ments to be had, relating to the subject. Mr. Biddle was also instructed to make inquiries in regard to the Panama route, but this branch of the subject was subordinate to the main purpose of his mission.

Mr. Biddle, disobeying his instructions, sailed to Panama, alleging that he could not obtain conveyance to San Juan, and from Panama proceeded to Bogota, where he opened negotiations with New Granada for a macadamized road across the Isthmus of Panama.

Having succeeded in obtaining a grant for this purpose, in which he seems to have had a large personal interest, he returned to the United States. His course did not meet the approval of the government, and his project proved a failure.

The first actual survey of a canal route across the State of Nicaragua seems to have been that begun in 1837 by Lieut. John Baily, R.M., who was employed for this purpose by the Federal Government of Central America, a short time previous to its dissolution. Mr. Baily was an officer of the British Royal Marines, who had resided for thirty years in Nicaragua. He was fully competent to the undertaking, and in the two years devoted to the survey he accomplished much that has permanent value. General Morazan undertook to raise a loan in Europe upon the faith of Mr. Baily's surveys, but his design was frustrated by the overthrow of the Federal

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Government, the flight of Morazan into Costa Rica, and his execution there.

The subject still continued to engage attention in the United States, and in 1839, the House of Representatives, on the memorial of a number of leading merchants of Philadelphia and New York, adopted a resolution requesting the President to consider the expediency of negotiating with other nations "for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of effecting a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by the construction of a ship canal across the isthmus, and of securing forever, by suitable treaty stipulations, the free and equal right of navigating such canal to all nations." It does not appear that any governmental action followed this resolution.

The Nicaragua route did not, for several years after this period, receive much consideration, owing chiefly to the disturbed political condition of the severed States which had formerly constituted the Central American Republic. In 1844, M. Castellon, of Nicaragua, visited France for the purpose of interesting the government of Louis Philippe in the subject, but he found the Prime Minister, M. Guizot, committed to the Panama route, which Garella was then engaged in examining. Louis Napoleon was then imprisoned at Ham, for his attempt to revolutionize the government of France, and the

authorities, willing to find employment for this troublesome prisoner, permitted him to have an interview with Castellon. So far as appears, no definite arrangements were made for his release, although he pledged himself to undertake the work if permitted to go to America.

Nicaragua showed her willingness to place him at the head of the enterprise, by granting a charter, in 1846, to the "Canal Napoleon de Nicaragua." Soon after Napoleon's subsequent escape from prison, he published in London a pamphlet entitled “Canal de Nicaragua,” with an appeal to capitalists on behalf of the enterprise. It has never been known in this country how far toward success the canal scheme of Prince Louis Napoleon had been pushed, when the revolution of February, 1848, called him away from the work to overthrow a republic and to found the Second Empire. It may be well now to say that the necessary funds were assured, that the arrangements for commencing the work were in progress, and that the English operations in Central America which roused the indignation of this country, and eventually led to the too celebrated Clayton - Bulwer negotiations, were undertaken in connection with the development of the Napoleonic scheme.

The acquisition of California by the American government, and the discovery of gold there soon

afterward, gave a greater prominence than ever before to the subject of inter-oceanic communication. The necessity for immediate means of transit for the large emigration to California rendered imperative the adoption of temporary expedients for the transit of the isthmus, and led to the opening of an overland route by the Isthmus of Panama, and to another across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, by the San Juan River and the lake in part, and by land from the lake to the Pacific.

Surveys and explorations were immediately commenced upon both routes. In this connection, the labors of Frederick M. Kelley deserve to be mentioned with the highest praise. He devoted his fortