred of the Allies. Neale plunged 
 into their midst with his riflemen, shooting right and 
 left with revolvers, putting them to flight and leav- 
 ing over one hundred of them killed and wounded 
 on the field. Henningsen says he counted sixteen 
 dead bodies in a spot not forty-five feet square, where 
 the first rifle volley was fired. 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 87 
 
 On the 25th, Henningsen ascertained his force to 
 be 257 strong *, encumbered by seventy-three wound- 
 ed and sick, and seventy women and children. Of his 
 original force twenty-seven were cut off at the wharf, 
 which was about four hundred yards from the Plaza, 
 between which and the wharf the enemy had seized 
 two churches, thus intervening between the Ameri- 
 can and his point of embarkation. He had sixty 
 horses, and flour for seven days' rations; also six 
 pieces of artillery, but only a limited and wholly in- 
 sufficient supply of ammunition. 
 
 The little detachment, cut off at the wharf, defended 
 itself gallantly for some days until a deserter, inform- 
 ing the enemy of the smallness of their numbers, 
 they were set upon and after some loss compelled to 
 surrender. 
 
 Henningsen had destroyed all the houses of the 
 town except those immediately around the Plaza, 
 and nothing remained but to burn these and embark 
 his troops. But as the enemy had seized two churches 
 which commanded his route to the Lake, there was 
 necessity to dislodge them. 
 
 Henningsen managed to let a large supply of 
 brandy fall into the hands of the attacking party, 
 and it is said the roar of their carousals rose above 
 that of the fire-arms and artillery. 
 
 On the 28th, under flag of truce, the Allies sent a 
 communication addressed " To the Commander-in- 
 
 Walker inadvertently states this as 227. 
 
88 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 Chief of the remains of Walker's forces/' signed by 
 Generals Paredes and Zavala of the Guatemalan, 
 General Martinez of the Nicaraguan, and General 
 Belloso of Salvador and Nicaraguan forces, inviting 
 surrender and promising protection and passports to 
 leave the country. To this Henningsen replied in 
 an answer, decided in its refusal, defiant and insult- 
 ing in its terms. The truth is, he had confident ex- 
 pectation of effecting his escape, and on the other 
 hand had no confidence in this promise of protection 
 in case he surrendered. 
 
 To add to the difficulties already surrounding the 
 American General and his devoted little band, pesti- 
 lence, in the form of cholera and typhus broke 
 out in his entrenched camp. Henningsen, however, 
 made the same discovery that Walker had before ob- 
 served, namely, that the natives were much more sus- 
 ceptible to disease than the Americans. Hence the 
 Allies suffered more than their adversaries, one of 
 their best commanders, General Paredes, being car- 
 ried off by the cholera. 
 
 In the meantime, during the sixteen or seventeen 
 days that Henningsen had been beleagured amid the 
 ashes of Walker's burnt capital, where was Walker 
 himself ? Not idle, we may be sure. 
 
 The filibuster general seemed to understand from 
 the outset that he was engaged in a desperate enter- 
 prise. But the ring of rifles on the Plaza which 
 would have haunted the imagination of an ordinary 
 adventurer, never seemed to disturb Walker or has- 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 89 
 
 ten his movements. He was, as a modern author 
 remarks, " A belated Cortez" born out of season.* 
 
 At Rivas, on the llth of April, 1856, he deliberately 
 put his back against the lake, with his front to the 
 enemy, so that retreat being impossible, the gage was 
 for victory or annihilation. He took his time about 
 relieving Henningsen, steaming about on the lake 
 daily to see that his flag was still floating in the be- 
 leaguered city, but organizing at the same time for 
 defence in the Meridion. When the moment had 
 arrived to relieve the little garrison, he lands Colonel 
 Waters, with 175 Rangers, on the coast a few miles 
 above Granada, and steams away across the lake. 
 This was the burning of the Spanish ships, by which 
 he, in effect, said to Waters, cut your way through to 
 Granada or be obliterated. Waters, the hero of so 
 many fights, understood the alternative. 
 
 Between eleven o'clock and midnight of the 12th 
 of January, 1857, Henningsen heard in the distance 
 along the northern coast a fire of musketry, which 
 was immediately answered by the well-known sound 
 of the American rifles. Only those who have lis- 
 tened to the peals of a not distant battle can appre- 
 ciate the feelings of the devoted little band of fili- 
 busters, when they heard the inspiring music of 
 these sharp and dangerously angry rifles. Neither 
 was their clangor a vain noise, for in due season the 
 gallant Colonel Waters, having carried four barri- 
 cades against immense odds, entered Granada, and 
 
 * Ford's Tropical America, 372. 
 
90 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 with 155 men, of whom thirty were wounded, joined 
 Henningsen. 
 
 Henningsen's force now numbered 200 good fight- 
 ing men, and the Allies despairing of being able to 
 hold the wharf, set fire to and abandoned it. The 
 day of deliverance for the little army was at hand. 
 The Allies, apparently disheartened, and with a 
 wholesome dread of the improvised round shot and 
 cannister, made no serious effort to disturb the em- 
 barkation until all were safely on board the Virgin. 
 General Henningsen fired a parting shot with his 
 own hand from the window of the Guadalupe Cathe- 
 dral. On abandoning Fort Henry he stuck up a 
 lance with the inscription : Aqui fue Granada (Here 
 stood Granada.) 
 
 Whatever we may think of the act as an act of 
 war, we can but concur with Henningsen's report 
 that as a military achievement the defence of and suc- 
 cessful retreat from Granada has few parallels in 
 the history of " irregular armies." 
 
 Henningsen estimates that first and last the Allies 
 brought to bear against him a force of not less than 
 4,000 men. Their loss in killed and wounded was 
 over 800 ; this does not include those who died of 
 typhus and cholera. 
 
 Against this force Henningsen held out from the 
 24th of November, 1856, to the llth of January, 
 1857. The total force under his command when he 
 was surprised on November 24th (1856), numbered 
 419, of whom 110 were killed or wounded, 120 died 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 91 
 
 of disease, cholera and fever, nearly forty deserted, 
 and two were made prisoners. Out of the original 
 419, therefore, only 166 embarked on the Virgin ; 
 while of the force brought in by Colonel Waters on 
 the 12th of January, 1857, fourteen were killed and 
 thirty wounded out of 175. And so ended the 
 siege, defence and destruction of Granada. The va- 
 cant Plaza, the roofless Esquipulas and the ruined 
 Guadalupe are there still, almost as Henningsen left 
 them.* 
 
 The inhabitants returned in due time, but pros- 
 perity and peace these were still in exile. The 
 population of Granada, according to the figures of 
 the " Bureau of American Republics," is 15,000, 
 about what it was when Henningsen commenced its 
 destruction in November, 1856. 
 
 The American artillery had instilled a wholesome 
 dread in the minds of the Allied soldiery, and when 
 it was learned that Henningsen was relieved and had 
 joined Walker and that the latter was on his way to 
 the Meridional Department, the enemy abandoned 
 that department and marched northward to join Bel- 
 loso at Masaya. On December llth, 1856, Walker 
 had again taken possession of Rivas. 
 
 After the burning of Granada nothing but mis- 
 fortune seemed to pursue the steps of our dictator 
 on Nicaraguan soil. One Spencer, an American, 
 had espoused the cause of Costa Rica, and undertook 
 to place General Jos6 Joaquin Mora, brother to the 
 
 * Ford's Tropical America, 1893, p. 372. 
 
92 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 President Don Rafael Mora, in possession of the 
 Transit route, and all the company's steamers on 
 the San Juan, and in the port of San Juan del Norte. 
 
 This ingenious and daring American did more to 
 bring the Nicaraguan war to a speedy close than Mora. 
 Belloso, Zavala, or Martinez, or all of them combined, 
 I have already shown the vital importance to Walker 
 of holding the Transit and keeping open the Inter- 
 oceanic communication. This closed, and the artery 
 which fed the heart of Walker's enterprise would 
 cease to supply life to his adventure. 
 
 I have before remarked that Walker had not a 
 single subordiate except Henningsen (and since his 
 gallant march to relieve Granada, I suppose I should 
 except Colonel Waters) equal to a separate command. 
 The same old story of defeat, disaster, surprise, and 
 incompetency has repeated itself from the day when 
 poor Byron Cole fell before a cattle hacienda, near 
 Tipitapa (San Jacinto), to Schlessinger's disgrace 
 at Santa Rosa ; and now we approach Lockridge's 
 dissolution of any army of 500 men in the face of 
 the enemy on the San Juan. 
 
 The officer whom Walker assigned to guard the 
 Transit, near the mouth of the Serapini, was one 
 Colonel Thompson. Spencer marched from the 
 capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, to a point on the 
 river San Carlos, and thence floated his men, about 
 120 in number, down to the mouth of the Serapini. 
 There he fell upon Thompson, who separated from 
 his arms, and without a sentry posted was quietly 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 93 
 
 eating his dinner. Most of his men were killed or 
 wounded, and the remainder captured. This was 
 the first reward of Spencer's genius, acting upon the 
 incompetency of Walker's subordinates. 
 
 An effort has been made to produce the impres- 
 sion that Walker's ranks were recruited mainly 
 from the Southern States. No conception could be 
 more erroneous. Among his officers many were 
 English and German, such as Henningsen, Double- 
 day, Schwartz, and Swingle. Still more were north- 
 ern, such as the gallant Anderson, the feeble Lock- 
 ridge, Dolan, and many others. Two States sup- 
 plied beyond question the majority of his private 
 recruits New York and California. These were 
 both free States. His filibusters were literally, as 
 the poet tells us, * 
 
 " Blown from the four parts of the earth." 
 
 Lockridge, as I have stated, was a New York man, 
 and perhaps as capable of command as many other 
 civilians. But we must not forget two facts: First, 
 war is a science, and the average civilian at the head 
 of an independent command is like a ploughman at 
 the helm of a ship ; secondly, military academies 
 may instruct captains, but they cannot make them ; 
 the great commander is born. The point of what I 
 have written above is this, that Spencer was a born 
 achiever of events, while Lockridge was a born failure. 
 The former, in command of 125 men, proceeded 
 
 Joachin Miller. 
 
94 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 from one victory to another, until he had not only 
 control of the whole Transit from San Juan del 
 Horte to San Carlos, but had also captured both of 
 the lake steamers, La Virgen and San Carlos. 
 
 These events were like the ticking of the clock of 
 Walker's doom. He looks around in every direction 
 for relief, but finds none. He thinks the English 
 naval commander at San Juan ought to have pro- 
 tected the Transit steamers. He censures the United 
 States for having no war-ship there. 
 
 But why should the United States protect property 
 which Nicaragua, acting under Walker's dictation, 
 had confiscated. 
 
 The Costa Ricans, through the genius of the Ame- 
 rican, Spencer, are now in possession of the San 
 Juan, from San Carlos to the Caribbean Sea, and have 
 captured the two steamers which have hitherto con- 
 ducted Walker to all of his chief victories La Vir- 
 gen and San Carlos. Thus the physical impossibil- 
 ity of being in two or three places at the same time 
 has reduced our adventurer to very sore straits. 
 
 The interest excited in the United States by Walk- 
 er's partial successes began to enlist a considerable 
 amount of sympathy. The spirit of adventure was 
 rife; and but for the unfortunate loss of the Transit, 
 it is probable reinforcements would have been for- 
 warded in such numbers as to enable Walker to hold 
 his own, and eventually drive the Allies off the soil 
 of Nicaragua. 
 
 In the month of January some 240 men reached 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 95 
 
 San Juan del Norte intended as recruits for Walker's 
 army. Colonel Lockridge was selected by the agent 
 of the owners of the lake and river steamers to re- 
 gain possession of their property from the Costa 
 Kicans. Lockridge fitted up an old disused river 
 steamer at San Juan, and taking command of the 
 new recruits about the last of January, moved his 
 force up the river to a point several miles below the 
 mouth of the Serapini. On the 4th of February, 
 Colonel H. T. Titus arrived from New Orleans at San 
 Juan with 180 more men. Thus, within one month, 
 420 volunteers for the filibusters had reached the 
 Republic. On the morning of the 13th of February 
 Colonel Lockridge, having divided his force into two 
 commands, one under Colonel Anderson and the 
 other under Colonel Titus, attacked the Costa Ricans 
 at the mouth of the Serapini and drove them away, 
 and took possession of the position on both sides of 
 the river. The next day Titus, with about 140 men, 
 ascended the river with a view of attacking Castillo. 
 Anderson was left in command at Hipp's Point. 
 
 Titus found Castillo garrisoned with a very small 
 force ; instead of taking it at once, he began parley- 
 ing until reinforcements arrived for the Costa Ricans, 
 when, without waiting to ascertain their numbers, he 
 retreated, or rather incontinently fled. Titus now 
 abandoned his command, and returned to San Juan. 
 He was a coward. Lockridge remained inactive, and 
 his force was much weakened by desertion and sick- 
 ness. About the middle of March 130 fresh men ar- 
 
9G Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 rived, mostly from Mobile and Texas. These were 
 of excellent quality and fine fighting material. 
 
 Lockridge determined to make another attempt to 
 get possession of Castillo Viejo. He accordingly led 
 his force through a trail to a height overlooking the 
 fort, called Nelson's Kill so named after the great 
 Englishman, Lord Nelson, who in 1780 captured the 
 fort from the Spanish. But the officer now leading 
 the attacking party was not a Nelson by any means. 
 On the contrary, he did not like the appearance of 
 the fortified camp, and retired without any effort to 
 storm it. This may have been wise and prudent, but 
 the result was the abandonment of the effort to clear 
 the river or reach Walker ; and immediately there- 
 after the disbanding of Lockridge's whole force of 
 four or five hundred men. When these discharged 
 men reached San Juan del Norte, the English naval 
 force there stationed was only too willing to assist 
 them in leaving the country. Thus ended the last 
 scene of filibusterism on the Atlantic side of the Re- 
 public. Let us now return to the Pacific. 
 
 The 500 splendid fighting men which Lockridge 
 disbanded, had they been able through an open transit 
 to reach Walker safely in Rivas, would have swollen 
 his forces to over 1,200 men ; and with constant in- 
 crement from the same source no power of the Allies 
 could have driven him out of Nicaragua. The latter, 
 according to Walker's estimate, had dwindled by 
 battle, desertion, and disease from 7,000 to 2,000 
 during the ten weeks succeeding their advance from 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 97 
 
 Leon. They were greatly discouraged, and dissen- 
 sions seemed about to dissolve the Alliance. 
 
 But how different the aspect of affairs with General 
 Mora established at Fort San Carlos, the two steam- 
 ers, Walker's wings, so to speak, tied up by the enemy; 
 and the great "highway of filibusterism " forever 
 closed against its leader ! A very short time sufficed 
 to end the war after the middle of March, 1857, and 
 but short space needs to be accorded to its closing 
 incidents. Walker says, sententiously : " The pos- 
 session of the lake and the river, and the closing of 
 the Transit, gave new life to the leaders of the Allied 
 troops, and they determined to advance into the 
 Meridional Department." 
 
 Walker's efforts to break through his investment 
 are only the eagle beating against the wires of his 
 cage. 
 
 San Jorge is a pretty little town on the lake shore, 
 only two miles east of Bivas. On the 26th of Janu- 
 ary, General Caiias, of the Allied army, took posses- 
 sion of this town, and commenced at once throwing 
 up barricades. Walker says that long practice has 
 made the Central American the most expert people 
 in the world in barricading. Canas was reported to 
 have under him 800 or 1,000 men, and in an almost 
 incredibly short time he had the Plaza of San Jorge 
 and the houses around it strongly fortified. On the 
 morning of the 29th of January, Henningsen, who 
 had been made major-general, accompanied by San- 
 ders, second in command, marched against San Jorge 
 
98 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 with the First and Second Rifles, Jacques' Infantry, 
 some rangers, a twelve-pound howitzer, and a six- 
 pounder. The first attack on the barricades failed, 
 but nothing discouraged, Henningsen was preparing 
 for a second attack, when the enemy made a sortie, 
 and endeavored to drive the Americans out of some 
 plantain patches they were occupying. But the 
 twelve-pound howitzer again got in its play upon the 
 advancing Allies and drove them back with slaughter. 
 Henningsen availing himself of the enemy's repulse 
 made a second assault upon the barricades, but with 
 worse success than before, because the gallant Colonel 
 Jacques was wounded and other brave officers were 
 killed or wounded. 
 
 The loss of the enemy was supposed to be large, 
 but, nevertheless, he remained in possession of San 
 Jorge. 
 
 Walker now gave the Allies an opportunity to 
 meet him in the open field by marching to San Juan 
 del Sur with 250 of his men and a howitzer. But 
 the Allies declined the challenge with thanks. 
 
 On the 4th of February, not long after midnight 
 of the 3d, Walker, with 200 picked riflemen, marched 
 against San Jorge, and surprised Canas at four 
 o'clock in the morning. But he met with no better 
 success than had his lieutenants, for he was not only 
 repulsed, but lost some of his best officers, including 
 the valiant and chivalrous Colonel O'Neal, a boy in 
 years, but a veteran in courage and a knight in 
 chivalrous bearing. 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 99 
 
 Walker now begins to complain of " the fearful 
 epidemic of desertion " which set in and carried off 
 his soldiers by squads, sometimes as many as twenty 
 in twenty-four hours. He seems to think this a 
 strange phenomenon, but when we reflect upon the 
 prospect which looked his command in the face, of 
 early capture and certain execution, after the Central 
 American custom, we can well understand that many 
 would avail themselves of the inducements held out 
 by General Mora in sundry pronunciamentos to the 
 effect that all who abandoned Walker should have 
 safe escort out of the country. 
 
 During the month of March, up to the 16th, no 
 battle occurred of any importance, although there 
 were sundry small skirmishes in several of which, 
 according to Walker (a wonderfully frank man), the 
 Allies worsted the filibusters, even when the terms 
 were nearly equal. 
 
 On ths 16th of March, the last engagement oc- 
 curred in which the Americans were the aggressors. 
 It will be remembered that when Walker attacked 
 Masaya in October, 1856, his success was foiled by a 
 counter movement made by Zavala upon Granada. 
 So, on this 16th of March, General Walker's vigorous 
 attack on San Jorge, though apparently successful, 
 only resulted in precipitating the Allies upon Rivas, 
 where Walker was hemmed in, San Juan del Sur 
 having already fallen into the possession of the 
 Allies. The force of the latter in San Jorge, on the 
 10th of March, had been swelled to over 2,000 men. 
 
100 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 Walker attacked the village with 400 troops, two 
 iron six-pounders, one twelve-pound howitzer, and 
 four small mortars. After a hot contest, the Allies 
 could not withstand the artillery which played upon 
 the Plaza, and abandoned that position and in fact 
 were driven from the village. But in retiring, they 
 took position along the road to Rivas. Now, if 
 Walker's reserve at the latter point had been suffi- 
 ciently strong to press forward and engage the enemy, 
 the Allied position would have been very uncomforta- 
 ble, not to say critical. But such was not the case; 
 on the contrary, Walker was hard pressed to regain 
 his own headquarters at Rivas; and soon found him- 
 self closely beleaguered there and forced to subsist 
 upon the oxen, horses and mules attached to his 
 command. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Americans did 
 some brilliant fighting upon the 16th, and inflicted 
 heavy loss upon the Allies. Walker lost thirteen 
 killed and sixty-three wounded, four of the latter 
 mortally. The loss of the Allies was put at about 
 500 in killed and wounded. As usual, when Walker 
 commanded in person, his men behaved splendidly. 
 
 As we have seen, the closing of the Transit cut 
 Walker off from all communication with the United 
 States on the Atlantic side, but he was still receiving 
 some small accessions for the Pacific coast from Cali- 
 fornia. Now, however, his friends in the Accessory 
 Transit company, Garrison and Morgan, announce 
 their intention to cease running their steamers alto- 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 101 
 
 gether. This " treachery," as Walker calls it, was 
 the final and fatal outcome of the ill-advised attack 
 upon Vanderbilt's franchise and property. 
 
 Events were now hastening to a close. Left to the 
 equatorial solution, the Allies would now speedily 
 have closed in upon the filibusters, and in spite of 
 their promised protection to all of the Americans 
 except Walker, would no doubt have shot every fili- 
 buster, with Central American impartiality. But 
 fortunately, at this critical juncture, there appeared 
 upon the scene just the shadow of the arm of a tran- 
 scendently great power. Uncle Sam stepped in, and, 
 taking his little band of errant filibusters in the hol- 
 low of his hand, rescued them from the impending 
 blare of musketry and rifles on the Plaza. 
 
 In the afternoon of the 23d of April, General 
 Mora, now in command of the Allied army, under a 
 flag of truce, sent letters to Walker announcing that 
 Lieutenant Huston of the United States vessel, St. 
 Mary, was at the headquarters of the Allies, and was 
 ready, under the United States flag, to conduct the 
 women and children in Bivas to San Juan del Sur. 
 Huston remained in Rivas that night, and on the 
 24th of April conducted the non-combatants to San 
 Juan del Sur, under the American flag. 
 
 The St. Mary was commanded by Captain Charles 
 H. Davis. The gallant Fayssoux was in the port of 
 San Juan del Sur, with the Granada, and his guns 
 commanded the town. 
 
 On the 30th (April) Captain Davis sent, by an aid- 
 
102 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 de-camp of General Mora, a letter to Walker propos- 
 ing that he should surrender and go aboard the St. 
 Mary to Panama, Davis to guarantee his personal 
 safety, in other words, " should abandon the enter- 
 prise and leave the country." 
 
 Thus, through the intervention of Davis, Walker 
 sent Henningsen and Waters to the Allied camp 
 under safe conduct from General Mora, and there 
 the outline of an agreement was reached in a propo- 
 sition from Davis to Walker the Allies not being 
 anywhere alluded to or mentioned as parties to the 
 same. When, on the 1st of May, Henningsen pre- 
 sented to Walker his report embodying this proposi- 
 tion, Walker's keen eye at once discovered an omis- 
 sion. The proposition, while it made ample provision 
 for the filibusters themselves, said nothing of dispo- 
 sitions in favor of the native Nicaraguans, mostly 
 Leonese, who still adhered to Walker's cause. The 
 poet of the Sierras, describing Walker says that he 
 was " gentle as a panther," and we have undoubtedly 
 found him stern and implacable. But, on the other 
 hand, simple justice to his character impels the be- 
 lief that he would have perished utterly rather than 
 have deserted or abandoned those who were identi- 
 fied with his cause or had adhered to his fortunes. 
 
 He promptly informed Henningsen that he would 
 sign nothing, and agree to nothing which did not 
 contain ample guarantees for the security both in 
 person and property of the native Nicaraguans, then 
 in Kivas. Such a provision was accordingly inserted, 
 
1857.] Nicaragua. 103 
 
 and the final convention contains a "guarantee that 
 all natives of Nicaragua or of Central America, now 
 in Rivas, and surrendered to the protection of Cap- 
 tain Davis, shall be allowed to reside in Nicaragua, 
 and be protected in life and property." 
 
 This point being gained by Walker, the details of 
 his surrender were easily made out. Henningsen 
 probably formulated them, for we are told that the 
 convention was " submitted to Davis and signed by 
 him." 
 
 General, not President, be it observed, William 
 Walker, with sixteen officers of his staff, 'were to 
 march out of Rivas with side-arms, personal bag- 
 gage, etc., and to embark on the United States ves- 
 sel-of-war St. Mary's, in the harbor of San Juan del 
 Sur, to be thence safely transported to Panama. 
 
 The privates and other officers, commissioned and 
 non-commissioned, citizens and employees of depart- 
 partments, wounded and unwounded, were to be 
 placed under Davis's protection with guarantee of 
 safe and free transportation to Panama. 
 
 Such was the " convention " between General 
 Walker and Captain Davis. Upon the whole, every 
 one should have been satisfied because none had a 
 right to complain. With scrupulous accuracy, char- 
 acteristic of a fearless nature incapable of an inten- 
 tional deception, Walker gives us his entire force 
 when the capitulation occurred. Of men fit for duty, 
 he had but 274 ; while he was encumbered with 173 
 
104 Nicaragua. [1857. 
 
 sick, wounded and hospital attendants; also 102 
 prisoners. 
 
 Upon the other hand, the Allied army, composed 
 largely of enforyados enforced men or conscripts 
 would have suffered a comparatively enormous loss 
 of life before they could have crushed the little band 
 of filibusters, armed with such fatal rifles, and wont 
 to deal out such destructive volleys of grape and can^ 
 ister upon a foe unaccustomed to improved instru- 
 ments of war. The Allies were only too glad to get 
 rid of these people without being compelled to pay 
 such a costly price for the pleasure of shooting them. 
 
 Fayssoux, whose name I can never mention with- 
 out a thrill of admiration, continued even to the end 
 to bear himself as would become a Paul Jones, a 
 Porter, or a Semmes. He surrendered his vessel, 
 not to the Allies, but to the United States. 
 
Nicaragua. 105 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I860. 
 
 WALKER MAKES ANOTHER ATTEMPT AGAINST NICARAGUA. 
 IS ARRESTED AND BROUGHT BACK BY COMMODORE 
 
 PAULDING, OF U. S. NAVY IS TRIED FOR A VIOLATION 
 
 OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY LAWS AND ACQUITTED 
 
 HIS DESCENT WITH NINETY FOLLOWERS UPON TRUX- 
 ILLO, AUGUST 6TH, 1860, IN HONDURAS HIS SUR- 
 RENDER TO CAPTAIN SALMON, OF THE BRITISH SHIP 
 
 "ICARUS" is DELIVERED OVER TO THE HONDU- 
 RANS, AND CONDEMNED TO DEATH BY GENERAL 
 
 DON MARIANO ALVAREZ HIS DEATH ON THE FATAL 
 
 "CAUQUETE" BURIED IN THE CAMPO SANTO OF 
 TRUXILLO THE GREATEST AND BEST OF OUR AMERI- 
 CAN FILIBUSTERS. 
 
 WE come now to the closing chapter in the singu- 
 larly checkered career of General William Walker, 
 the " grey-eyed man of destiny." 
 
 And in regard to his aims and achievements, we 
 may as well at this point proceed to dispel several 
 popular illusions entertained both in this country 
 and in Central America. 
 
 The first is that he designed, if possible, to annex 
 Nicaragua to the United States. Nothing was farther 
 from his intentions, as is made most manifest by his 
 own declarations and admissions. He over and over 
 
106 Nicaragua. [1860. 
 
 distinctly repudiates any such design or intention.* 
 His aims were much more lofty and ambitious. He 
 was going to establish an independent empire, with 
 himself as chief, based, as we have seen, upon the in- 
 stitution of slavery not African, but Indian. 
 
 A second error, industriously circulated, is, that 
 the government of the United States, in some man- 
 ner, or to some extent encouraged Walker in his fili- 
 bustering enterprises. This supposition is also with- 
 out the slightest shadow of foundation.! In point 
 of fact, the Federal Government strained a point in 
 the opposite direction, and Walker complains bit- 
 terly of its failure to recognize him, while England 
 was openly and notoriously aiding his enemies by 
 arms and other munitions of war. 
 
 Minister Baker, in his introductory chapter, speaks 
 of a celebration of the anniversary of Walker's sur- 
 render, May 1, 1857, and an oration delivered on that 
 occasion by Senator Zembrana. I have before me 
 that oration in the original, and in refutation of the 
 charge of American secret connivance with General 
 Walker, I translate the following extract: 
 
 "But on arriving at this point, in the current of memory, justice 
 requires that we should pause an instant : because, much as it may 
 have been suspected that the North American government of those 
 times looked with great sympathy upon the efforts and success of 
 the bold adventurer, it must be remembered that its official proceed- 
 ings were of scrupulous correctness." 
 
 * See the war in Nicaragua 266,267. 
 
 j-The imputation is an insult to history, and an impeachment of that 
 exalted standard of international justice which this nation has ever main- 
 tained. 
 
I860.] Nicaragua. 107 
 
 In the third place, I have already exploded the 
 idea that Walker's army was recruited mainly from 
 the population of the Southern States of North Amer^ 
 ica, I have shown that they were soldiers of for- 
 tune adventurers drawn from every quarter of the 
 globe 
 
 " The cankers of a long peace and a calm world." 
 
 This view is likewise confirmed by Senator Zam- 
 brana, when he describes Walker's followers as " the 
 scum of the world. " 
 
 Having corrected these prevalent fallacies, errors, 
 mistakes, in regard to General Walker's aims and 
 his connection with history and the United States, 
 let us follow his declining fortunes to their pathetic, 
 heartrending close. 
 
 Walker, unfortunately, in addition to his failure to 
 make the most of the opportunity which fortune had 
 offered him, failed likewise to recognize the truth 
 that a great opportunity once lost is lost forever. 
 " Wreck and ruin," says the philosopher, " if thou 
 have dared when the occasion was not thine." And 
 so our hero eventually discovered. His career, after 
 his deportation from Nicaragua in May, 1857, was a 
 series of petty annoyances and unfortunate mishaps. 
 
 He announces boldly and openly that he does not 
 mean to abandon the " regeneration " of Nicaragua. 
 " By the bones of the mouldering dead at Masaya, at 
 Rivas, and at Granada," he exclaims to his com- 
 rades, " I adjure you never to abandon the cause of 
 
108 Nicaragua. [I860- 
 
 Nicaragua. Let it be your waking and your sleep- 
 ing thought to devise means for a return to the land 
 whence we were unjustly brought. And if we be but 
 true to ourselves all will yet end well." 
 
 But all did not end well for our unfortunate hero. 
 In November following his capture, he returned to 
 Nicaragua and organized a new force, but Commo- 
 dore Paulding, of the United States Navy, compelled 
 him to surrender, and carried him with 132 followers 
 back to New York. Under what phase or construc- 
 tion of international law Commodore Paulding acted 
 it is difficult to conceive. Walker had renounced his 
 allegiance to the United States, and become a natu- 
 ralized citizen of Nicaragua. He was on her terri- 
 tory, engaging in one of her annual or semi-annual 
 revolutions, and was not amenable to any authority 
 but her own. This view was taken by President 
 James Buchanan, one of our profoundest publicists, 
 who refused to recognize Walker as a prisoner of 
 State, and ordered his release. He was tried also in 
 the United States District Court at New Orleans for 
 a violation of our neutrality laws. He was acquitted. 
 
 Moreover, it is more than intimated by individuals 
 personally cognizant of those events original autho- 
 rities that after Walker had landed at Greytown and 
 taken Castillo, commercial interests, partly British, 
 no doubt, were appealed to against him. A meeting, 
 said to have been in the interest of the Panama rail- 
 road, was held in the office of the American consul, 
 F. W. Rice, and Commodore Paulding, of United 
 
I860.] Nicaragua. 109 
 
 States Navy, being in port, was persuaded to come 
 to Greytown and demand his surrender 
 
 Another party on the "Susan " Walker not being 
 on board, was wrecked off the coast of Belize, the 
 men taken to Belize, kindly treated and sent home. 
 
 Again, in October, 1858, he tried his fortune by 
 organizing a small company in Mobile, Alabama, 
 and setting his face toward the Gulf of Mexico. At 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, however, he was ar- 
 rested and brought back. He was tried in the United 
 States District Court at New Orleans for a violation 
 of neutrality laws and acquitted. 
 
 If, with this verdict in his favor and a record of 
 many hardy and daring adventures, our hero had 
 remained content, it is possible that his genius for 
 war would have found employment in a very short 
 time at home. But a restless spirit or an unrelent- 
 ing fate impelled him forward to new fields of ad- 
 venture. 
 
 On the 6th day of August, 1860, Walker landed 
 on the eastern coast of Honduras, at Truxillo, and 
 immediately issued his proclamation against the 
 government and called for volunteers to start a revo- 
 lution. In those countries, unfortunately, a revolu- 
 tion takes the place of a political campaign. The 
 standard of insurrection there is only what we would 
 call a " bolt from the convention." * 
 
 As we have heretofore seen, however, the Central 
 Americans are naturally and justly jealous of any 
 
 * See Ford's Tropical America, p. 385. 
 
110 Nicaragua. [1860. 
 
 foreign interference; and this fact has invested 
 the 1st day of May with a ludicrously exaggerated 
 importance as an anniversary. According to Sena- 
 tor Zambrana Thermopylae, Marathon and Salamis 
 must pale their ineffectual fires in presence of the 
 grand result of driving Walker out of Nicaragua. 
 
 When Walker landed at Truxillo he had with him 
 about ninety followers, composed of various nation- 
 alities, recruited, doubtless, mainly in the United 
 States. 
 
 The night of August 6th he disembarked from the 
 three launches, and marching into the town, took 
 possession of the Fort and custom-house. The peace- 
 ful inhabitants were panic-stricken, and many fled 
 the town. Walker, as we have said, issued his pro- 
 nunciamento without which a Spanish-American 
 revolution would be an opera without music. 
 
 It seems that Walker had been in communication 
 with the inhabitants in the island of Ruatan, a Mexi- 
 can island in the bay of Honduras, and it is said they 
 promised him assistance should he reach there. His 
 aim seems to have been to march through Honduras 
 to Ruatan, and to proceed thence to Nicaragua. 
 Whether or not this was his original intention it cer- 
 tainly became his final ineffectual aim. 
 
 Scarcely had Walker time to look around him in 
 Truxillo, when the "Icarus" a British vessel, under 
 command of Captain Salmon, of the British Navy, 
 made its appearance in port. The commander at 
 once demanded Walker's surrender to the British, 
 
I860.] Nicaragua. Ill 
 
 with promise of safe transportation to the United 
 States. 
 
 Very naturally, Walker declined with thanks so 
 much the worse for our intrepid adventurer's fate in 
 the end but for his fame, so much the better. To 
 but few men is reserved the boon of dying bravely 
 in the sight of history, and in his own sphere the 
 bravest of the filibusters (John Brown not excepted) 
 was Walker. 
 
 But the British commander insisted upon his sur- 
 render or evacuation. He chose the latter, and on 
 the night of the 21st of August, 1860, he left Truxillo, 
 abandoned his position, not to superior force of Cen- 
 tral Americans, but to British dictation. 
 
 His idea and intention were to proceed down the 
 coast to the mouth of the Roman river and thence 
 to Swan Island, whence he could open communica- 
 tion with Ruatan, the people of which island had 
 encouraged him, as Walker alleged, to make his last 
 descent upon Central America, 
 
 Accordingly, at midnight, on the 21st of August, 
 Walker marched out of Truxillo with eighty-eight 
 men, and proceeded down the coast in the direction 
 of the Roman river. On the morning of the 24th, 
 he had reached a point called Cotton Tree, on the 
 banks of the Roman river and about thirty miles 
 above its mouth. Here he was surprised by a force 
 of Honduran soldiers, but he quickly rallied and 
 formed his little army and repulsed the enemy with 
 his " deadly rifles." While in advance of his troops 
 
112 Nicaragua. [1860. 
 
 he himself was wounded in the face, but he quickly 
 brought down his assailant. It is said that the loss 
 of the Hondurans was, out of all proportion, greater 
 than that of the filibusters. 
 
 On the night after the battle of Cotton Tree, 
 Walker resumed his march down the river until he 
 reached in safety a place called Limon. Here he 
 was hospitably received and entertained by the Carib 
 Indians, who predominate in the population. On 
 the 27th of August, he reached in safety the Black, or 
 Tonto, river (Rio Negro). Here he encamped, being 
 but two and one-half miles from the sea coast, and 
 remained for three days, resting and recruiting his 
 men. The Hondurans .having no navy, Walker felt 
 himself secure from further pursuit, as, undoubtedly, 
 he would have been, but for the entirely unwar- 
 ranted and unjustifiable interference of the British. 
 
 On the 3d of September, two British cutters, car- 
 rying forty British marines, and 200 Honduran 
 soldiers, commanded by Captain Salmon of the 
 "Icarus," accompanied by General Don Mariano 
 Alvarez commanding the army of Honduras, stepped 
 ashore and demanded an interview with Walker. 
 
 It is said there was a strange contrast between the 
 Unshaken, quiet, coolness, and dignity of General 
 Walker, and the assurance and bluster of the young 
 British captain of the Icarus. 
 
 That the authorities of Honduras had a perfect 
 right to capture Walker, and shoot him, too, for that 
 matter, seems too plain for argument. But by what 
 
I860.] Nicaragua. 113 
 
 right or title the British interfered and captured our 
 American adventurer is not easily explained, to be 
 perceived or understood. But so it was. Walker 
 would not surrender his sword until he had twice 
 demanded to know if the surrender were made to a 
 British officer, to which inquiry Captain Salmon 
 twice replied, " Yes, you surrender to me as a British 
 officer." 
 
 Accordingly, all the arms of the prisoners were 
 delivered up to the British marines, and the filibus- 
 ters themselves were placed under the guard of these 
 British troops. 
 
 On that night while the men were all asleep, 
 General Walker and his second in command, Colonel 
 Rudler, were seized and taken on board the "Icarus" 
 and the next morning (September 4, I860,) all the 
 prisoners were taken aboard and the British craft 
 weighed anchor, and steamed up to Truxillo, where 
 she arrived that night. On the morning of the 5th, 
 the men of Walker's little army were marched off 
 the ship and paraded in front of 300 Honduran 
 soldiers. 
 
 General Walker and Colonel Rudler were then by 
 Captain Salmon formally delivered over to the Hon- 
 duran authorities, while the remainder of the men 
 were marched away to prison, still under guard of 
 the British marines. Of course, guerilleros and 
 filibusters, and the like adventurers, who engage in 
 private warfare and fight without a flag, cannot ex- 
 pect to be treated according to the usages of war. 
 
114 Nicaragua. [I860. 
 
 Nevertheless, a solemn engagement of a British offi- 
 cer, whereby he secured the surrender of an adven- 
 turer who trusted to the religion that blood was 
 thicker than water, it would seem should have been 
 regarded obligatory and imperative. 
 
 But such was not the case. Walker and Rudler, 
 after being thus formally delivered over to the Hon- 
 durans, were heavily ironed and placed in dark cells, 
 and no one was allowed to communicate with them. 
 Rudler was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. 
 On the llth of September, the other prisoners were 
 informed by Mr. Squier, an American, that the 
 general was to be shot the next day. 
 
 On entering the prison he was immediately placed 
 in heavy irons, and on being asked if he needed any- 
 thing, replied with a single phrase " Water." 
 
 In his autobiography he informs us that he was of 
 Protestant parentage, but had no hostility towards 
 the Roman Catholic Church. He selected as his am- 
 bassador to the United States Father Vigil, a Catho- 
 lic priest. We find, however, in this same autobiog- 
 raphy indications of infidelity. He, in one place, 
 seems to dispute the existence of a personal God by 
 applying the impersonal pronoun "it" to the ever- 
 lasting and everblessed Supreme Providence. 
 
 Upon the fatal cauquete (coffin), however, Walker 
 thought differently. He sent for the chaplain of the 
 post (a Catholic, of course), and sought religious con- 
 solation. 
 
 He died, as his enemies tell us, "full of resigna- 
 
I860.] Nicaragua. 115 
 
 tion." "I am resigned to death," said he to the 
 priest; "my political career is ended." 
 
 At eight o'clock on the morning of September 12th, 
 Walker was marched to the place of execution the 
 Plaza de Armas, the old Square of Arms and shot. 
 
 Alas, for the ring of rifles on the Plaza. It took 
 just ten soldiers to dispatch our brave adventurer, 
 nine in rapid succession, and a tenth after the shud- 
 der of a short interval. He died instantly. 
 
 As for details, we are told he marched to the place 
 of execution with military step, a crucifix in his 
 hand. He looked neither to the right nor the left, in- 
 tent only on the diapason of those glorious Psalms 
 of David, which the priest who accompanied him 
 never ceased to recite. 
 
 As for his last speech before the fatal fusillade, the 
 better account is that he was too hoarse to make him- 
 self heard, and requested the priest who attended 
 him to say a few words to the people. The reverend 
 Father was a Honduran, and a Roman Catholic, and 
 what he said, even if correctly reported, which is 
 doubtful, must be regarded as rather the translation 
 of what his confessor thought Walker ought to say 
 than a reproduction of what he himself had actually 
 dictated. 
 
 We may not doubt from the evidence that he in- 
 structed his confessor to say : " I die in the faith of 
 the Roman Catholic Church. I ask merciful treat- 
 ment for my comrades, as I alone am responsible for 
 this expedition. If the sacrifice of my life can be of 
 any benefit to society, I lay it down with the greatest 
 
116 Nicaragua. [1860. 
 
 readiness. I pardon my judges that I may be able 
 to obtain my own pardon in the next world." 
 
 Although there was a shout of soldiers at his death, 
 yet we are told by an eye-witness : " The citizens of 
 the town pitied him, and in the whole crowd there 
 was not one glad countenance." 
 
 The shout of the soldiers those soldiers whom he 
 had defeated more than once, and who were indebted 
 to the British for their victim was heard by his de- 
 voted and sorrowing companions, and they knew 
 what it meant. 
 
 The Hondurans refused to bury him. A few for- 
 eigners, Americans and others, took up the pros- 
 trate soldier and bore him to the Carnpo Santo the 
 Sacred Camp in which our brave filibuster "the 
 grey-eyed man of destiny" "the greatest of the sol- 
 diers of fortune" now sleeps in his narrow tent 
 "until that day." 
 
 Walker died at the age of thirty-six. In person he 
 was slender and of medium height ; his movements 
 were rapid and nervous ; in manner he was usually 
 undemonstrative, always calm ; in repose, a rather 
 handsome, almost clerical face, with regular quiet 
 features, of no particular significance ; but when 
 aroused, they were illuminated by an eye like the 
 glint of broken steel. 
 
 If the " poet of the Sierras" had given us a sketch 
 of Walker's personal appearance containing more 
 truth and less poetry, he would have conferred a 
 favor upon history. As it is, his photograph of the 
 filibuster, with "presence like a chevalier, half an- 
 
I860.] Nicaragua. 117 
 
 gel and half Lucifer," is pure fiction. He was, says 
 General Rivas (a native Nicaraguan), "intelligent, 
 Very active, temperate, valiant and unshakable in his 
 purposes." It is with singular unanimity testified 
 that he was free from those vices which beset his 
 comrades, the adventurers by whom he was attended. 
 He was, as is conceded, kind and merciful to prison- 
 ers of war ; and the character of the men by whom 
 he was surrounded, as well as that of the adversaries 
 with whom he contended (as has been well observed 
 by one who knew him well), certainly plead much in 
 palliation of his despotic and sometimes cruel dispo- 
 sitions. One of his surviving followers says: "In 
 my youthful enthusiasm I thought our chief a hero, 
 and though in after years I learned to judge his char- 
 acter more dispassionately, I have no reason to 
 change my general estimate of him. He was proba- 
 bly the greatest of all the soldiers of fortune." 
 
 There is no doubt that he was the greatest and best 
 of the filibusters. 
 
 Lopez, John Brown, Maximillian, none of these 
 could compare with Walker in military genius. His 
 great forte was celerity of movement. Thus, as we 
 have seen, on the 12th of October, 1856, he attacks 
 Masaya ; on the 14th he returns to the relief of Gran- 
 ada, and routs Zavala ; thence he proceeds to the 
 Meridional Department, and on November the 12th 
 assails Canas, commanding a force more than double 
 his own, near Rivas, and routs him with severe loss; 
 on the next day (November 13th) he returns to Vir- 
 gin's Bay and embarks for Granada, and on the 16th, 
 
118 Nicaragua.. [1860. 
 
 with only 300 men, again attacks the Allies behind 
 the barricades of Masaya. Thus, in a little over one 
 month, he fought four pitched battles and covered a 
 territory embracing the defence of two departments. 
 
 As Walker was undoubtedly the ablest, so I think 
 We may say with equal truth that he was the best of 
 our American filibusters of his day and generation. 
 
 Lopez, the Cuban, at one time united with the 
 Spanish against his own countrymen, and only 
 espoused the cause of liberty after he had lost the 
 patronage of the tyrant. 
 
 John Brown differed from Walker in this, that he 
 pointed his pikes against the breasts of his own 
 countrymen. Walker, it is true, proclaimed all of 
 his opponents to be traitors, and their lives and 
 property forfeited to the Republic; but he never pro- 
 mulgated any decree as bloody as that of Maximillian 
 of October 3, 1865; and where, under pretext of 
 military law, Walker shot one opponent or prisoner 
 of State, it is probable that the infamous Austro- 
 Belgian mercenaries of Maximillian, without any 
 pretense of trial whatever, murdered more than an 100. 
 
 The Central Americans seem to cherish no hatred 
 of nor bitterness toward Walker ; it is possible, there- 
 fore, that these natives would conceive no offence 
 should some kind-hearted Americans replace the 
 rough stone that, under the cross of the Sacred Camp 
 of Truxillo, marks the grave of the " grey-eyed man 
 of destiny," with some more enduring and imposing 
 shaft; inscription 
 
 Here lies the bravest, best, and last of the American filibusters ! " 
 
THE NICARAGUAN CANAL. 
 
By the courtesy of my distinguished friend, Judge 
 Lucas, I have been asked to write this chapter for 
 his book. My pleasure in complying with his re- 
 quest was to some extent lessened by the knowledge 
 that my official and business engagements would 
 prevent my giving this great question the attention 
 it deserves. The information herein contained is 
 derived from general and official sources, but espe- 
 cially am I indebted to ex-Senator Warner Miller, 
 Senator Morgan, Senator Frye and the late Commo- 
 dore Maury four great masters of the subject of the 
 Inter-oceanic canal. 
 
 WM. A. MACCORKLE. 
 
 Executive Chamber, 
 Charleston, W. Va., December 16, 1895. 
 
THE NICARAGUA^ CANAL. 
 
 WITH but few exceptions imperial possessions have 
 resulted from the demands of commerce, rather than 
 from the desire of war. Commerce, not war, has been 
 the real king. The discovery of new worlds and new 
 countries arose from the needs of commerce. The 
 desire to penetrate to the East Indies by an easy and 
 short route, engage in trade and gather there for 
 Europe the glittering gems, the rich spices and soft 
 silks of the East, brought about the discovery of our 
 continent. Its discovery is most pertinent to the 
 questions which I propose to briefly discuss. 
 
 Ever since Columbus discovered America, in the 
 minds of all those interested in commerce has dwelt 
 the question of the possibility of crossing the Ameri- 
 can continent by water. It has been the dream of 
 the rulers and has been thought over and pondered 
 by the great kings of commerce for three hundred 
 years. Even Columbus, flushed with the discovery 
 of the continent, was disappointed when he could not 
 cross over that continent by ship, plunge into un- 
 known seas and reach the shores of India. The 
 swarthy Spaniard, the sturdy Englishman, the vigor- 
 ous Frenchman, the enterprising German, have all 
 turned their attention to discovering the secret of the 
 
 [123] 
 
124 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 Strait. Columbus, D'Avilla, Balboa, Cortez, Ponce 
 de Leon, and Captain Smith, all were engaged in 
 finding an entrance through which the waters of one 
 sea mingled with the waters of the other. War, the 
 acquisition of slaves, gold and gems, were the occu- 
 pation of these hardy adventurers, but above all was 
 the imperial mandate to cross over to the other water. 
 The beautiful incident of Pocahontas was occasioned 
 by the attempt of the sturdy Englishman to find a 
 water path across the continent into the Pacific. 
 Even in the twilight of commerce every one with 
 commercial instincts appreciated the importance of 
 this passage way, and unceasing were their attempts 
 to find it. To find a pass was, in the estimation of 
 these navigators, to discover an empire of trade. 
 From the snows of North America to the succeeding 
 snows of South America, through inlet, bay, gulf, and 
 river ranged vessels attempting to find a passage 
 way. The fierce cruelty and savage unrest of the last 
 days of Spanish military and commercial power are 
 brightened with the dying glory of their attempt to 
 find this great artery of commerce. Freighted gal- 
 leons, with their swarthy commanders and savage 
 crews, panoplied in leather jerkin and iron coat, 
 have been succeeded by the steamship, yet the quest 
 has not ceased. The Strait does not exist, and the 
 great question to-day before a commercial world is, 
 "Can man do what nature has not done, and will it 
 be profitable to do what nature did not see fit to do? " 
 The world is no longer isolated. As European 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 125 
 
 populations have become congested, the demands of 
 commerce have become more exacting for new peo- 
 ples, new trades, and new countries. No longer can 
 a people live within itself. In proportion as a people 
 has become a sea power, just in proportion has its 
 power increased among the nations of the earth. 
 
 To-day this is England's power. Therefore a coun- 
 try to be really great must have the quickest access 
 to the nations of the earth. The shifting sands of 
 the Isthmus of Suez, and the backbone of the Cor- 
 derillas were the last great bars to commercial free- 
 dom. One has disappeared and the civilization of 
 this day demands the passing of the other. 
 
 As our knowledge of this hemisphere has widened, 
 the attention of the world has been directed to the 
 lowest altitude of the Continental mountains and to 
 the narrowest portion of land between the oceans. 
 The investigations, therefore, have been directed to 
 that part of the continent lying between the Gulf of 
 Campeachy and the Gulf of Tehauntepec, in Central 
 America, and the Gulf of Darien, on the Caribbean 
 Sea. From these investigations three routes for the 
 Inter-oceanic canal, which are at all feasible, have 
 been suggested. They are the Isthmus of Tehaun- 
 tepec, lying closer to the United States than any other 
 route ; the Nicaraguan route, lying within the States 
 of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and the Panama route, 
 lying within the Republic of Columbia. 
 
 No part of the world has been surveyed, re-sur- 
 veyed, and re-investigated as has been this portion 
 
126 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 of this hemisphere. Since 1771 there have been made 
 twenty-one surveys of this narrow territory between 
 the oceans. The great question is which route is 
 preferable, which one is the cheapest, and which one, 
 all things considered, will best serve the demands of 
 the world's commerce. Every selfish commercial 
 interest demands that on the question of location 
 the United States should favor the Tehauntepec 
 route. The Isthmus of Tehauntepec will allow the 
 commerce of the United States to pass through the 
 Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi river into the 
 Pacific Ocean without once having to pass through 
 the straits leading into the Caribbean Sea and the 
 Atlantic Ocean. All the protection needed to com- 
 merce during war can be furnished easily by this 
 government within the Gulf of Mexico, and, in times 
 of peace, there would be no necessity for braving the 
 longer voyage and the winds of the Caribbean Sea. 
 This route would be shorter, cheaper, and every 
 strategical and military interest would demand that 
 we seize upon it in preference to any other. The 
 Tehauntepec route is 150 miles in length, with an 
 altitude of 765 feet. This great altitude, the contour 
 of the country, and the want of water at the summit 
 militate against the possibility of successful water 
 transportation over this isthmus. A great engineer 
 presented a scheme of a ship railway by which ships 
 were to be lifted from the waters of the Gulf of Cam- 
 peachy, placed upon the railroad, dragged across the 
 isthmus in bulk, and placed again in the waters of 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 127 
 
 the Gulf of Tehauntepec, on the Pacific side. Captain 
 Eads, with the great ability which characterized all 
 of his undertakings, impressed the advantages of a 
 ship railway upon the country, and for a time there 
 were people well versed in engineering problems, 
 who believed that the scheme was feasible. In the 
 first place, leaving out the question of the feasibility 
 of this great undertaking, it has been demonstrated 
 that it would not be possible for ships to pay the 
 enormous freight demanded by the vast expenses 
 necessarily entailed upon their passage by railroad. 
 Railroad traffic is from five to ten fold more expen- 
 sive than water traffic, and the expense of the opera- 
 tion of this road would be enhanced by the stupen- 
 dous nature of the paraphernalia necessary to carry 
 the great ships of modern times. To-day the plan 
 of the ship railway is dead with the great man who 
 conceived the idea. For all purposes of a ship canal 
 the route of the Isthmus of Tehauntepec has been 
 abandoned by those interested in the canal. 
 
 Passing on down to the Republic of Columbia we 
 find the narrowest part of the coast, the isthmus of 
 Panama, forty-seven miles in width with an altitude 
 of 325 feet. This portion of the isthmus has always 
 had a fascination for minds engaged in the construc- 
 tion of the canal, because it is the narrowest portion 
 of land on the hemisphere dividing the two oceans. 
 A sad memory lingers around this narrow neck of 
 land, as being associated with the failure of the 
 great man who attempted to build here the inter- 
 
128 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 oceanic canal. Narrow, it is true, is the isthmus, 
 but engineering problems are here presented which 
 possibly science may overcome, but not without the 
 expenditure of vast sums of money which would 
 burden ocean traffic more than it could bear. The 
 great engineering problems here are, first, the Cha- 
 gres rivers, with its great variation of flow; the great 
 Culebra Cut, with its walls of slippery mud; and the 
 want of water at the summit level sufficient to feed 
 the canal. The French company undertook to canal- 
 ize the Chagres river and crossed that stream no less 
 than twenty-seven times, because they had not studied 
 its character and they wished to keep near the river 
 along which the railroad ran, which last was the 
 base of their supplies. This river drains fourteen hun- 
 dred square miles, and the volume of water which 
 poured down from the precipitous sides of the high 
 mountains of its water shed could not be controlled 
 by any human agency. 
 
 A friend of mine, a former manager of the Panama 
 railroad, and a man of great ability, whose experi- 
 ence with this river is very great, informed me that 
 in twenty-four hours he has seen the Chagres river 
 rise seventy feet, and from a placid stream become a 
 tumultuous mass of water, absolutely uncontrollable 
 by the present engineering science. In his judg- 
 ment the canal could never be built across the 
 Panama route. It was attempted by De Lesseps to 
 control this river by a great dam, into which the 
 overflow could go, but this was found to be imprac-s 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 129 
 
 ticable, as the volume of water in the rainy season 
 was too great. To obviate this difficulty it was pro- 
 posed to construct a tunnel nine miles through the 
 mountains, and carry off the overflow into another 
 valley. The great canal engineer wedded to his idea 
 of the sea level Suez canal, depressed the bottom of 
 the Panama canal to the sea level. This intensified 
 the terrible power of the torrential Chagres. In 
 addition to all of this, by reason of the tides on the 
 Atlantic coast being only one and three-fourths feet 
 in height, while on the Pacific coast they have raised 
 to nineteen feet, it was seen that locks would be 
 necessary. Here they were met by the same pro- 
 blem as at Tehauntepec. There was no water to 
 supply the summit level. With the ingenuity which 
 characterized this great man, it was proposed to 
 pump water into the summit basin. When it came 
 to the question of supplying water for the transpor- 
 tation of the great ocean steamers of the world by 
 pumping it into the inter-oceanic passage, even the 
 vigor and energy of the French nation wore out and 
 the combat with nature was abandoned. 
 
 The other difficulty at Panama was the Culebra 
 Cut, which consists of a cut of sixty million cubic 
 yards of soft, slippery rock, laying in horizontal lay- 
 ers, which will not stand when excavated. If pos- 
 sible this is a more insurmountable difficulty than 
 the Chagres river. 
 
 These are the chief engineering objections to Pan- 
 ama, but a greater commercial objection still exists. 
 
 9 
 
130 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 The Isthmus of Panama is one of the most unhealthy 
 sections of the world, and it lies at the end of a land- 
 locked bay, through which the trade winds never 
 blow, and the location of the canal at that point 
 would require the towing of a sailing vessel for at 
 least one hundred miles to the mouth of the canal. 
 
 The other route which has been considered is the 
 route across Nicaragua. This route is 160 miles in 
 length, with an altitude of 153 feet, as against an alti- 
 tude of 765 feet at Tehauntepec and 325 feet at Pan- 
 ama. 
 
 At first contemplation you are impressed with the 
 fact that the Nicaragua route is more than one hun- 
 dred miles longer than the Panama route. This 
 seeming disadvantage is compensated by the fact 
 that here there are great natural advantages for this 
 work. By the Nicaragua route there are only twenty- 
 six and one-eighth miles of excavation, while there is 
 free navigation in the lake and river and basins of 
 142 miles. On this route is the beautiful fresh water 
 Lake of Nicaragua, which, with a little dredging, is 
 deep enough for the largest ships of the world. The 
 San Juan river, which is singularly free from torren- 
 tial variations, completes the largest part of the re- 
 mainder of the route. The consensus of opinion of 
 great engineering experts and the reports of the va- 
 rious commissions appointed by this government 
 have all been to the effect that this route is the most 
 feasible one across Central America. 
 
 The problems involved in this work are the great- 
 
s- s. 
 
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 I) 
 
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The Nicaraguan Canal. 131 
 
 est which can occupy the human mind. The pas- 
 sions and small affairs of every day life are dwarfed 
 when considering these most interesting questions. 
 To discuss the construction of this canal it is neces- 
 sary to look not alone into the mere engineering pro- 
 blems, but into all of the questions which necessarily 
 arise from the peculiar nature of the work. All of 
 the great questions which disturb the world inhere 
 in this discussion. The question of diplomacy, of 
 military strategy, of commerce, and of engineering, 
 all here find their highest level, and all have been 
 contemplated in every phase by the nations of the' 
 earth. 
 
 Even if the writer had the ability it would be im- 
 possible within the limits of these few pages to more 
 than briefly discuss the salient points of each one of 
 these great problems. They are all of great interest, 
 and the one which naturally arises for consideration 
 first in the minds of men is the engineering ques- 
 tion. From an engineering or constructive stand- 
 point, can the canal be built? Men versed in such 
 matters say that it is feasible. 
 
 While the writer has no special knowledge of en- 
 gineering science, still, from the many surveys and 
 elaborate reports and careful examinations of great 
 engineers, he may briefly and in a general manner 
 discuss the constructive features of the canal. 
 
 On this route there are no problems which have 
 not been met by engineering science. Enormous 
 dams are needed, but already larger ones are in use 
 
132 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 in this country. Great locks are demanded, but 
 there are to-day more capacious ones in the United 
 States. Great masses of rock are required to be re- 
 moved, but far more stupendous operations in rock 
 work have been carried out in the engineering world. 
 Much dredging is necessary, but on our lakes there 
 has been as much required and successfully com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The harbor at Greytown, the Ochoa Dam, and the 
 Great Divide Cut are the three great works confront- 
 ing engineering science. The first consideration for 
 the engineers is, is there a sufficient and abundant 
 supply of water at the higher levels not subject to 
 great fluctuations of rise and fall? As I have else- 
 where shown this want destroys the feasibility of the 
 Panama route. 
 
 The central figure of the Nicaraguan canal is the 
 great lake of Nicaragua. This lake furnishes the 
 only solution as to the supply of water on the Cen- 
 tral American Isthmus. It is 106 feet above the sea 
 level and furnished daily ten times the amount of 
 water required for the operation of the canal. A 
 great water shed, drained by this lake and Lake 
 Managua, restricts the rise and fall of the San Juan 
 river, its outlet, to a maximum of five feet. 
 
 Lake Nicaragua approaches the Pacific on the 
 western side to within twelve and a half miles. By the 
 river San Juan, its outlet towards the Atlantic, it is 
 sixty-four and one-half miles. The lake navigation 
 itself will be fifty-six and a half miles. 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 133 
 
 The Lake Nicaragua itself is a body of water of 110 
 miles in length and forty miles in average width, and 
 averages from eighteen to 150 feet in depth. At Fort 
 St. Carlos, the outlet of the lake into San Juan river 
 on its way to the Atlantic, for some miles there will- 
 be a large amount of bottom dredging necessary. 
 This is through soft mud and the engineers have 
 reported that it is entirely feasible. 
 
 The river San Juan is from 500 to 1,200 feet in 
 width and will be followed by the canal for a distance 
 sixty-four and one-half miles from the lake to the 
 dam, at Ochoa, just above its connection with the 
 Machado river. At this place a great dam will be con- 
 structed, which will make the river the same summit 
 level as that of the lake. This will give slack water 
 navigation the whole distance from the Ochoa dam 
 into and across the lake. At this point the San Juan 
 river strikes the lowlands and from Ochoa is tortuous 
 and shallow and will no longer be followed. The 
 canal will be constructed through the valleys of the 
 San Francisco and the Deceado rivers, in which 
 valleys great basins will be formed by large em- 
 bankments; the sea level being reached by three 
 locks. The east lock on the Atlantic side being 
 nine and one-fourth miles from Greytown, which 
 gives a summit level of 153 miles out a total dis- 
 tance of 169i miles. 
 
 On the western side the last lock is only three and 
 one-half miles from Brito on the Pacific coast. It 
 will require seventeen and one-fourth miles of canal 
 
134 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 from the shores of the lake to the port at Brito on the 
 Pacific. Of that distance eleven and forty-four hun- 
 dred ths miles will be wholly in excavation and five 
 and six-tenths miles through the basin of the valleys 
 of the rivers Grand and Tola. On the way to the 
 ocean, the canal will go through a great depression 
 in the valley of the Tola, which by means of a dam, 
 will furnish a basin of water of 4,000 acres with a 
 width of 13,000 feet. There will be three locks upon 
 this side as there are upon the Atlantic side, the 
 greatest of which will be 650 feet long, eighty feet 
 wide and with a lift of forty-five feet. Between the 
 last lock on the Pacific side and Brito, the canal will 
 be used as an enlarged part of the harbor. 
 
 In short, the Nicaragua canal will consist of the 
 great basin of the lake, connected with the Atlan- 
 tic Ocean by the San Juan river, excavated canal 
 work and river basins on the Atlantic side, and exca- 
 vated canal work and the Tola basin on the side of 
 Pacific. 
 
 One of the great problems is the harbor at Grey- 
 town. This was formerly a good harbor, but for 
 many years has been closed by a bar, but the Mari- 
 time Canal Company has re-opened this harbor by 
 the building of a jetty across the bar for the space 
 of 1,000 feet. This will be extended for a distance 
 of 1,700 feet, forming a capacious harbor. This 
 jetty has already made a permanent depth of ten feet 
 in the harbor, which will be increased to a depth of 
 thirty feet by dredging and by the action of the water 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal 135 
 
 upon the artificial work. When this is completed 
 the largest vessels will be able to enter the harbor, 
 and it will be capacious enough for all purposes of 
 navigation and safety. The harbor, when excavated, 
 will give a total area of 340 acres of water, twenty- 
 eight feet deep. This has included part of the canal 
 at the first lock. 
 
 At Brito, on the Pacific, there is no great question 
 as to the possibility of constructing the harbor. The 
 plan here is to build a breakwater which will extend 
 from a promontory, and nearly opposite to this will 
 be constructed another breakwater. It is believed 
 there will be no trouble in the construction of this 
 harbor. 
 
 One of the most stupendous works is at Ochoa, 
 where a dam is constructed, which will raise the 
 river to the level of the lake. This great work will 
 be 1,200 hundred feet in length and seventy feet in 
 height, but, as I have said before, this dam will not 
 be as large as many that are at present in existence. 
 It will not be constructed as rock dams are ordina- 
 rily constructed by placing rock carefully on line, 
 and bound by cement, but will consist of a great 
 mass of rock, dumped into the river from a bridge 
 overhead, and these rocks will be allowed to form a 
 natural bed, and will be built in that way to its 
 height. The river full of debris percolating through 
 this rough wall will, in a comparatively short time, 
 fill up the gaps, and will make a dam that no dis- 
 turbance of the earth will in any wise interfere with. 
 
136 The Nicaraguan CanaL 
 
 Vast and extensive weirs will be constructed here 
 so as to take care of the necessary overflow of the 
 water. 
 
 In the valley of the Deceado, on the western por- 
 tion of the canal, there will be another great em^ 
 bankment, seventy feet high and 1,050 feet wide, 
 which will make a basin three miles long with a 
 depth of from thirty to seventy feet. In addition to 
 this great basin on the Atlantic side, and so near to 
 the locks on the eastern side, as well as the Tola 
 basin on the western side, there will be two great 
 basins or reservoirs, where ships can rest and wait 
 and make repairs, and where they can pass each 
 other under full speed without danger to navigation. 
 
 The Great Divide Cut on the eastern division will 
 be one of the most stupendous pieces of work of rock 
 cutting that the world has ever seen. It will require 
 the canal to be cut three miles through an average 
 height of rock 140 feet, and a maximum height of 
 320 feet, and will require the removal of 12,000,000 
 feet of rock. This rock is in the main solid rock, 
 and is absolutely necessary for the construction of 
 the canal. It will be needed in the great dam at 
 Ochoa, and in the construction of the jetties at 
 Greytown, and in the building of the locks. 
 
 The depth of the canal is thirty feet, and the 
 lowest width on the bottom will be 100 feet. There 
 is a total distance from ocean to ocean of 169i miles, 
 of which there will be free navigation in the lake, 
 river and basins of 142 miles. The width and depth 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 137 
 
 of the canal with its lakes and wide basins will be a 
 great economy of time, and it will only require twenty- 
 eight hours to pass through, against about thirty- 
 one in the Suez canal. By comparison with the 
 Suez, we find that the latter canal is eighty-eight 
 miles in length, of which there is sixty-six miles 
 cut through the earth in excavation. For eight 
 miles there was no work whatever on the Suez, the 
 natural depressions already existing. 
 
 The locks used upon this canal are about the same 
 as that used on the Sault St. Marie canal. Their 
 great size may give no uneasiness as to their ability 
 to do the work required. The lift of forty-five feet 
 is but small as compared with the lift of the lock 
 which is being constructed between Lake Erie and 
 Lake Ontario. This latter lock has a lift of eighty 
 feet, and is said to be entirely feasible. The Nica- 
 ragua canal has been constructed upon a plan suffi- 
 ciently ample to supply the needs of the world's 
 commerce. Profiting by the example of Suez, the 
 original estimates are made large enough to do away 
 with any possibility of an increase in capacity being 
 required for many years to come. 
 
 This great work will require a vast amount of 
 money, and no private corporation or person will 
 be able to build it. It is proposed that this govern- 
 ment furnish the money, and the plan proposed in 
 the last Congress was that $70,000,000 out of a $100,- 
 000,000 in stock should be transferred to the United 
 States, giving the power to this government or its 
 
138 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 representatives to vote a majority of the shares; the 
 government reserving all power to alter, amend and 
 repeal the charter. 
 
 Out of fifteen directors, six were to be appointed 
 by the President of the United States, and if neces- 
 sary the Secretary of the Treasury could control the 
 other 70,000,000, and thus give the United States a 
 majority of .the directors. Five million dollars was 
 to be given to Nicaragua for its concession, and 
 1,500,000 was to be given to Costa Rica. The Mari- 
 time Canal Company was to have the money ex- 
 pended by them repaid and a comparatively small 
 sum for its concession. Costa Rica and Nicaragua 
 were each to have a director. The government of 
 the United States was to guarantee the bonds of the 
 company to the extent of $100,000,000 for the con- 
 struction of the canal, if that was necessary for the 
 construction, and said bonds were to be delivered 
 upon the certificate of the United States engineers, 
 that work in proportion had been completed. The 
 construction of the canal was to be under the control 
 of the engineering department of the United States 
 Government. It is impossible to see how the govern- 
 ment could make a better contract. Upon the lowest 
 estimate of revenue at the time of completion, the 
 government would have a large per cent, upon its in- 
 vestment. It would absolutely control the canal in 
 every sense of the word, and by furnishing the money 
 no private individual can do, it would relieve the 
 commerce of the world of a great burden. If any 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 139 
 
 private corporation attempted to complete it, the 
 work with the interest on the borrowed money would 
 cost $250,000,000. This would be j-ust that increased 
 burden on commerce. From all data it seems that 
 as an engineering question there is no doubt about 
 the feasibility of the enterprise. 
 
 Conceding that the building of the canal is possi- 
 ble, and that it will be useful to commerce when 
 completed, the question arises from whence will 
 come its revenue ? Will the canal from a commer- 
 cial standpoint pay ? The great bounding vigor of 
 American commerce answers that it will be a com- 
 mercial success. The success of Suez and of the 
 Sault St. Marie proclaims in terms which cannot be 
 mistaken that a barrier such as this should no longer 
 impede commerce. Let us compare this canal with 
 some similar works. The Sault St. Marie, connect- 
 ing Lake Superior and Lake Huron, was constructed 
 in 1855. This was for those days a large work with 
 a large lock and with a canal twelve feet in depth, 
 but such has been the vast increase in commerce 
 that the government has here constructed a lock 
 800 feet long ; the largest lock in the world. The 
 commercial world shows nothing like the increase of 
 trade which has been created by this improvement. 
 In 1881 freight passed through the lock in round 
 numbers amounting to a million and three-quarters 
 tons. In 1892 it had increased to eleven and a 
 quarter million tons. In 1894 it had further in- 
 creased to thirteen million and two hundred thou- 
 
140 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 sand tons. Great experts have estimated that this ton- 
 nage, if charged for, would have paid in the year 1889 
 over $40,000,000 of freight. Of this tonnage eighty- 
 five per cent, was coal and iron ; and this traffic was 
 actually created by cheapness of water transporta- 
 tion. The tonnage of this canal is in volume of busi- 
 ness over thirty-three per cent in voyages and ten 
 per cent, in freight larger than the tonnage of the 
 Suez Canal ; and this tonnage is upon inland lakes, 
 whose shores are girdled with competitive railway 
 tracks. 
 
 When De Lesseps proposed the cutting of the Suez 
 canal there were men who said that the world's com- 
 merce would not bear it ; that from a commercial 
 standpoint it would not pay, and that it could not 
 be built. Let us see how their gloomy forebodings 
 jostle with the truth. In 1870 there passed through 
 the Suez canal 486 ships with tonnage of 436,609, 
 and the receipts from tolls amounted in that year to 
 $867,152. In 1888 this had increased to 3,440 ships, 
 with a tonnage of 6,640,834, and the receipts had in- 
 creased in round numbers to $13,000,000. In 1894 
 the tonnage had increased to 8,039,105, and in the 
 same year the rate was reduced to one dollar and 
 ninety cents per ton. The Suez Canal cost 20,000,- 
 000 ; the operating expenses last year amounted to 
 $1,000,000. The magnitude of the operations of the 
 Suez cannot be compared with that on the canal of 
 the New World, and the saving of distances will be 
 infinitely greater by the Nicaragua than by the Suez 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 141 
 
 canal. Between London and Canton the Suez saves 
 3,300 miles, while the Nicaragua canal saves from 
 5,000 to 8,000 miles 0n nearly all of the voyages. 
 Between London and San Francisco it saves 7,200 
 miles out of a voyage of 14,700 miles. Between New 
 York and San Francisco it saves 10,080 miles out of 
 a voyage of 14,840 miles. Between New York and 
 Canton 6,500 miles shorter than Suez and over 5,000 
 miles shorter than around the Horn. 
 
 In almost every case the saving of time and dis- 
 tance by the Nicaragua canal will be largely over 
 that saved by the Suez. In the circumnavigation of 
 the earth by the Suez the distance was reduced two 
 thousand four hundred and thirty-three miles, whilst 
 by the Nicaragua canal the reduction will be six 
 thousand and fifty-four miles. These comparative 
 figures show that from every consideration of time 
 and expense of voyage the great advantage will be 
 with the American canal. The most moderate esti- 
 mates show traffic at from six to seven million tons 
 for the first year, which at $2.50 per ton would bring 
 fifteen million dollars of revenue per year. Taking 
 off a million and a half dollars for operating ex- 
 penses, which is a large estimate, we would have six 
 per cent, on two hundred and twenty-five million 
 dollars. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the normal amount of freight 
 by the year 1900, before which time the canal cannot 
 be_ completed, will be about twelve million tons per 
 year, which at one dollar per ton toll will leave, after 
 
142 TJie Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 operating expenses, about eleven million dollars clear 
 income. 
 
 For the completion of the canal the estimate of the 
 Maritime Construction Company was sixty-five mil- 
 lion eighty-four thousand one hundred and seventy- 
 six dollars; this was increased by the estimate of the 
 board of engineers, to which the question was sub- 
 mitted, to eighty-seven million seven hundred and 
 ninety-nine thousand five hundred and seventy dol- 
 lars. A fair estimate is generally conceded to be one 
 hundred million. From the report which was made 
 in 1879 to the International Canal Congress at Paris 
 it was estimated that the tonnage existing in 1898 
 would furnish five million two hundred and fifty 
 thousand of tonnage for the canal. This was a mod^ 
 erate estimate, but accepting it as reasonable and 
 looking into the countries absolutely tributary, as 
 well as those countries largely tributary, it will be 
 seen that traffic of from ten to twelve million tons 
 per year is but a natural and early consequence of the 
 opening of this great work. Consider but a moment 
 the mighty forces at work. The world has never seen 
 any progress such as this Republic shows. Within 
 fifteen years, at the outside, we will have one hun- 
 dred million of people, and within sixty years from 
 now we will have two hundred million. The move-* 
 ment of freight on the lakes amounted in 1890 to 
 53,424,432 tons. Think of this ; and men to-day are 
 hunting wild deer on the borders of the lakes. By 
 no rule can you estimate the advance and increase 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 143 
 
 of a free people. The convention reasoned from the 
 former increase of commerce that the estimate of five 
 million two hundred and fifty thousand would raise 
 to seven million two and fifty thousand in ten years. 
 This reasoning was predicated upon the advance of 
 the world's commerce previous to that date. As a 
 matter of fact the increase of commerce within the 
 estimated time raised far above this estimate, and for 
 the whole world instead of an expected moderate in- 
 crease it amounted to the marvelous increase of 
 eighty-eight per cent. 
 
 Let us take the traffic of the world, which is abso- 
 lutely tributary to the American canal. It is about 
 as follows : 
 
 The trade of Great Britain with Ecuador, which 
 last year amounted $4,484,013; with Peru, which last 
 year amounted to $6,573,838.00 ; with Chili and Bo- 
 livia, which last year amounted to $38,437,629.00 ; 
 a total of $49,495,480.00. 
 
 The trade of Belgium with Peru, which last year 
 amounted to $6,777,870. 
 
 The trade of our Atlantic ports with Hong Kong, 
 which last year amounted to $1,344,474; with China, 
 which last year amounted to $14,778,505; with Japan, 
 which last year amounted to $11,933,693; with Brit- 
 ish Australasia, which last year amounted to $11,- 
 481,910; with the Phillipine Islands, which last year 
 amounted to $3,919,543; with Hawaii Islands, which 
 last year amounted to $613,034; with Chili, which 
 last year amounted to $6,778,562; with Ecuador, 
 
144 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 which last year amounted to $1,325,417; with Peru, 
 which last year amounted to $9,635,629 a total of 
 $53,138,767. 
 
 The trade of all the Pacific ports of the United 
 States with Belgium, $757,684; with France, $766,- 
 492; with Germany, $883,566; with Great Britain, 
 $21,702,521; with Cuba, $216,112 a total of $24,- 
 323,375. 
 
 This above enumerated trade is entirely and abso- 
 lutely tributary to the canal. This aggregate trade 
 last year amounted to the vast sum of $133,738,492. 
 To this vast commerce there was not added the com- 
 merce of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts with each 
 other. This last commerce can scarcely be estimated. 
 The movement of freight by water on the Atlantic 
 and Pacific coasts almost surpasses belief. It 
 amounted in 1890 to 80,817,251 tons. Every inter- 
 est of the East and West will be more closely linked 
 by this work to the interests of trade that demand 
 an increased reciprocity between these two great 
 sections of our republic. To-day we must under- 
 stand that the rate for transportation between New 
 York and San Francisco by rail is twenty dollars per 
 ton, and by sailing vessel ten dollars, and that by 
 sail around the Horn the voyage is 120 days. This 
 rate is to-day prohibitory on many articles of com- 
 merce, which, if the rate were reduced, would fur- 
 nish thousands of tons of commerce. See the effect 
 of the shortening of voyage upon our great com- 
 merce to Hong Kong and China. This trade last 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 145 
 
 year with the United States amounted $16,122,979. 
 This voyage is about 170 days by sailing vessel; by 
 canal route it would only be 100 days by sail and 
 forty days by steam. The far-reaching fact upon 
 trade can scarcely be estimated. Experts of ship- 
 ping matters all contend that a large per cent, of 
 return commerce between Great Britain and her 
 Eastern colonies would pass through the Nicaragua 
 canal. This route, with more favoring winds, more 
 temperate climate, more favorable currents, and on 
 the other matters of economy and of time and ex- 
 pense, will demand that a vast deal of this traffic on 
 its return from the East Indies will pass over this 
 canal. In addition to this there is a large amount 
 of the English traffic, which comes by return from 
 the East Indies, which is taken to London and re- 
 shipped to the United States. This no longer need 
 be done, and merchandise, such as plumbago from 
 Ceylon and braid from China, will be taken to New 
 York on return trip, unloaded there, and the ship 
 will load again in New York with American pro- 
 ducts for its trip across the Atlantic. The trade 
 above spoken of is a trade which is absolutely and 
 entirely tributary to the canal. There is a large 
 amount of trade which is largely tributary that is, 
 the trade of Great Britain with Hong Kong, $12,- 
 715,788; New South Wales, $78,971,757; Queens- 
 land, $22,316,935; South Australia, $22,334,325; 
 Victoria, $53,102,442; Western Australia, $4,746,- 
 
 921; New Zealand, $58,764,414; Tasmania, $15,791,- 
 10 
 
146 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 072; Java, $11,342,600; Phillipine and Ladrone 
 islands, $2,471,755; China, $39,619,894, and Japan, 
 $23,703,673. 
 
 This trade amounted last year to $347,851,576. 
 The trade of France with Japan, $11,723,000; 
 and Chili, $11,704,000; which together last year, 
 amounted to $23,427,000. The trade of Germany 
 with Australia, $5,622 ; 480, with Japan, $3,605,280, 
 and Chili, $26,439,120, which together last year, 
 amounted to $35,666,880. The trade of our Atlantic 
 ports with the British East Indies, $22,512,327, the 
 French East Indies, $69,136, the Dutch East Indies, 
 $8,757,897, and Central America, $11,989,215; which 
 together last year amounted in all to $43,328,575. 
 This amounts in the aggregate to $450,324,031, and 
 is largely tributary to this canal 
 
 The total imports into Great Britain from her East 
 Indian Colonies amounted to $200,000,000, and of this 
 trade, as I have said before, a large amount will seek 
 its way through the canal. A large amount of the 
 traffic of England between Chili, Peru and Bolivia 
 will take its course through the canal from the fact 
 that between Bolivia and Liverpool the canal will 
 shorten the journey 4,090 miles, and between Valpa- 
 raiso and Liverpool, 2,144 miles. From all of the 
 northern part of Peru unquestionably traffic will be 
 through this canal. Every climatic and natural rea- 
 son will be in the favor of a great increase even from 
 this estimate. It must be understood that no sailing 
 vessels make their journey through the Suez canal, 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 147 
 
 and that the journey, even in the Mediterranean Sea, 
 is fraught with great difficulties by reason of the al- 
 most certain head winds outside of Gibraltar; whereas 
 with the Nicaraguan canal the trade winds blow and 
 the currents are propitious for sail vessels. The in- 
 crease on the above estimate of tonnage will be appre- 
 ciated when we consider that in eighteen years the 
 tonnage of the world has increased from 23,000,000,- 
 000 to 63,000,000,000 of tons, and that the commerce 
 of Great Britain, France, Germany and the United 
 States increased from 1879 from 8,014,880,620 tons 
 to 8,890,200,783 tons in 1888, an increase of 875,530,- 
 160 tons, a growth so great that we can scarcely grasp 
 its magnitude. The advantage which the canal will 
 give the United States, with our commercial energy, 
 will be an advantage such only as this one great 
 artery of commerce can furnish. It will develop new 
 methods, new territories, new industries and new 
 modes of transportation. The rapid peopling of our 
 country demands that our productive energies shall 
 no longer be given 'to the development of internal 
 commerce, but that our attention shall be directed to 
 the world. Our only great competitor in many sec- 
 tions of the world in which she is supreme, will no 
 longer have the advantage which she has had in the 
 past. We will be 7,000 miles nearer western South 
 America than we are to-day, and have the advantage, 
 over her of that distance in the markets of that great 
 section. 
 
 At the inception of the Suez canal England was 
 
148 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 opposed to its construction because she was the great- 
 est sea power and in any naval or commercial con- 
 flict concerning her Eastern possessions she could, 
 by reason of her naval superiority, easily distance 
 her rivals. With her wise foresight she had con- 
 trived to mark out her way to the East, and had 
 placed her great South African Colonies on the road 
 to India. With the Suez canal completed the route 
 to the East being so much shorter and the Con- 
 tinental powers possessing equal privileges through 
 a neutral canal, England would have no advantage 
 arising from her naval superiority. When, in spite 
 of her opposition, the canal was built, she pur- 
 chased the stock control of it, seized Egypt and 
 more carefully fortified her Mediterranean islands. 
 From a commercial standpoint, the stock for which 
 she gave $20,000,000, could be sold to-day for a $100,- 
 000,000, and from a military standpoint she possesses 
 the key to India and the East. 
 
 More than this, the Suez canal has added immea- 
 sureably to England's commerce. Her tonnage to 
 the Orient has increased far beyond her tonnage to 
 any other portion the world. This has resulted from 
 the great advantage which the Suez canal has given 
 her. She has three-fourths of the tonnage passing 
 through the canal. In 1883 Great Britain had a 
 gross tonnage of 7,977,728 tons, as against 798,929 
 of German tonnage and 702,634 of French. Her 
 trade with the East has increased from 537,000,000 
 in 1870 to 752,000,000 in 1888. This all results from 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 1 49 
 
 the Suez canal. You must remember that the Nica- 
 raguan canal is right in the midst of the world's com- 
 merce, whilst the Suez is only a mere passage-way. 
 The tonnage of America will be largely increased by 
 the Nicaraguan canal. The need of this canal to our 
 commerce is plainly shown by our tonnage. By the 
 map you will see how the Suez canal hurt us. It 
 gave England from three to five thousand miles the 
 advantage of us. In the foreign trade in 1893 our 
 aggregate burthen was 883,199 tons, an actual de- 
 crease of nearly one hundred thousand tons from 
 1892. Of the total foreign trade for 1894 8.7 per 
 cent, was carried in vessels belonging to the United 
 States, whilst of the total tonnage of the world Great 
 Britain, by reason of her commercial foresight and 
 her advantages resulting from the control of the trade 
 avenues, had 13,192,566, as against 2,068,859 of the 
 United States. This should no longer be tolerated 
 by this great and enterprising people, and every 
 agency should be grasped to increase our commerce 
 to the volume which our power as a commercial peo- 
 ple deserves. 
 
 The saving to the commerce of our country in dis- 
 tance and money is well exemplified by the follow- 
 ing table: 
 
 From New York to San Francisco it is 14,840 
 miles by Cape Horn. By the Nicaraguan canal it is 
 4,946 miles, a saving of 9,894 miles. From New 
 York to Melbourne by Cape Horn it is 13,502 miles. 
 By the canal it is 10,000 miles, a saving of 3,290 
 
150 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 miles. From New York to Hong Kong it is 18,180 
 miles around the Horn ; by the Nicaraguan canal it 
 is 11,038 miles, or a saving of 4,163 miles. From 
 New York to Guayaquil it is 11,471 miles around 
 the Horn; through the Nicaraguan canal it is 3,053 
 miles. The distance saved is 8,418 miles. From 
 New York to Acapulco it is 13,283 miles around the 
 Horn; by the canal it is 2,709 miles, a saving of 
 10,874 miles on the voyage. 
 
 The value of this canal to the commerce of the 
 United States is illustrated by the report of Mr. T. 
 B. Adkins, a great master of the subject of trade, to 
 the Senate committee, where it is shown that a 1,650 
 ton barque will cost in transportation charges $75 a 
 day, not including port charges. And that on the 
 voyage from Port Townsend to Boston there will be 
 a saving by the canal of about 10,600 miles, which 
 would amount in actual saving of expense to $6,225 
 in the mere running of the vessel. This is a fair 
 illustration. Transportation is the great question of 
 the world to-day, and in the commercial world the 
 demand for cheap and certain transportation is as 
 urgent and vital as is the demand for a cheap first 
 cost of the articles of commerce. This canal fully 
 answers this request of commerce. Particularly 
 speaking, how will the canal affect our country ? 
 What section will most potently feel its effect ? 
 
 An authority has said that the chief advantages 
 resulting from its construction will be reaped by the 
 Pacific coast. It is true that the benefit to this won- 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 151 
 
 derful section of our Republic will be immense, but 
 these advantages will, in my opinion, scarcely be as 
 great as those which will accrue to the Mississippi 
 valley. Let us examine the three great sections 
 which will be peculiarly benefited by this work, and 
 discuss somewhat in detail the peculiar advantages 
 which will accrue to each section. In the Mississippi 
 valley nature has indeed been prodigal of her boun- 
 ties. Here is every climate, every product of the tem- 
 porate regions, and, in addition, here are the utmost 
 facilities for manufacture. Within this great valley 
 nature has located all the great minerals excepting 
 gold and silver. She has made wheat and corn and 
 rye and rice grow in the same valley with the cotton 
 and the hemp. Here are the greatest forests, the 
 greatest mountains of iron, the richest copper mines, 
 sufficient marble to supply the palaces of the earth, 
 and lead enough to furnish the armies of Europe for 
 500 years. 
 
 A great writer has said that coal and iron are the 
 kings of the earth, because they make and unmake the 
 kings of the earth. England's greatness is founded 
 largely upon her coal, but virtually within the val- 
 ley of the Mississippi, within the great Appalachian 
 chain, there is nine times the coal that is within the 
 bosom of Great Britain. The world is more depend- 
 ent upon coal and iron and cotton than upon any other 
 articles of commerce. That which increases the pro- 
 duction and widens the distribution of these great 
 articles of commerce will exert the greatest influence 
 
152 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 upon the affairs of the world. We will consider the 
 two great staples of coal and cotton in this valley, 
 and briefly discuss the influence which the building 
 of the canal will have upon them. Great Britain 
 to-day exports 20,000,000 tons of coal and 2,500,000, 
 tons go to South American markets. These markets 
 she now controls. The opening of the canal will 
 almost revolutionize the trade in coal, and will largely 
 revolutionize the trade in cotton, and from this will 
 largely follow the revolution of all trade. The ques- 
 tion of fuel is most important, and the discussion of 
 the effect of the canal upon the coal trade is directly 
 in point. 
 
 The coals which supply the Pacific coast come 
 almost exclusively from British possessions. The 
 best of the Pacific coast coals come from Vancouver, 
 and they are the only known coals on the Western 
 coast which are good for steam purposes. The coals 
 of the State of Washington, and, generally speaking, 
 the coals of the Pacific coast belong to the recent or 
 mezozoic formations, and are destructive to fire-boxes 
 and are not suitable for steam purposes. They are 
 higher in sulphur and ash than those of the true coal 
 era. We find good coals in Colorado, but they cannot be 
 mined cheaply, and the transportation is too expen- 
 sive for their use upon the seacoast. This proposi- 
 tion applies largely to the western coals, and, con- 
 sequently, the Vancouver, Australian, and Welsh 
 coals control the market. The coals of Texas and 
 New Mexico are largely unknown, and it is not 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 153 
 
 probable that they will ever compete upon the coast. 
 Therefore, the only practical competitor of the En- 
 glish coals are the coals from the Appalachian coal- 
 field, and the only channel through which these 
 coals can compete with the British coals is through 
 the Inter-oceanic canal. The Appalachian coal-field 
 of the United States embraces nearly 100,000 square 
 miles, and represents the true geological period, and 
 these coals are purer and better than the English 
 coals and far better than the coals of the West, which 
 last are the mezozoic or latter coals. The carbonif- 
 erous formation in this field (the Appalachian) is 
 an aggregate deposit of more than 9,000 feet, of 
 which there are more than 100 separate, distinct 
 coal veins. These coals lie principally in the Mis- 
 sissippi valley, counting western Pennsylvania in 
 that territory. The annual increase in the consump- 
 tion since 1880 has been about seven per cent., and 
 the total production for 1894, of England and the 
 United States, was about 343,000,000 tons. This in- 
 crease will largely come from the Appalachian coal- 
 field, and with transportation facilities no other 
 country can compete therewith. In this field they 
 are to-day mining the cheapest coals in the world. 
 In the State of West Virginia, which is a fair centre 
 of this great field, coal is being mined more cheaply 
 than in Japan. The Japanese pay six cents a day 
 for labor, yet her coal costs $1.516 F. 0. B. at the 
 mines. The New South Wales coals and the English 
 coals are always worth $2.25 and $1.75, respectively, 
 
154 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 per ton at pit mouth, while in the State of West Vir- 
 ginia coal is being mined and loaded at sixty cents 
 per ton on cars at mine and $1.80 F. 0. B. at Atlan- 
 tic tidewater. In other words, the Appalachian coal 
 field in the Mississippi valley can mine and trans- 
 port coal 400 miles by rail at much less than the cost 
 of the English coal at the pit mouth. Let us take 
 Pittsburgh and West Virginia as a fair test of what 
 benefits this canal will bring to this great article of 
 commerce in this valley. The distance from the 
 Ohio river to New Orleans is 2,000 miles. The cost 
 of transportation to New Orleans is eighty cents from 
 Pittsburgh and sixty-five cents per ton from the mouth 
 of the Kanawha river, in West Virginia. This is 
 cheap transportation. The price of coal of New South 
 Wales, at New Castle, is, as I have said before, $2.25 
 at the pit mouth. Now transportation by sea will 
 not be as expensive as by river. Transportation by 
 railroad is about one-half per cent, per ton, by steam 
 vessels one-fifth and by sailing vessels one-tenth. 
 Let us quote the price of coal of the markets which 
 we will dominate when we turn our eyes southward 
 and to the Pacific Ocean. The cost of transportation 
 for 15,000 miles from New Orleans to San Francisco 
 is too great for present successful competition. By 
 the Nicaragua canal the distance is reduced by 11,000 
 miles to a total of 4,000 miles. We will have the 
 advantage of the Welsh coals by nearly 3,000 miles. 
 We can put the Appalachian coals into the San Fran- 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 155 
 
 cisco market at less than market price for the Colo- 
 rado coals. 
 
 In San Francisco the coals at wholesale are about 
 as follows: 
 
 Seattle coal, . . $6 00 
 
 Cardiff coal, . . 7 25 
 
 Australian coal, . . 6 25 
 
 Cumberland coal, . . 13 00 
 
 Lehigh coal, . . 17 00 
 
 As a fair average, West Virginia coal in the Appala- 
 chian coal-field can be laid down in the harbor of San 
 Francisco at the rate of from $5.50 to $5.75 per ton. 
 Jn addition to this there is no comparison between 
 the Seattle coal and the Appalachian coal. The last 
 has the advantage in quality of from $1.50 to $2.25 
 per ton. 
 
 To Mananham, Brazil, the distance from New Or- 
 leans is about 3,800 miles; from Newport News, 3,108 
 miles. I use Newport News as illustrative of the 
 Middle Atlantic ports, such as Norfolk and Balti- 
 more. At this point they use Cardiff coal at $12 per 
 ton. West Virginia coal can be laid down at that 
 harbor at less than $5 per ton. At Pernambuco Bri- 
 tish and German coal is used. This costs $11 to $15 
 per ton. From New Orleans to Pernambuco it is 
 4,580 miles ; from Newport News it is 3,888. We can 
 sell them West Virginia coal at that point at $5.50 
 per ton. At Montevideo, Uruguay, they use British 
 coal, which costs $13 per ton. West Virginia coal 
 can be put in that market at $8 per ton. At Buenos 
 
156 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 Ayres they use Cardiff coal, which costs $14. Buenos 
 Ayres is 7,274 miles from New Orleans and 6,582 miles 
 Newport News. West Virginia coal can be placed in 
 this market for $6 per ton. At Acapulco, Mexico, 
 Cardiff and Australian coals are used, which cost 
 $20 per ton. This port is only 2,285 miles from New 
 Orleans and 2,756 miles from Newport News. The 
 Appalachian coal can be placed in that port for less 
 than $5 per ton. At Callao, Peru, Cardiff coal is used, 
 which costs $15 per ton. Callao is 2,984 miles from 
 New Orleans and 3,455 miles from Newport News. 
 West Virginia coal can be placed at that market at 
 $5 to $6 per ton. Valparaiso, Chili, uses Australian 
 coal and Cardiff coal. These coals cost in that port 
 $8 per ton. This port is only 4,254 miles from New 
 Orleans and about 4,725 miles from Newport News, 
 and is almost in a straight line from New Orleans 
 through the canal. West Virginia coal can be placed 
 in that market at $5.60 to $6 per ton. 
 
 A fair illustration of what can be accomplished by 
 the Appalachian coal in the South American and 
 West Indian markets was shown in March last, when 
 the Navy Department saved $50,000 by shipping 
 West Virginia coal from the Davis and Elkins mines 
 to our war-ships at Trinidad. Coal averages there 
 $7.30 per ton, but we were able to place the coal on the 
 war-ships at $3.85 per ton. On the other side of the 
 isthmus last year our war-ships were charged $11 a 
 ton for coal, and this year $10.75. Coal could be de- 
 livered through the canal for less than $5 a ton. 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 157 
 
 I have taken both coasts for the reason that as yet 
 little attention has been paid to the Western coast, 
 because little attention has been paid to the trade of 
 South America, and as soon as attention is directed 
 to this trade by reason of the building of the canal, 
 both coasts will be embraced within the limits of Ame- 
 rican enterprise and industry in this great traffic. 
 The fact that the Appalachian chain contains the 
 greatest number of measures of the best and cheap- 
 est coal is beyond discussion. And instead of States 
 like West Virginia, which has within its boundaries 
 17,000 square miles of coal lying right on the Ohio 
 river, easily accessible to the Gulf of Mexico, mining 
 ten million of tons a year, when this great South 
 American and Pacific trade is opened up, the increase 
 will be incalculable. This will apply to the whole of 
 the Appalachian coal field. With the canal opened 
 the coal trade of the world will be virtually revolu- 
 tionized. 
 
 Let us now consider the article of cotton, the other 
 great staple of commerce in the Mississippi valley. 
 From 1884, the growth of cotton has increased from 
 about six million to upwards of nine million bales in 
 1892. In eighteen years cotton has brought into the 
 South over five billion two hundred million dollars, 
 and since 1885 our exports of this staple have been 
 three billion eight hundred million dollars. How- 
 ever wonderful these figures may seem in the way of 
 production, and however great has been its influence 
 on mankind at large, all this cotton could have been 
 
158 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 raised in the State of Texas, and instead of supply- 
 ing comparatively a limited market, the whole world, 
 if^transportation facilities .were at hand, could have 
 been supplied with the manufactured article from 
 the United States. Our cotton is largely manufac- 
 tured by England, and out of ninety-two million spin- 
 dles, England has forty-five million and our country 
 only fifteen million ; and by reason of England's fa- 
 cilities for transportation this is shipped all over the 
 world and the Mississippi Valley receives nothing 
 but the mere price of the raw article. The 14,000,- 
 000 acres of cotton land should have its product 
 sent directly to its destination, and should as surely 
 receive in return the wools, dyes, coffee, and the va- 
 ried products of the South and the East. With the 
 Nicaraguan canal opened, Japan would be furnished 
 with all her cotton. This cotton should go directly 
 from us. Japan is now beginning to be one of the 
 great cotton manufacturing nations of the earth, and 
 in every line of manufacturing she will soon domi- 
 nate the East. Look at her momentus progress in 
 this one manufacture. She bought less than one 
 hundred thousand pounds of cotton in 1888; in 1891 
 she bought seven million pounds of cotton. At this 
 rate it will require but a short time before she will 
 require one-third of the whole cotton crop. She has 
 more than a million spindles, and she has forty mil- 
 lions of people who wear cotton clothing. The ships 
 passing through from New Orleans and across the 
 Pacific Ocean will have a great advantage over those 
 
BAILKOAD THROUGH SWAMP BACK OF GKEYTOWN. 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 159 
 
 passing through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez 
 canal on their way to Japan. The cotton which is 
 used in Japan is principally the long staple cotton, 
 and our cotton is the cotton which is demanded by 
 this trade. 
 
 From the South direct should go all the cotton to 
 Japan and China, and the nations of the East. By 
 the opening of the canal this great valley will be 
 brought 1,900 miles nearer Japan, and 2,000 miles 
 nearer the northern coast of China than any of the 
 English markets will be. We will be 1,000 miles 
 nearer Australia than England. With all of this 
 great power of production and manufacture, by rea- 
 son of the little interest which we have taken in the 
 Eastern and Southern trade, our commerce in cot- 
 ton has been infinitesimal as compared with Eng- 
 land. 
 
 In 1890 China imported 61,000,000 of cotton goods, 
 and only 5,000,000 from us. In 1894 we only sold 
 China $2,844,220 in cotton goods; the rest came from 
 England, and this cotton was raised in the valley of 
 the Mississippi With her new awakening, this is 
 rapidly changing. China's rate of progress is only 
 second to that of Japan, and within ten years she 
 will require one-half of our cotton crop. This will 
 revolutionize the trade of the world in cotton. The 
 opening of the canal will make us 1,000 miles nearer 
 Northern China than is Liverpool to-day. That means 
 the ability to undersell. The canal will bring us in 
 closer touch with 500,000,000 of people, who, if they 
 
1GO The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 only use half a pound of cotton each, will use 250,- 
 000,000 pounds. 
 
 This is not an idle dream ; there is no conquerer 
 so swift as cotton. Our country must turn its eyes 
 to the trade of the East and South. With the canal 
 in operation every pound of manufactured cotton, 
 and every yard of cotton fabric can be sold by us to 
 Western South America. With the canal in opera- 
 tion there will be no longer witnessed the spectacle of 
 this great republic having not quite $200,000,000 of 
 interest in the imports and $60,000,000 in the foreign 
 exports of our Southern neighbors, which together 
 aggregated last year $1,000,000,000. We only sold 
 last year to the great republic of Bolivia, $1,233 in 
 manufactured cotton. We only exported last year 
 to the republic of Brazil $1,538,680 of cotton and the 
 manufactures of cotton. We sold to Chili only $462,- 
 756 in cotton; to Columbia, $200,000; Ecuador, $51,- 
 992; Peru, $49,999; Venezuela, $543,938 in cotton. 
 We should control these cotton markets; we are 
 right near them. We must manufacture the cotton 
 in sight of the fields in which it is grown. I have 
 spoken indifferently of the western and the eastern 
 coasts of South America, because the canal will affect 
 both coasts by reason of American manufacturers 
 turning their general attention to this great and 
 general market. The states embraced in the Ohio 
 and Mississippi valleys are the states which have 
 within their bounds one-half of the population of 
 this great nation; they are states which raise sixty 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 161 
 
 per cent, of farm products, and own fifty per cent, 
 of the farming land, and sixty per cent, of the live 
 stock of the nation, and one-half of the farming im- 
 plements. 
 
 The ability of this great section to cheaply manu- 
 facture, and to largely dominate the trade of the East 
 is shown by the statistics of the manufactures of the 
 Ohio valley. In 1880 the number of manufacturing 
 industries was 89,707, whilst in 1890 it had increased 
 to 115,680. The value of manufactured products in 
 1890 amounted to $3,346,000,000, about forty per cent, 
 of the total manufactures of this country, as against 
 $1,791,000,000 in 1880, thus showing the enormous 
 increase in ten years of 25,973 manufactories, and 
 $1,555,000,000 in manufactured products. All of 
 this increase was in the face of the fact that in 1893 
 there went eastward to European nations 83^ per 
 per cent, of our exports, and southward to the Ame- 
 rican nations nine per cent., northward to British 
 America four per cent., and westward to Pacific na- 
 tions three and one-half. The workshop has no 
 place in South America. In the Mississippi valley 
 it will have its greatest development. 
 
 Another great benefit to the Mississippi valley 
 which will follow from the building of this canal 
 will be that the traffic of the Mississippi river will 
 be largely increased. On this river and its tributa- 
 ries in 1890 there was a tonnage of 29,405,046. It 
 is almost too great to rightly estimate. The great 
 
 increase in traffic demanded by the opening up of 
 11 
 
162 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 the nations of the east and of the western coast of 
 South America will intensify the demands for better 
 facilities of traffic upon this river and its tributaries. 
 It will demand the improvement of its channel, and 
 it will demand the improvement of the Ohio, and in 
 addition to this it will most certainly bring about 
 the construction of the canal between Lake Erie and 
 the Ohio river. This is another great dream of com- 
 merce which goes hand in hand with the opening of 
 the Central American isthmus. 
 
 The only want of manufacturers in the great Ohio 
 valley is the cheap ore of the Lake Superior region. 
 This lake region is part and parcel of the Mississippi 
 valley, and by the building of this last canal will 
 be largely tributary thereto. Out of a total of 11,- 
 879,679 tons of production of iron ore for the United 
 States 7,692,548 tons came from the Lake Superior 
 region. From these cheap ores, being brought by 
 the cheap transportation of the Lake canal into the 
 Mississippi valley, will arise thousands of manu- 
 factories along these great rivers, which will swell 
 the great volume of commerce passing through the 
 walls of the great Inter-oceanic canal and benefiting 
 the nations of the earth. 
 
 The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea are 
 more eligibly situated for commerce than any sheets 
 of water upon the globe. The relation of the Medi- 
 terranean Sea to Europe does not in any wise com- 
 pare from a commercial standpoint with the relation 
 of the Gulf of Mexico to the United States. Into 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 163 
 
 this great body of water pour the greatest rivers of 
 the world. 
 
 The river basins of Europe, Asia and Africa are 
 but one-fourth in importance as compared with those 
 which empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The Medi- 
 terranean Sea is of great length and has an indented 
 coast line, whereas the Gulf of Mexico is compact, 
 and only requires a short time to travel from one of 
 its extremities to the other. It requires a sailing 
 vessel a month to go from the Black Sea into the 
 ocean. 
 
 Then in the scope and variety of climate and ter- 
 ritory it does not compare with the Gulf of Mexico. 
 The Gulf of Mexico was designed by the hand of 
 nature to hold within its bosom the great commerce 
 of the world. It is within 2,000 miles of the mouth 
 of the Hudson, the Orinoco, the Mississippi, and the 
 Amazon. The mouth of the Amazon and Orinoco, 
 by reason of the trade-winds and the currents are in 
 this ocean, just as the laws of nature have placed 
 the mouth of the Mississippi within the same basin. 
 The currents of the ocean flow into the Gulf of Mexico 
 just as certainly as the currents of the Mississippi 
 and Ohio and Missouri flow within the same limits. 
 The river basins of other countries do not at all 
 compare with the river basins which virtually flow 
 into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi and Mis- 
 souri rivers, taking their head amidst the great wheat 
 fields of the North, flowing down to the more tem- 
 perate regions of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, and In- 
 
164 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 diana, where the fruits and products of the tempe- 
 rate regions are at their best, continue on to where 
 cotton and the fruits of the South have their highest 
 development. In one and the same period of the 
 year on this magnificent river one sees seed-time and 
 harvest. So it is with the Amazon, which flows 
 through the Andes to the coast, with an extent of 
 products and variety of climate which is not equalled 
 by any other river in the world, excepting the Missis- 
 sippi, having all of the real advantages of flowing 
 north and south as well as east and west. These 
 two rivers, one having all of the temperatures of the 
 earth, the other having perpetual summer within its 
 limits, both flow into the great American Sea and 
 carry their products there, to be thence distributed 
 to the nations of the earth. 
 
 Nature designed here a reciprocal commerce. Each 
 needs that which abounds with the other, and either 
 one can supply every want which the other may feel. 
 The mighty waters of these two great rivers are 
 bound together by the waves of these two seas. These 
 are American seas, and it is an essential of com- 
 merce that these waters should be commercially 
 dominated by the American nation. Our cotton 
 and iron and steel and the thousand manufacturers 
 of our great valley are essential to the South Ameri- 
 can civilization, and the dyes and the rare woods, 
 the rich spices, the indigo, quinine, drugs, wool, 
 hides, india-rubber, the fruit and sugar, and tobacco, 
 coffee, and cocoa, and the thousand other produc- 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 165 
 
 tions of the rich alluvial lands of this great South 
 American valley are imperatively demanded by our 
 civilization. 
 
 Every reason of commerce demands that the pro- 
 ducts of these great rivers shall be commingled in 
 these two great seas and that the isthmus shall no 
 longer separate them from the great marts of the 
 world. This canal will intensify the American feel- 
 ing, and more than any other work, strengthen and 
 invigorate this great commerce. 
 
 When considering what the possibilities of this 
 grand valley would be, when it is filled with a happy, 
 thrifty population, with railroads binding its utter- 
 most boundaries together, with splendid steamers on 
 the breast of its broad waters ; with its fertile fields 
 in full bloom of intelligent civilization ; with its 
 mines open and its manufactories smoking, Mr. 
 Calhoun well said in his report " Looking to a not 
 far distant future when this great valley, containing 
 within its limits 1,200,000 square miles, lying in its 
 whole extent in the temperate zone and occupying a 
 position midway between the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans, unequalled in fertility and the diversity of 
 its products, intersected in every direction by the 
 mighty streams, including its tributaries by which 
 it is drained and which supply a continuous naviga- 
 tion of upwards of 10,000 miles, with a coast includ- 
 ing both banks of twice that length, shall be crowded 
 with population and its resources fully developed, 
 
166 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 imagination is taxed in the attempt to realize the 
 magnitude of its commerce." 
 
 Another great writer has beautifully said, " Nature 
 has created nothing upon our continent more stu- 
 pendous than these waters, and they are as much 
 characteristic of the great American Republic, as the 
 institutions, policy, the liberty which distinguish it 
 from all the nations of the earth." 
 
 Having thus in a somewhat hurried manner con- 
 sidered the Mississippi valley, let us see how the 
 canal will affect the Pacific -coast. 
 
 The States of Washington, Oregon, and California 
 in 1880 had 1,114,578 people. In 1894 they had 
 2,095,598 people. No country has developed as has 
 this section. Senator Dolph shows that the foreign 
 commerce of San Francisco has grown to be as large 
 as the foreign commerce of the United States be- 
 tween 1820 and 1830. The great disadvantage under 
 which the Pacific coast labors is that it is about as 
 great a distance from the Pacific ports, San Fran- 
 cisco, for instance, to Liverpool, as it is to New York. 
 It is only 170 miles further from San Francisco to 
 Liverpool than from San Francisco to New York, 
 whilst from San Francisco to New Orleans it is 212 
 miles further than from San Francisco to Liverpool. 
 New York, however, by the canal would be 820 miles 
 nearer the Pacific Ocean than by the Union Pacific 
 railroad. The mind can scarcely calculate the great 
 importance of this canal to the Pacific coast. It is 
 almost impossible for the Eastern citizen to appre- 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 167 
 
 ciate the empire which we have upon the Pacific 
 coast, an empire not alone of territory, but an em- 
 pire of trade, which should be bound to us by every 
 tie of commerce. The Pacific coast has within its 
 boundary that which we of the middle West and of 
 the East must absolutely have as cheaply as possi- 
 ble. The timber of the East is being rapidly ex- 
 hausted and will not long stand the great strain 
 which has been put upon the supply. Upon the Pa- 
 cific coast there are twenty-five millions of acres of 
 the finest timber on the earth, and this timber must 
 be brought by the cheapest route to the great manu- 
 facturing centers of our Republic. From the Lum- 
 berman we got an idea of the great wealth of the sec- 
 tion in the matter of timber. Here we have suffi- 
 cient lumber to supply the world for many decades 
 to come, and no one can form any conception by 
 mere figures. 
 
 To compare it with the world's needs of to-day, 
 the truth of this assertion is manifest. Imagine a 
 belt of timber, and by timber we mean a dense for- 
 est, almost impenetrable with underbrush and wind- 
 falls several feet thick, with hundreds of trees to the 
 acre, many of which are from two to four hundred 
 feet high, so high in fact and so thick that the sun 
 never penetrates the forest of absolute eternal shade; 
 every acre of it contains thousands of feet of the 
 finest kind of timber, every tree waiting for the 
 woodman's ax and the sawman's saw, to be converted 
 into lumber. Imagine such a forest one single mile 
 
168 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 in width and long enough to girdle the earth three 
 times around its entire circumference, and an addi- 
 ditional lap from Puget Sound to the Atlantic Sea- 
 board. It is difficult to grasp such stupendous fig- 
 ures, yet if one can fix such a picture in his imagina- 
 tion he can form some idea of our timber supply; or 
 imagine every city and street and every country road 
 in the United States planked fifty feet in width with 
 lumber from forests in these States and enough left to 
 supply all the demand for building purposes for 
 years to come. As an illustration of the greatness of 
 the traffic, the mills of Washington put out last year 
 1,800,000,000 shingles. These shingles are being ship- 
 ped to every part of the United States, they come 
 heavily ladened by the long haul. There is shipped 
 from Puget Sound and the Western coast of the 
 United States an enormous amount of lumber needed 
 for spars and for the various fine manufacturing pur- 
 poses of this section. This lumber comes burdened 
 to the East by voyage of from fifty days by steamer 
 or one hundred to one hundred and thirty days by 
 sail around Cape Horn, when by the completing of 
 the canal from the time it leaves San Francisco or 
 Portland until it arrives at New York city would be 
 only forty or fifty days by sail and twenty days by 
 steamer, with the distance lessened ten thousand 
 miles. 
 
 During the year 1893 the amount of lumber 
 shipped from Puget Sound to foreign ports was 
 86,428,339 feet. Of this, 11,105,260 went to Great 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal 169 
 
 Britain and the continent of Europe. Every ton of 
 this lumber costs from ten to twelve dollars by the 
 Horn by sail, and from twenty to twenty-five dollars 
 by steam. By rail the rate is too great for success- 
 ful transcontinental shipment. By the canal the 
 freight will be reduced to eight dollars per thousand, 
 and the time to one-third. The change that will be 
 brought about in this traffic between our Pacific 
 coast and our Atlantic cities will be further appre- 
 ciated when you understand that from New York to 
 San Francisco, round the Horn, it is 14,840 miles, 
 but by the canal it is but 4,760 miles, showing a sav- 
 ing of 10,080 on the trip out, and 20,160 miles, or 
 almost the circumference of the globe, on the round 
 trip. The present capacity of mills on Puget Sound 
 alone is 1,000,000,000 feet per annum. 
 
 There is stumpage to the amount of 400,000,000 
 of feet on the Pacific coast alone. Consider the 
 effect of the lessening of the freight on this lumber 
 from three to four dollars on the 1,000, and what an 
 impulse it will give to this great industry. Instead 
 of the present comparatively small production of lum- 
 ber on the Pacific coast, a short time would witness an 
 enormous increase in this industry. A magnificent 
 commerce will be inaugurated which can scarcely be 
 appreciated by the East. 
 
 When this route is shortened there will be a sav- 
 ing in one year upon the article of timber alone, of 
 enough to more than construct the canal. Timber 
 is not the only great article of commerce. The im- 
 
170 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 mense product of the wheat fields of the Pacific must 
 be considered. Senator Squire estimates that the 
 State of Washington alone has the productive capac- 
 ity of 200,000,000 bushels of wheat per annum. 
 There was exported last year from Puget Sound, San 
 Francisco and Willamette, Oregon, about 20,000,000 
 bushels of wheat, and only about 150,000 bushels of 
 this wheat went to countries not tributary to this 
 canal; the rest went to New York and Europe. The 
 canal will reduce freight charges two dollars per 
 ton. From these same ports last year there were 
 shipped nearly 1,300,000 barrels of flour. Of this 
 flour the larger proportion went to countries not 
 tributary to the canal, but still a large proportion of 
 this product will seek the markets of Europe through 
 the canal. The wheat shipped to Liverpool takes 
 about four months, and costs about twenty-six cents 
 per bushel. The cost of transportation around the 
 Horn is not the chief trouble, it is the length of time 
 required by the voyage. When the route to Europe 
 will be lessened nearly 10,000 miles, tremendous will 
 be the increase in this great article of commerce. 
 
 It means more than this. By the passage around 
 the Horn wheat is subject to a great change in tem- 
 perature ; by the quicker passage through the canal 
 this great danger will be avoided, and the wheat can 
 be delivered in London in as good a condition as 
 when shipped from San Francisco. 
 
 The great wheat-growing competition existing be- 
 tween this country and the Argentine Confederation 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 171 
 
 will within a short time have a very great effect upon 
 the United States. Out of the great abundance of 
 wheat raised on the Pacific coast millions of bushels 
 go to Europe. The Argentine Confederation will be 
 our great competitor. It costs very much more to 
 raise wheat in this country than it does in the Argen- 
 tine Confederation. If we do not have some great 
 advantage in the way of transportation the cheap 
 production of the Argentine wheat will destroy our 
 European market, for the market is not growing with 
 the production. The building of this canal will place 
 Pacific coast wheat on a very great plane of advan- 
 tage over the Argentine wheat. To appreciate this 
 statement you must remember that Argentina has 
 her surface only scratched in a few places ; yet last 
 year, whilst the United States exported 159,500,000 
 bushels of wheat, Argentina exported 45,375,000 
 bushels. Mark you, Argentina is only scratched. 
 
 By the canal the time between San Francisco and 
 Liverpool will be reduced to twenty-five days' steam. In 
 addition to the great products of wheat and lumber, 
 there is the fruit trade, and the fur trade, and the 
 fisheries of the Pacific coast, all of which are the 
 largest and best in the world. 
 
 Considering the estimate which has been made of 
 the Pacific coast traffic by the promoters of the canal, 
 we find that even their greatest expectations have 
 been distanced by the year 1894. In the articles of 
 green fruits and dried fruit, raisins, and canned 
 goods, the estimate is much greater than was calcu- 
 
172 The Nicaraguan Ctinal. 
 
 lated. Senator White states that the State of Cali- 
 fornia produced in these four articles last year 212,- 
 000 tons of freight at a valuation of $4,240,000. The 
 same authority estimates that there was over 800,000 
 gallons of brandy shipped in 1894, and he estimates 
 that no less than two millions of dollars per year will 
 be saved the fruit-growers alone by the construction 
 of the canal. He estimates that on wheat there will 
 always be a saving of two dollars per ton. 
 
 In addition to all these actual advantages in short- 
 ening the time between the Pacific coast and the 
 East, there will be the greater question of certainty. 
 Around Cape Horn has been since commerce began 
 one of the hardest trips known to the mariner. The 
 great winds around the Cape for the sailing vessels, 
 and the tortuous uncertainty and dangerous passage- 
 way through the Straits of Magellan, has been one 
 of the greatest troubles in commerce. When wheat 
 is shipped no one knows when it will reach its des- 
 tination, or what changes there will be in the market 
 between shipment and arrival, or when the return 
 cargo will be shipped. With the canal there will be 
 a simple run down the coast, a passage through the 
 quiet waters of the canal, and a run up the coast on 
 the eastern side or across the Atlantic Ocean to Eu- 
 rope. More than all of this, it will be an advantage 
 to the Pacific coast by the lessening of railroad 
 freights. The railway freights along the inter-conti- 
 nental railway routes are just simply what the rail- 
 road authorities choose to make them. No country 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 173 
 
 except the Pacific coast would have grown under 
 such detrimental forces. With the canal completed 
 the Pacific coast will no longer be hampered in the 
 race for commercial supremacy. The previous dis- 
 cussion will do away with the necessity for discuss- 
 ing the effect of the canal upon the eastern part of 
 this country. Let us turn from the commercial to 
 the diplomatic and military view of the canal. 
 
 The diplomatic side of this question is very inte- 
 resting. What right has this government to build 
 or to assist in building this canal ? What rights 
 have this government under the existing treaties 
 between the countries of the world? What interest 
 can she take in it ? We answer, that leaving out the 
 countries of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, this country 
 has the paramount interest in this work. We grant 
 that no commercial nation should be discriminated 
 against in the matter of the passage of its commerce 
 through the canal, and whilst this is willingly con- 
 ceded, still we contend that our government should 
 never, under any circumstances, allow any other 
 than itself to be the dominating power in this 
 great enterprise. Every patriotic citizen of the 
 United States believes that our country should be 
 the controlling influence in matters pertaining to the 
 construction and operation of this canal. All of us 
 concur in the proposition that, this government 
 should be the dominating power in this hemisphere. 
 British statesmen, fifty years ago, clearly saw that 
 there would be but one power which could in any 
 
174 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 wise contend with England for commercial supre- 
 macy. The spirit of rivalry is not even of such late 
 growth. It has been seen and understood by British 
 statesmen for 200 years. In the minister's remon- 
 strance to parliament in 1670, speaking of our sailors, 
 they clearly stated that which expressed then, as it 
 does now, English sentiment. 
 
 "They violate our ordinances of trade with im- 
 punity, and our navigation laws, the last of which 
 with infinite pains we have devised, they trample 
 under foot with disdain. Their traders sally out 
 upon the deep; we find them seeking entrance in all 
 ports of Europe ; they even encourage foreigners to 
 trade with them." 
 
 With the wise commercial foresight which has 
 always characterized British statesmen, they saw 
 that they must control every avenue of commerce. 
 As a matter of fact but few remained free from British 
 aggression and British control. Understanding the 
 far-reaching importance of this canal and knowing 
 that every commercial reason demanded that the 
 United States should control it when built, the Brit- 
 ish government stepped in and undertook to have a 
 joint control with the United States. It sought to 
 accomplish this by putting forward claim to part of 
 the territory through which the canal would pass; 
 England did not take the Mosquito coast abso- 
 lutely as her possession, but seizing a part of Nica- 
 ragua territory upon a mere claim, she crowned a 
 king from Nicaraguan subjects and virtually estab- 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal 175 
 
 lished a protectorate over the territory. This course 
 was taken by England to avoid the question as to 
 her infraction of the Monroe doctrine, and was in- 
 intended solely to force upon the United States a 
 joint control of the canal. In 1850 the two govern- 
 ments made what is known as the Clayton-Bulwer 
 convention, the first clause in which treaty provided 
 that "the governments of the United States and 
 Great Britain hereby declare that neither one or the 
 other will ever obtain or maintain for itself any ex- 
 clusive control over the said ship canal." This clause 
 is the real gist of the whole treaty on the part of 
 England, and is the condition for which she had been 
 really contending. The convention further provided 
 that " neither one government or the other will ever 
 colonize or assume, or exercise any dominion over 
 Nicaragua, Costa Rica or the Mosquito coast, or any 
 part of Central America." In other words, it pro- 
 vided that neither government should exercise ex- 
 clusive control over the canal. The whole treaty 
 shows that it was intended that neither one or the 
 other of the parties to the convention should ex- 
 clude the other from the benefits arising from the 
 great work. How does this treaty stand to-day ? 
 In the opinion of great international lawyers it is 
 void for the reason that the canal was not com- 
 pleted as was then contemplated, and from the fur- 
 ther reason that the terms of the treaty were not 
 complied with on the part of Great Britain. Fur- 
 thermore, any provision as a matter of politics or 
 
176 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 State policy which will allow the government of 
 Great Britain to participate in the supreme control 
 of this canal would not to-day be tolerated by the 
 American people. This is a plain way of putting it, 
 but it is a very honest declaration of the sentiment 
 of the whole nation. At that time, public sentiment 
 did not stand where it does to-day, and the conditions 
 under which the treaty was consummated are not 
 the conditions of to-day. 
 
 Irrespective of any question of the change of 
 public sentiment and the change of the condition 
 of affairs, the treaty has been abrogated by the 
 acts of Great Britain herself. She systematically, 
 and, in the face of the treaty, colonized the Balize 
 settlement, which has been increased territorially, 
 and from a governmental standpoint, until to-day it 
 is a part of the imperial government. The Mosquito 
 coast also was virtually made into a dependency of 
 the British. 
 
 This policy was carried out by Great Britain right 
 in the face of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which some 
 people are in the habit of resurrecting in order to do 
 away with the construction of the canal by the United. 
 States. When this treaty was considered the Suez 
 canal was not constructed, and in the control of Great 
 Britain, and the whole burden of the proceedings 
 show that the immediate completion of the canal 
 was contemplated. This was in 1850. Such being 
 the status of affairs, in 1867, seventeen years after 
 the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, the government of the 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 177 
 
 United States concluded with the Republic of Nica- 
 ragua a fair, liberal treaty. Article 14 of said treaty 
 is as follows: "The Republic of Nicaragua hereby 
 grants to the United States and their citizens and 
 property the right of transit between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific Oceans through the territory of that re- 
 public on any route of communication, natural or 
 artificial, whether by' land or by water, which may 
 now or hereafter exist or be constructed under the 
 authority of Nicaragua, to be used in the same man- 
 ner and upon equal terms by both republics and 
 their respective citizens the Republic of Nicaragua, 
 however, reserving its rights of soverignty over the 
 same." The United States further guaranteed the 
 neutrality and innocent use of the canal, and 
 this government also has the right to carry mu- 
 nitions of war to either of the free ports estab- 
 lished by the Nicaraguan government, and the 
 treaty provided further that should it become neces- 
 sary to supply military force it will provide the re- 
 quisite force, but that the government of the United 
 States may do so upon failure on the part of the 
 Nicaraguan government. This treaty further pro- 
 vides the right of Congress of the United States to 
 legislate so as to provide the laws for the carrying 
 into effect this treaty. The treaty is a very broad 
 one. The British government two years afterwards 
 made a similar treaty to this one with the Nicara- 
 guan government. This treaty is subject to the pro- 
 visions of our treaty. In 1884 Mr. Frelinghuysen 
 12 
 
178 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 negotiated a very broad treaty with Nicaragua. This 
 treaty virtually granted sovereignty within the lim- 
 its of Nicaragua to the United States, and was with- 
 drawn by the President from consideration by the 
 Senate. 
 
 In 1887 Nicaragua made a concession to Mr. A. G. 
 Manacal for an American company for the building 
 and operating of the canal for ninety-nine years. 
 Very large and important provisions were conceded 
 to this company, which was composed exclusively of 
 American citizens, but all of these concessions are 
 under, and entirely consistent with, the treaty of 
 1867, which gives the largest latitude on the part of 
 the American government in the operation and de- 
 fence of this canal. The bill embodying these pro- 
 visions and concessions was the one which was in- 
 troduced into Congress, and was the one which was 
 elaborately discussed in the last Congress. Since the 
 Clayton-Bulwer treaty public sentiment has entirely 
 changed, and the conditions have entirely changed. 
 This is the only trade avenue not now in the control 
 of the British government, and this is of more vital 
 importance to the United States than any other en- 
 terprise, commercial or otherwise, since the forma- 
 tion of this government. It is virtually a continua- 
 tion of the coast line of the United States. In con- 
 nects and binds together our great republic, and 
 every consideration of diplomacy and self-interest 
 makes our citizens say distinctly but firmly that, 
 notwithstanding any question of legal casuistry as 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 179 
 
 to treaty obligations with England, the government 
 of the United States, in the management and control 
 of this great avenue of commerce, will permit no in- 
 terference from other nations. Its innocent neu- 
 trality, so far as commerce is concerned, will be guar- 
 anteed by our nation. No larger tolls will be charged 
 the citizens of any other government than is charged 
 the citizens of our republic. No greater burden will 
 be put upon any other nation's commerce than will 
 be put upon our own; but when questions arise con- 
 cerning the control and management of this canal, 
 in moments of supreme interest to our government, 
 it must be distinctly understood by the nations of 
 the earth that we will be supreme. No other nation 
 but England will gainsay this plain, sensible and 
 palpable proposition, and it does not lie in the mouth 
 of a government which, in the face of neutrality 
 treaties, for three days closed the Suez canal in order 
 to assert its eminence and control therein, to say that 
 in a trade avenue of such vital importance to our 
 government that we shall not absolutely control. 
 Anyhow, what do neutrality treaties mean ? They 
 mean simply that the power which has the biggest 
 guns and the fastest ships and the closest position to 
 the neutral zone will seize it. That is the history of 
 neutral zones at the moment of a contest with arms. 
 Then why give up our manifest right to be in the 
 controlling position in case of trouble ? 
 
 President Hayes well states our proposition: " The 
 policy of this government is a canal under American 
 
180 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 control. The United States cannot consent to the 
 surrender of this control to any European govern- 
 ment. If existing treaties between the United States 
 and other nations, or if the rights of sovereignty or 
 property by other nations stand in the way of this 
 policy, a contingency which is not apprehended, 
 suitable steps should be taken by just and liberal 
 connections to promote and establish the American 
 policy on this subject consistently with the rights of 
 the nations to be affected by it. The capital invested 
 by corporations and citizens of other countries in 
 such an enterprise must, in a great measure, look for 
 protection to one or more of the great powers of the 
 world. No European power would intervene for such 
 protection without measures on this condition which 
 the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. 
 If the protection of the United States is relied upon, 
 the United States must exercise such control as will 
 enable this country to protect its national interest 
 and maintain the rights of those who provide capital 
 to embark in the work. ..... 
 
 Our commercial interest in it is greater than that of 
 all other countries, while its relation to our power 
 and our prosperity as a nation, to our means of de- 
 fence, our unity, peace and safety are matters of para- 
 mount concern to the people of the United States. 
 No other great power would, under similar circum- 
 stances, fail to assert a rightful control over a work 
 so closely and vitally affecting its interests and. wel- 
 fare." 
 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 181 
 
 In the opinion of some people the Claytcn-Bulwer 
 treaty is alive. Surely the question of its life and 
 death can, at the utmost, be but a question of doubt. 
 In whose favor shall we solve the doubt ? In favor 
 of England ? Doubt and vacillation have already 
 given her Egypt and the Suez canal. Our plain duty 
 is to give our country 'the benefit of the doubt, and 
 say firmly and plainly that no trammels except our 
 treaty obligations to Nicaragua would in anywise in- 
 terfere with our decision. This is the manner in 
 which England decides all questions of doubt in 
 which she may be interested. Shall we be less fair 
 -with ourselves ? Shall we for mere sentiment give 
 up our plain right and for want of patriotism throw 
 away a kingdom of commerce ? If we do so, what 
 we now throw away in diplomacy, sooner or later, we 
 will be compelled to fight for in war. The diplomatic 
 discussion brings to us the kindred and incidental 
 question of the purely strategical and military im- 
 portance of the work. Every interest of the United 
 States demands that the Gulf of Mexico and the Ca- 
 ribbean Sea should, from a military standpoint, be 
 really American seas, absolutely under the military 
 strategical domain of the United States. To carry 
 out the Monroe doctrine it is necessary that our gov- 
 ernment have power right at hand to easily handle. 
 This government must protect its southern neighbors 
 from the actual control and occupancy of trans-con- 
 tinental and non-republican powers. This debt, by 
 
182 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 her power, location and importance, is forced upon 
 this country. 
 
 I do not mean by this proposition to assert mere 
 jingoism. I do not believe that this government 
 should be ready to take up every quarrel which a 
 South American country may have with the Euro- 
 pean powers. The Monroe doctrine does not mean 
 that this country should act the bully in South Ame- 
 rican complications with European governments. 
 The Monroe doctrine does mean, however, the vig- 
 orous determination on the part of this country that 
 there shall be no permanent aggression upon South 
 American States by European governments. It means 
 that we will not allow the form of free American gov- 
 ernments which we have recognized to be changed by 
 theinfluenceof Continental governments. It means 
 that no combination of European governments 
 against American governments will be tolerated on 
 the part of this government. And it means more 
 than that that we will not allow the permanent 
 widening and extending of European colonization 
 and influence within the territorial limits of South 
 America. It expressly says that with " the existing 
 colonies or dependencies of any European power we 
 have not interfered and shall not interfere; but with 
 the governments which have declared their independ- 
 ence, which we have on great consideration and just 
 principles recognized, we could not view any inter- 
 position for the purpose of oppressing them or con- 
 trolling in any other manner their destiny by Euro- 
 
The Niearaguan Canal. 183 
 
 pean powers in any other light than as a manifesta- 
 tion of an unfriendly disposition towards the United 
 State*" 
 
 I take it that the Monroe doctrine means some- 
 thing. That President Monroe when he said " We 
 owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable rela- 
 tions existing between the United States and those 
 powers to declare that we should consider any 
 attempt on their part to extend their systems to any 
 portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace 
 and safety. ..... 
 
 We could not view any interposition for the purpose 
 of oppressing or controlling in any other manner 
 their destiny by any European power in any other 
 light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly dis- 
 position towards the United States " meant that the 
 European governments could not reconquer and re- 
 colonize and divide South American States. The 
 Allied European governments at the time of the 
 enunciation of this doctrine so understood that he 
 meant exactly what he said at that time and took 
 their hands away from the South American territory. 
 If the Monroe doctrine did not mean just what it 
 said, or, if to-day, it has changed its meaning, then 
 eliminate it from our unwritten law, for it is but 
 sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. 
 
 Despite the refining influence induced by ultra- 
 conservative political considerations the common 
 people of the United States believe that the doctrine 
 is to-day just what it was when it destroyed the alii- 
 
184 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 ance of European sovereigns who attempted to par- 
 tition the territory of South America among them. 
 
 I confess that from a political standpoint I cannot 
 differentiate between England dismembering Vene- 
 zuela, a free republican government, and the Allied 
 sovereigns partitioning South America among them- 
 selves. Therefore, if the Monroe doctrine is to be 
 maintained this country must be potent from a naval 
 or strategical view in the Southern seas. 
 
 The Gulf of Mexico will, from its location, become 
 the centre of the largest carrying trade of the world. 
 The greater part of it will be American. Its position 
 is such that it dominates the richest territory in the 
 world, the heart and centre of the United States, the 
 great valley of the Mississippi. Its defence is not 
 local as would be the defence of the harbor of a great 
 city. Its loss would affect Maine as well as Missis- 
 sippi. Every ship owner or cargo owner having an 
 interest in the great carrying trade of the West would 
 be affected. 
 
 Says a distinguished statesman, once at the head 
 of the war department, " And it must be borne in 
 mind that the evils which would result from the tem- 
 porary occupancy of the delta of the Mississippi or 
 from a successful blockade of the coasts of the Gulf 
 of Mexico would not only injure the prosperity of 
 these States, but would deeply affect the interest of 
 the whole Union. No reasonable expense, therefore, 
 ought to be spared to guard against such a casualty." 
 
 The canal will be the virtual southern boundary 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 185 
 
 of the United States, and from a military standpoint 
 it would be ruinous to the United States for any other 
 country to control it. 
 
 Could any Central American state control it? The 
 first revolution would put it in the hands of some 
 strong European power, and any European power 
 in this hemisphere would be inimical to the inter- 
 ests of this government. No private party or cor- 
 poration could hold it. No weak power can hold it. 
 It must be in a masterful grasp. In case of war, and 
 war must be considered, the strategical relations of 
 this canal to this hemisphere will be very much 
 more important than the relation of the Suez to the 
 Eastern hemisphere. Consider its strategical situa- 
 tion and the great military possibilities it develops. 
 Careful surveys of every portion of Central America 
 have shown that the only feasible route between the 
 oceans is the Nicaraguan route, and that route is 
 through the great fresh water lake of Nicaragua. 
 This lake has sufficient capacity to hold the navies 
 of the world, and it is the only portion of Central 
 America where health reigns. It is in the gap of 
 the mountains through which the cool trade winds 
 blow and prevent fever and miasma. Here is the 
 only place in Central America where the stricken or 
 wounded sailor can enjoy the coolness of a mountain 
 sanitarium, with fresh water and tropical fruits in 
 abundance. At Panama men died like flies and 
 were as little considered. At Nicaragua, out of 
 1,600 men employed by the Nicaraguan company 
 
186 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 for four months] only two died, and from 200 men 
 from a colder climate, not one died of disease inci- 
 dent to the climate. It is a lake whose soft water 
 will cleanse the bottom of the ship from every im- 
 purity, and where our country may place its dry 
 docks, hospitals, coal stations, warehouses, repair 
 shops, and arrange all the paraphernalia necessary 
 for naval affairs. The treaty of 1867 with Nicara- 
 gua is broad enough to give us the right to erect 
 fortifications for our soldiers sent there under this 
 treaty. It is broad enough to allow our navy to be sta- 
 tioned there as a base for strategical operations in both 
 oceans. If it is not, the Republic of Nicaragua has 
 shown that its Americanism is sufficiently liberal to 
 confer upon us such powers as are necessary to make 
 us the controlling influence in the canal. We ask 
 no sovereignty over Central American territory. We 
 do not seek to invade the traditions of our past by 
 assuming sovereignty over any other than our own 
 territory, but it would be the husk without the corn 
 to present us the right to supply millions of money 
 to build this great work, and say that we have not 
 the power to protect it by works sufficient for that 
 purpose. For us to refuse to do so would be to 
 evince a spirit of national self-abnegation and weak 
 sentimentalism which would be viewed among the 
 nations with derision and contempt. 
 
 With the prescience which seems almost miracu- 
 lous, England readily discovered that on this con- 
 tinent would rise her great naval rival. With the 
 
I 
 
 F 
 
 BAILROAD BRIDGE ACROSS BENARD CREEK. 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 187 
 
 energy which has characterized that nation, she 
 steadily set herself to work to reach out and environ 
 this government with commercial outposts in times 
 of peace, and fortifications in times of war. Con- 
 sidering her single idea predominance, we can well 
 say of England 
 
 " Through the ages one increasing purpose runs." 
 
 Seeing that the undeveloped territory of South 
 America would be one of the trade emporiums of the 
 world, she has erected her military force so that 
 every merchant vessel sailing from New York or 
 Boston, or any of our eastern ports, on its way to 
 the rich trading fields of South America must pass 
 British fortifications and British naval stations. 
 She has located great fortifications at the Bermudas, 
 within two days of New York. On the Pacific and 
 on the Atlantic and on the Gulf of Mexico she is 
 ready to strike our defenceless cities and interfere 
 with our commerce. In Europe, Asia, and Africa 
 her frowning forts and shotted guns control every 
 vital position, and the black hulls of her men-of-war 
 darken every ocean. 
 
 " She has encompassed the whole world with her 
 outposts and military possessions, and her morning 
 drum-beat, following the sun in its course, keeping 
 company with the hours, encircles the globe with 
 one continuous and unbroken peal of the martial airs 
 of England." 
 
 Like the stars of the sky, her coaling stations and 
 
188 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 naval depots dot the Pacific Ocean. She owns the 
 Bahamas, the Windward and the Leeward islands, Ja- 
 maica, Tobago, and Trinidad, and to-day can abso- 
 lutely bottle up the mouth of the Mississippi. Every 
 pass into the Gulf of Mexico is controlled by her 
 forts. Our vessels on their way to California must 
 pass in times of war through a sea controlled by 
 islands from whose harbors English men-of-war, tho- 
 roughly equipped with every paraphernalia of war 
 and every appliance necessary for offence and de- 
 fence. She has located herself on the continent of 
 South America, where she can strike at our com- 
 merce and absolutely drive us out of the country. 
 Above us on the western coast is the great strategical 
 and military post on Vancouver Island, from whence 
 she can swoop down upon our States on the Pacific. 
 From the military and naval depots of Canada she 
 can quickly reach our great eastern ports. 
 
 In every part of the New World the government 
 of the United States is menaced by English trading 
 stations in times of peace and by British fortifications 
 in times of war. So it is with the Old World: She 
 sits like a lion crouched at Gibraltar; she controls 
 Cyprus and Malta, and Ceylon, and the Suez canal, 
 and Egypt; and despite the power and diplomacy of 
 European nations, the Mediterranean Sea is to-day a 
 British lake. She has drawn around the whole world 
 a wall of forts, from which from one to the other can 
 be heard the boom of her guns. 
 
 When I speak of England I mention her in no 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 189 
 
 spirit of acrimony, but rather with a feeling of ad- 
 miration for the country which has, in and out of 
 season, so carefully protected her commerce and her 
 military interests. 
 
 Our next war will be virtually a naval war. It 
 will consist almost exclusively of naval conflicts be- 
 tween hostile fleets, preying on the enemy's merchant 
 service and the levying of tribute on our defenceless 
 cities. To be effectual in protection or aggression 
 our fleet must be in position to give aid either to the 
 Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, with the power to meet 
 the Pacific squadron at San Francisco in seven days 
 and, if necessary, fight a battle on the coast of Mex- 
 ico, and within twenty days' time be back in the har- 
 bor of the lake, and then within a short sail be able 
 to protect New Orleans or to steam to Kingston, 
 Gaudaloupe, or the Bermudas. If necessary, in five 
 days it could be defending Savannah, then join our 
 fleet at Hampton Roads, or be back at Mobile, and 
 then through the canal to the coast of Peru or Chili. 
 Suppose, for instance, there should be a serious con- 
 troversy on the coast of Brazil. Consider the disad- 
 vantage our government would be compelled to un- 
 dergo. The Pacific squadron would be compelled to 
 steam down the coast of South America, around Cape 
 Horn to the shoulder of South America, ten thousand 
 miles, when in all probability the trouble would have 
 been over or an irreparable injury have been done to 
 our commercial interests. 
 
 There are two passes into the Gulf of Mexico. One 
 
190 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 is from the Atlantic Ocean through the straits of 
 Florida, between the island of Cuba and the Florida 
 Keys. The Bahama Islands lie absolutely across 
 this great and chief pass, and every ship from New 
 York or Boston, or the Eastern coast, bound to the 
 mouth of the Mississippi or the Gulf of Mexico must 
 pass through a cordon of British fortified islands. 
 These islands stretch from a short distance of the 
 southeastern Florida coast to within a short distance 
 of Hayti. The other pass is from the Caribbean Sea 
 and is through the channel of Yucatan, between Cuba 
 and Yucatan. This pass is dominated by the mag- 
 nificent island of Jamaica, in whose land locked 
 harbor of Kingston 1,000 ships may safely lie. 
 Nearer yet to the pass lie the Little and Great Cay- 
 man Islands, both British possessions. More than 
 this, unless ships will enter into the Gulf of Mexico 
 through the straits of Florida, passing the Bahama 
 Islands, they will be compelled to go through the 
 Windward Passage, between Cuba and Hayti, or 
 through the Mona Passage, between Hayti and Porto 
 Rico, or through the passage between the Windward 
 Islands into the Caribbean Sea. 
 
 In every case commerce will be compelled to pass 
 by the island of Jamaica. The last passage through 
 the Windward Islands, by reason of the tortuous 
 navigation, would be almost impossible, and for the 
 further reason that the British absolutely dominate 
 the entrance into the Caribbean Sea from the shoulder 
 of South America, 
 
The N'icaraguan Canal. 191 
 
 In addition to this great cordon of islands from 
 the Great Bahama Island, stretching from near the 
 Coast of Florida through the Bahama Islands, and 
 Leeward and Windward Islands to the islands of 
 Trinidad, right on the coast of South America, there 
 are the Central American Provinces of British Hon- 
 duras and the Mosquito coast, which are parts of 
 the very continent which must be pierced by this 
 canal. 
 
 England's strategical and commercial encroach- 
 ments have not been confined alone to the islands of 
 the Caribbean Sea and of the Gulf of Mexico. Her 
 present contention with Venezuela is fraught with 
 even more vital consequence to this government 
 than any other in which England has ever engaged. 
 The success of her attempt to control the mouth of 
 the Orinoco river with its vast military and commer- 
 cial importance will virtually turn over Northeastern 
 South America to Great Britain. With the mouth 
 of the Orinoco in the hands of England every in- 
 terest demands that we have a fleet in the canal or 
 near to Western South America. The importance 
 of this river can scarcely be realized. It dominates 
 the best parts of Venezuela and a large part of 
 Columbia. Venezuela has a territory of 597,960 
 square miles, and is greater in extent than Texas, 
 Colorado, Idaho, and California. This great river is 
 three miles wide, 600 miles from its mouth, and 
 has tides to the city of Bolivar, nearly 400 miles 
 from the ocean. It has 436 affluents, some of them 
 
192 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 great rivers. Venezuela is one of the great States of 
 South America, and the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, 
 as I have said before, have their outlet with the Mis- 
 sissippi and in the straits of Florida, and should not 
 be tributary to any other than a South American 
 government. The valley of the Orinoco is one of the 
 richest in the world. The climate of the State is 
 magnificent and is as varied, by reason of its different 
 elevations, as any on the globe. The plains are rich 
 and fertile, and the mountains are filled with rich 
 minerals and clothed with magnificent and rare 
 woods. Here the best cereal and the most luscious 
 fruit grow side by side, and it is a land fitted by 
 nature to be the grazing field of the world. 
 
 From the Orinoco by navigable stream you may 
 pass to the Amazon. With the Orinoco in the grasp 
 of England in times of war no American ship, unless 
 protected, can safely pass Northern South America 
 on its way to the mouth of the Amazon. Within 
 England's control will be a splendid harbor, backed 
 by a rich country, flowing with milk and honey, and 
 reaching almost to the other ocean. 
 
 In every instance, every strategical point along 
 the northern coast of South America, along Cen- 
 tral America and the Gulf of Mexico, is controlled 
 by British possessions and British fortifications, and 
 the only possibility of this government protecting 
 the vast interests of the Mississippi valley and of 
 its South American commerce and of its southern 
 carrying trade in general would be from the fortifi- 
 
The Nicaraguan Canal. 193 
 
 cations and the land-locked harbor of the Inter- 
 oceanic canal. 
 
 Can we longer refuse to accept our destiny? Is 
 there not danger that the crown may not again be 
 offered us? .Is it wise statesmanship for us to delay 
 this important enterprise? Year by year our in- 
 creasing commerce will surely demand that we have 
 a strong hand beyond our mere territorial limits. 
 
 It is true that the mighty tread of our free people 
 shakes the world; that we have conquered a conti- 
 nent and have hewn the path of a splendid civiliza- 
 tion broad and plain from sea to sea ; that we have 
 conquered in all our wars with alien foes, and the 
 government has remained steady and vigorous amidst 
 internecine strife. Yet in the day of our power, let 
 us look ahead, and not wantonly throw away the 
 broad empire of a world's commerce. Let us re- 
 member that our republican form of government is 
 only a trial, and that ere long we may be compelled 
 alone to face the combined jealousies of the Old 
 World. Whilst we can, let us seize the gateway of 
 the world's commerce, and with these gates in our 
 strong hands we can laugh to scorn the combined 
 jealousies of the monarchies of the Old World. 
 
 A great writer has said that the twentieth century 
 will witness two colossal nations to which other na- 
 tions of the earth will be as pigmies the United 
 States of America and Russia. The despotic gov- 
 ernment of Russia may delay her ultimate des- 
 tiny, but with commerce untrammeled and bar- 
 is 
 
194 The Nicaraguan Canal. 
 
 riers broken down our country will brook no delay 
 in her majestic career. If we are but true to 
 our traditions, and grasp our opportunities firmly, 
 our people will early see the day when the dusky 
 foot of the Eastern mother will tread the pedals of 
 the American sewing machine; when the merry 
 click of the American reaper will be heard on the 
 banks of the Ganges; when in Eastern lands beau- 
 tiful structures rivaling the Taj will rear their fair 
 heads, fashioned by the keen edge of American tools ; 
 when American engines will rush and roar in the 
 valleys of the Rio Negro, the Amazon and the Ori- 
 noco; when the products of American looms will be 
 sold at the foot of the Himalayas and sought for in 
 the valleys of the Andes; and when the seas will be 
 merry with the laugh of the American sailor and 
 bright with the gleam of our sails. Then the ge- 
 nius of our free institutions, permeating and rehabili 
 tating, glorifying the nations of the earth, will have 
 subserved its purpose in making all nations co-heirs 
 with us in the blessings of free government. 
 
 With this grand destiny so near consummation, 
 surely our magnificent energy will break away the 
 last barrier to the peoples of the earth, and then^ 
 
 " Creation's heir 
 The World, the World is mine." 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 
 
THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 
 
 EDMUND BURKE, the greatest of European statesmen 
 during the eighteenth century, has traced the history 
 of European settlements in the two Americas with a 
 master hand. Robertson's History of America to a 
 large extent is an elaboration of Burke's admirable 
 compendium. 
 
 No intelligent American can read this compen- 
 dium by the great orator and statesman without be- 
 coming convinced that the domination of Europe in 
 the affairs of this hemisphere " cisatlantic affairs/' 
 as Jefferson called them has been the darling dream 
 of thrones since the discovery of America by Colum- 
 bus. For a century and a half before the American 
 Revolution, England and France waged constant 
 war in North America for supremacy. Thanks to 
 her American colonies and the Indian Confederacy 
 of the Iroquois or Five Nations, England finally van- 
 quished France and snatched the sceptre from the 
 Bourbons on the Heights of Abraham. 
 
 Prescott with luminous pen has written the his- 
 tory of Mexico and South America and depicted the 
 conflicts of the Spanish and Portuguese adventurers 
 with the Red men and Incas to plant the colors of 
 Castile and Portugal in that great southern division 
 
 I 197 J 
 
198 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 of America. Everywhere the same story is repeated ; 
 man's lust of dominion is written in the blood of the 
 Aborigines who were gradually driven back and ex- 
 terminated before the inroads of the audacious race 
 of Japhet. 
 
 France aided the thirteen revolting American 
 colonies to break the yoke of bondage to England 
 and establish the Independence of the United States. 
 The prediction of Count de Vergennes was fulfilled. 
 In 1759, when that astute French statesman received 
 the news of the death of the illustrious Montcalm 
 and the consequent destruction of the fair fabric of 
 New France on this continent, he attributed to the 
 Anglo-American colonies the chief credit for the re- 
 sult, and declared they were now in a position to 
 help themselves. France was gone, England would 
 soon follow; the latter 's triumph would prove a fatal 
 one. " Her colonies will no longer need her protec- 
 tion," said he ; " she will call on them to contribute 
 toward supporting the burdens they have helped to 
 bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all 
 dependence." 
 
 Thus the rivalry of thrones subserved the cause of 
 liberty, and Louis XVI., no less than Washington, 
 contributed to make the new world its future home. 
 The Titanic wars of Napoleon followed and kept our 
 first four presidents in a sea of troubles while striving 
 to steer the bark of the infant republic clear of those 
 "entangling alliances" which formed the burden of 
 warning in the farewell address of the father of his 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 499 
 
 country. The massive strength and saving common 
 sense of Washington, the prophetic vision and in- 
 comparable genius for government of Jefferson, res- 
 cued the United States in the days of our infancy 
 from the vortex which made Europe a charnel house 
 of carnage. He who reads the general correspond- 
 ence and writings of Jefferson will discover that that 
 great lawgiver and founder of government was the 
 first man in America to read the riddle of the future 
 aright, and to mark off the boundaries between re- 
 publicanism and monarchy in the two Americas. 
 
 What the inspired Bishop Berkeley prophesied in 
 his verses on the prospect of planting arts and learn- 
 ing in America, Jefferson's world-embracing vision 
 not only described as the poet dreamed it, but shaped 
 it into legislation and the accomplished facts of state- 
 craft : 
 
 11 Westward the course of empire takes its way ; 
 
 The four first acts already past, 
 A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 
 Time's noblest offspring is the last." 
 
 Out of the French Revolution a man arose who 
 controlled the whirlwind and rode the storm. The 
 mission of Napoleon Bonaparte seemed to be to pla? 
 gue the Pharaohs of the earth. He turned their 
 rage into the plaything of his ambition, and by his 
 stupendous genius broke them like a horse-tamer 
 into abject submission to his will. All the latent 
 and active power of the French Revolution became 
 the instrument of his aggrandisement, and kings 
 
200 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 fled aghast before the colossal armaments of the 
 man of destiny. The finger of God finally traced 
 the handwriting on the wall, and Napoleon was 
 weighed in the scales which men could not set, and 
 he was found wanting. Puny monarchs who had 
 cringed to his knees, trembled before his frown and 
 striven among themselves for his favors, now vaunted 
 their prowess as his conquerors, and sat down at the 
 Congress of Vienna to divide the spoils. In the day 
 of their terror these same monarchs confessed their 
 impotency, petitioned heaven for deliverance in sack- 
 cloth and ashes, and humbly promised to give to God 
 all the credit for any success over the terrible Em- 
 peror of the French. " The Redeemer," exclaimed 
 Alexander of Russia, " inspired every thought com- 
 prised in the alliance, all the principles it an- 
 nounces. It is not our work, it is God's." This 
 was the treaty of the Holy Alliance ratified on the 
 26th of September, 1815. Read in the light of his- 
 tory, the real issue between Napoleon and the Allies 
 was not the vindication of the rights of nations, but 
 which of them should have the coveted power to vio- 
 late them. The Allies won, and their Holy Alliance 
 became a scandalous conspiracy against the liberties 
 of mankind. 
 
 The Monroe doctrine proclaimed in 1823, has been 
 unequivocally reasserted in 1895 by President Cleve- 
 land. The British government, whose encroach- 
 ments upon the territory of Venezuela have been 
 steadily increasing for fifty years past, was invited 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 201 
 
 by this government to submit to arbitration all ques- 
 tions in dispute between England and the South 
 American republic. Lord Salisbury in his reply not 
 only rejected the invitation to arbitrate, but declared 
 the Monroe doctrine to be a dead and buried issue 
 of the past, wholly obsolete at the present day, and 
 never pertinent or applicable except against the 
 Holy Alliance in the early part of the present cen- 
 tury, when the peculiar circumstances of the South 
 American republics, which had then recently thrown 
 off the Spanish yoke, rendered the doctrine of some 
 interest and importance to the nations of Europe and 
 America. His lordship asserts for Mr. Canning, Prime 
 Minister of England at that day, chief credit over its 
 putative author, Mr. Monroe, for the idea behind the 
 doctrine. 
 
 Mr. Cleveland's message to Congress is the proper 
 reply to this British manifesto. It breaks through 
 the cobwebs of diplomatic garrulity and proclaims 
 America's unalterable purpose to stand by the Mon- 
 roe doctrine as the unwritten, but not less sacred law 
 than the Constitution itself. That doctrine was ex- 
 pressed by President Monroe in the following memo- 
 rable words: 
 
 1. ' ' The political system of the Allied powers is essentially different 
 in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from 
 that which exists in their respective governments. And to the de- 
 fense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much 
 blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most en- 
 lightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled 
 felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor 
 
202 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and 
 those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their 
 part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dan- 
 gerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or de- 
 pendencies of any European power we have not interfered, and 
 shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared 
 their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we 
 have, on great consideration and on just principle, acknowledged, 
 we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing 
 them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any Euro- 
 pean power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an un- 
 friendly disposition toward the United States." 
 
 2. " Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early 
 stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the 
 globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is not to interfere in the 
 internal concerns of any of its powers ; to consider the government 
 de facto as the legitimate government for us ; to cultivate friendly re- 
 lations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm and 
 manly policy ; meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, 
 submitting to injuries from none. But, in regard to these continents, 
 circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different. It is im- 
 possible that the Allied powers should extend their political system 
 to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and 
 happiness; nor can any one believe that our Southern brethren, if 
 left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally 
 impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition, in 
 any form, with indifference." 
 
 An American commission to examine and report 
 upon the true divisional line between Venezuela and 
 British Guiana was recommended to Congress by 
 President Cleveland, and by that body was immedi- 
 ately and unanimously authorized by law. The Pres- 
 ident has appointed the commissioners and the coun- 
 try awaits their report. That report will furnish a 
 light unto our feet whithersoever or into whatever 
 thorny paths its recommendations may lead. 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 203 
 
 In this crisis the American people have not been 
 slow to express their sympathy with and approval of 
 the Democratic President and the Republican Con- 
 gress happily diverse in politics to make their 
 unity in patriotic duty more impressive, and their 
 unanimous support of the Monroe doctrine a notice 
 to mankind that behind that vote seventy millions 
 of freemen stand solidly arrayed. 
 
 Certain individuals who haunt the stock-markets 
 have expressed dissent. Like the Tories who beset 
 Washington in the Revolution, they are on the Eng- 
 lish side. Should the tide rise these mercenaries 
 would be swept away in the resistless flood. In the 
 meantime it more concerns us to know we are right 
 in holding fast, as by the horns of the altar, to the 
 great American principle of non-intervention by Eu- 
 rope with the free governments in this hemisphere, 
 which Jefferson taught Monroe to proclaim in the days 
 of our infancy, and which Cleveland now reasserts 
 after we have hardened into the bone and gristle of 
 manhood. 
 
 Secretary Olney, in his correspondence on this 
 grave question, has recapitulated the precedents laid 
 down by this government by many of his predeces- 
 sors in the State Department, all having been in 
 strict line with the principles of the Monroe doctrine. 
 He learnedly reviews the pretensions of British 
 Guiana to Venezuelan territory, and shows by an 
 elaborate statement of the various British surveys 
 and claims that the territory at first only conjectur- 
 
204 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 ally assumed to belong to British Guiana, 30,000 
 square miles, constantly grew in extent as the years 
 went by, and that every new survey became but a 
 stage and resting-place in the accelerated progress, 
 till the claim to 30,000 has grown into one of 109,- 
 000 square miles a territory, which, as a distin- 
 guished writer has pointed out, is to-day 40,000 
 square miles larger than the entire six States of New 
 England. 
 
 Senator Lodge has followed on the same side in a 
 speech on the floor of the Senate, in which he has 
 traced the growth of this British claim with great re- 
 search, no little accuracy, and true American pa- 
 triotism. He establishes the proposition that the bal- 
 ance of power in Europe is not more important to its 
 governments than the Monroe doctrine is to the two 
 Americas. Mr. John Bach McMaster, the historian, 
 has also contributed several interesting papers to the 
 controversy, in which the origin and history of the 
 Holy Alliance, and the respective messages of Presi- 
 dent Monroe, in 1823, of President Polk, in 1845 
 and 1848, and of President Buchanan, in 1860, are 
 all discussed with fullness and ability. 
 
 Of these several papers those of Secretary Olney 
 are the least partisan. He does not even criticise 
 Secretary Clayton for neglecting to assert the Mon- 
 roe doctrine in his negotiations with Lord Bulwer, 
 although the astute Lord Salisbury, in his reply, calls 
 attention to Mr. Clayton's unfortunate faux pas. His 
 Lordship says : " It (the Monroe doctrine) is said to 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 2 05 
 
 have largely influenced the government of that counr 
 try in the conduct of its foreign affairs ; though Mr. 
 Clayton, who was Secretary of State under President 
 Taylor, expressly stated that the administration had 
 in no way adopted it." But neither Senator Lodge 
 nor Mr. McMaster has observed Mr. Olney's forbear- 
 ance to heap so serious a reproach upon an Ameri- 
 can statesman as is implied in the gratuitous state- 
 ment that two of them neglected to plant themselves 
 upon the time-honored doctrine. Senator Lodge goes 
 out of his way to arraign Mr. Calhoun (t as the only 
 American statesman of any standing who has tried to 
 limit its scope." The case of Mr. Clayton, mentioned 
 by Lord Salisbury, and once scathingly reviewed in 
 the Senate by the illustrious Stephen A. Douglas, 
 evidently escaped the attention of the senator from 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Mr. McMaster indulges in a similar partisan mis- 
 representation of the attitude of James K. Polk on 
 the same subject in 1826, as contrasted with his 
 course as President in 1845 and again in 1848. Sen- 
 ator Lodge, with the exuberance of the rhetorician, 
 takes the world into his confidence, and as he gets 
 ready to send a Parthian shaft after Mr. Calhoun, he 
 pauses to inform us that " John Quincy Adams may 
 be considered as the real author of the Monroe doc- 
 trine/ ' The subject is too grave for partisan and ill- 
 timed flings. Thus the opponents of the great Ameri- 
 can doctrine, first enunciated by Mr. Monroe, are fond 
 of quoting the advice of Washington against "en- 
 
206 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 tangling alliances/ 7 forgetting all the time that the 
 father of his country, if not the author, was the most 
 earnest champion of our first great alliance that 
 with France in the Revolution. They forget that 
 Jefferson, the constant guide whom the wise Monroe 
 delighted to follow, was the man to whom he sub- 
 mitted the Rush-Canning correspondence on this 
 memorable occasion, and that it was upon Jefferson's 
 advice he acted in writing the message which has 
 linked his name with national glory, and will trans- 
 mit it to the latest posterity consecrated in the affec- 
 tions of his countrymen forever. 
 
 It may not be beneath the dignity of the subject 
 to let Mr. Calhoun answer the charge against him in 
 his own words, wherein it will also appear that the 
 credit attempted to be snatched from Monroe and 
 given to Adams by Senator Lodge, is bestowed by a 
 witness, who was present during these great transac- 
 tions, on him to whom the whole world accredits it 
 honest, fearless, plain-spoken James Monroe. It is 
 worthy of observation that Mr. Adams subsequently 
 repudiated this doctrine by his course in opposing 
 the annexation of Texas, over which England and 
 France were then seeking to establish a protectorate. 
 
 In his speech in the Senate May 15, 1848, on the 
 proposed occupation of Yucatan, Mr. Calhoun, in 
 speaking of the Monroe doctrine and Mr. Adams's 
 part therein, said : "When the chairman of the Com- 
 mittee on Foreign Relations addressed the Senate a 
 few days since, he related a conversation which he 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. ?07 
 
 had with Mr. Adams in reference to this declaration ; 
 and according to his statement, if I heard him aright, 
 and he he correctly reported, Mr. Adams, in applying 
 his observations to the whole of these declarations, 
 stated that they all originated with himself, and were 
 unknown to the other members of the cabinet until 
 they appeared in Mr. Monroe's message. There cer- 
 tainly must be a mistake on the part of Mr. Adams, 
 or that of the chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
 Relations, as to the two first of these declarations. 
 The history of the transactions, the Senator will per- 
 ceive, if he examines the documents, shows distinct- 
 ly that they came through Mr. Eush originating, 
 not with Mr. Adams, but Mr. Canning and were 
 first presented in the form of a proposition from Eng- 
 land. I recollect as distinctly as I do any event of 
 my life, that all the papers in connection with this 
 subject were submitted to the members before the 
 cabinet met, and were duly considered. Mr. Adams, 
 then, in speaking of the whole as one, must have re- 
 ference to the declaration relative to colonization. 
 As respects this his memory does not differ much 
 from mine. My impression is, that it never became 
 a subject of deliberation in the cabinet. I so stated 
 when the Oregon question was before the Senate. I 
 stated it in order that Mr. Adams might have an op- 
 portunity of denying it, or asserting the real state of 
 the facts. He remained silent, and I presume that 
 my statement is correct that this declaration was 
 inserted after the cabinet deliberation. It originated 
 
208 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 entirely with Mr. Adams, without being submitted to 
 the cabinet, and it is, in my opinion, owing to this 
 fact that it is not made with the precision and clear- 
 ness with which the two former are. It declares, 
 without qualification, that these continents have as- 
 serted and maintained their freedom and independ- 
 ence, and are no longer subject to colonization by any 
 European power. This is not strictly accurate. Taken 
 as a whole, these continents had not asserted and 
 maintained their freedom and independence. At 
 that period Great Britain had a larger portion of the 
 continent in her possession than the United States. 
 Russia had a considerable portion of it, and other 
 powers possessed some portions on the southern 
 parts of this continent. The declaration was broader 
 than the fact, and exhibits precipitancy and want of 
 due reflection. Besides there was an impropriety in 
 it when viewed in conjunction with the foregoing de- 
 clarations. I speak not in the language of censure. 
 We were, as to them, acting in concert with England 
 on a proposition coming from herself a proposition 
 of the utmost magnitude, and which we felt at the 
 time to be essentially connected with our peace and 
 safety; and of course it was due to propriety as well 
 as policy that this declaration should be strictly in 
 accordance with British feeling. Our power then 
 was not what it is now, and we had to rely upon her 
 co-operation to sustain the ground we had taken. 
 We had then only about six or seven millions of peo- 
 ple scattered and without such means of communi- 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 209 
 
 cation as we now possess to bring us together in a 
 short period of time. The declaration accordingly, 
 with respect to colonization, striking at England as 
 well as Russia, gave offence to her, and that to such 
 an extent that she refused to co-operate with us in 
 settling the Russian question. Now, I will venture 
 to say that if that declaration had come before that 
 cautious cabinet for Mr. Monroe was among the 
 wisest and most cautious men I have ever known 
 it would have been modified and expressed with a 
 far greater degree of precision and with much more 
 delicacy in reference to the feelings of the British 
 government/* 
 
 The present international dispute is one full of en- 
 couragement and bright prospects for our country. 
 The United States is the natural leader of the new 
 world by force of its republican primacy, its wealth, 
 population, and standing among the nations of the 
 earth. The issues of the past, dividing North and 
 South, are gone forever. The problems of the future 
 may in no small degree involve the principles of the 
 Monroe doctrine. " The question presented by the 
 letters you have sent me," wrote Jefferson to Monroe 
 in regard to the Canning-Rush documents, " is the 
 most momentous which has ever been offered to my 
 contemplation since that of Independence. That 
 made us a nation ; this sets our compass and points 
 the course which we are to steer through the ocean 
 of time opening on us." 
 
 It is not necessary here to dwell upon the succes- 
 
210 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 sive assaults upon the rights of the people of Europe 
 which were made hy the Holy Alliance. The allies 
 were Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England and 
 France for a time. We now know that the crowned 
 heads appealed only to the people, while they dreaded 
 Napoleon, and after his fall they forgot their prom- 
 ises to their subjects, and preached but one dis- 
 course the divine right of kings. In 1818, at Aix 
 la Chapelle, they admitted France to the alliance. 
 In 1820 they met at Trappee, in Moravia, did little 
 and adjourned to meet again at Lay bach in 1821. 
 Here they began to show the mailed hand, and the 
 next year, at the congress of Verona, the scheme was 
 hatched to subvert the constitutional government of 
 Spain, which later on was carried out. Then Naples, 
 next Poland, and finally Hungary, were all crushed 
 beneath this new juggernaut of kings. While the 
 war on Spain was preparing, with France as the ob- 
 sequious tool of the Holy Alliance, Russia began to 
 turn lustful eye on the republics of South America. 
 English rivalry in that quarter of the globe was the 
 means of withdrawing Great Britain from the schemes 
 of the allies, and led Mr. Canning to make overtures 
 to Mr. Rush. Our minister at London acted nobly, 
 and voiced the true sentiments of his countrymen, 
 even before he could receive instructions from the 
 State Department. 
 
 One startling fact should not be omitted here. It 
 is surprising that none of the many prominent per- 
 sons engaged in discussing the Monroe doctrine at 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 211 
 
 the present time neither the President nor his Sec- 
 retary of State, neither Senator Lodge nor Mr. Mc- 
 Master has called attention to it. At the very hour 
 that Mr. Monroe was consulting Jefferson respecting 
 monarchical aggressions in South America, there 
 was laid away in the Russian archives the record of 
 a consultation held on the importance of reducing 
 the South American republics under the dominion 
 of Spain. It formed a part of that scheme that the 
 United States should be subjugated / The memoir con- 
 taining this startling proposal emanated in the year 
 1817 from the pen of Pozzo de Borgo one of the 
 most eminent of the remarkable corps. of diploma- 
 tists by whom Russia has prepared the march of her 
 armies. They do not impertinently volunteer their 
 advice upon their government unasked. That me- 
 moir was therefore on a subject then under conside- 
 ration by the Russian government, and its language 
 gives the confirmation of history to the logic of Mr. 
 Monroe's message. The principles of the Holy Al- 
 liance naturally led up to the necessity of their at- 
 tempting to overthrow this republic as their crown- 
 ing labor. Pozzo de Borgo rests his opinion on the 
 incompatibility between our institutions and those of 
 the allies. He says* 
 
 "Founded on the sovereignty of the people, the republic of the 
 United States of America was a fire of which the daily contact with 
 Europe threatened the latter with conflagration ; that as an asylum for 
 all innovators, it gave them the means of disseminating at a distance, 
 by their writings and by the authority of their example, a poison of 
 which the communication could not be questioned, as it was well 
 
212 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 known that the French Revolution had its origin hi the United States ; 
 that already troublesome effects were felt from the presence of the 
 French refugees in the United States." 
 
 He then proceeds to argue that our reduction 
 would be an easy enterprise, while our augmenting 
 power made us objects of fear to European monarch- 
 ical governments. 
 
 Russia, therefore, had been meditating our subju- 
 gation, as a matter of sound policy, on the principle 
 of the inherent incompatibility between our system 
 and hers prior to the Spanish and Neapolitan revolu- 
 tions, and before the congresses of Laybach and 
 Verona had proclaimed her principles to the world, 
 or elicited the warning protest of President Monroe. 
 This important document of Pozzo de Borgo was 
 brought to light by that profound statesman Senator 
 SoulS in the year 1852. 
 
 An invitation was extended by Columbia and 
 Mexico to the United States to attend the Con- 
 gress of Panama in 1826, and take part in its delib- 
 erations. President Adams and his illustrious Sec- 
 retary of State, Henry Clay, heartily approved of this 
 congress, and took energetic measures to make it a 
 success. If Mr. Lodge is really anxious to discover 
 the author of the American system, let him turn 
 from John Quincy Adams to Henry Clay. The 
 great Kentuckian always favored a sort of Am- 
 phictyonic council of the free governments of the 
 two Americas, as an offset to the Holy Alliance of 
 the European monarchies. The Panama mission, 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 213 
 
 which the administration so warmly espoused, never 
 took effect, "though eventually sanctioned," says 
 Thomas H. Benton, "by both houses of Congress." 
 The President and Senate, always wrangling, did 
 not intermit the pastime when this interesting 
 question came up for discussion. The committee 
 on Foreign Affairs reported adversely to the Presi- 
 dent's recommendations in favor of the mission. 
 Littleton Waller Tazewell wrote the report, which 
 was an able one, but it would have been a wiser one 
 had it given sanction to the President's idea in all 
 respects, except its moral or religious suggestion, 
 which Senator Tazewell very properly rejected.* 
 
 When Russia and the Holy Allies crushed Hun- 
 gary, the eloquent Kossuth came to these shores as 
 the nation's guest. The famous exile had a memor- 
 able interview with Henry Clay. Age had softened 
 the fire of " Harry of the West," who depicted the diffi- 
 culties and futility of military operations by this 
 country against Russia, and then added these part- 
 ing words: "Thus, sir, after effecting nothing in 
 such a war, after abandoning our ancient policy of 
 amity and non-intervention in the affairs of other 
 nations, and thus justifying them in abandoning the 
 terms of forbearance and non-interference which 
 
 * The feeling in the Senate ran high against the President, whose message 
 respecting an open or secret session on the Panama business was deemed 
 offensive or intrusive. John Randolph, previously rather favorable to the 
 mission, became incensed and assailed the President and Secretary of 
 State, Mr. Clay, in such unmeasured terms of vituperation that a chal- 
 lenge from Clay followed, and resulted in the celebrated duel. 
 
214 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 they have hitherto preserved towards us after the 
 downfall, perhaps, of the friends of liberal institu- 
 tions in Europe her despots, imitating and pro- 
 voked by our fatal example, may turn upon us in 
 our hour of weakness and exhaustion, and, with an 
 almost irresistible force of reason and of arms, they 
 may say to us: You have set us the example; you 
 have quit your own to stand on foreign ground; 
 you have abandoned the policy you professed in the 
 day of your weakness, to interfere in the affairs of 
 the people of this continent, in behalf of those prin- 
 ciples, the supremacy of which you say is necessary 
 to your prosperity, to your existence. We, in our 
 turn, believing that your anarchical doctrines are de- 
 structive of, and that our monarchical principles are 
 essential to the peace, security and happiness of our 
 subjects, will obliterate the bed which has nourished 
 such noxious weeds; we will crush you as the propa- 
 gandists of doctrines so destructive to the peace and 
 good order of the world. The indomitable spirit of 
 our people might, and would be equal to the emer- 
 gency, and we might remain unsubdued even by so 
 tremendous a combination ; but the consequences to 
 us would be terrible enough." 
 
 It is a curious coincidence that Mr. Clay, the fiery 
 and intrepid genius, whose warlike spirit made him 
 joint leader on the floor of Congress with the equally 
 bold and patriotic Calhoun in our second war with 
 England, should stand forth in his old age, as did 
 Mr. Calhoun in his last days, the eloquent advocate 
 
The Monroe Doctrine. 215 
 
 of non-intervention, the champion of those princi- 
 ples which received their deepest and most earnest 
 expression in the farewell address of George Wastu 
 ington. 
 
 The message of Mr. Buchanan in 1860 was in the 
 strict line of American precedents in relation to the 
 Monroe doctrine. At that period France, England 
 and Spain were threatening an armed intervention 
 in Mexico. General Cass, then Secretary of State, 
 entered a vigorous protest, and President Buchanan, 
 in his annual message to Congress (December, 1860), 
 used the following language : " I deemed it my duty 
 to recommend to Congress in my last annual mes- 
 sage, the employment of a sufficient military force to 
 penetrate into the interior. . . . Euro- 
 pean governments would have been deprived of all 
 pretext to interfere in the territorial and domestic 
 concerns of Mexico. We should thus have been re- 
 lieved from the obligation of resisting, even by force, 
 should this become necessary, any attempt by these 
 governments to deprive our neighboring republic of 
 portions of her territory a duty from which we could 
 not shrink without abandoning the traditional and 
 established policy of the American people." 
 
 Soon afterwards our beloved country was plunged 
 into domestic war between the States, and Napoleon 
 the Third took advantage of our misfortunes to set 
 up a monarchy in Mexico. In a few years more the 
 United States government was again in a position to 
 make its will -known, and to enforce respect for its 
 
216 The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 traditional policy. The fate of the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian furnished an impressive warning to Europe 
 of the inexorable purpose of this republic to carry 
 out the Monroe doctrine at all hazards. This digest 
 of precedents we deem quite sufficient as a solemn 
 protest against any departure, at this day, from the 
 formal and indestructible declaration of American 
 principles uttered by James Monroe in 1823.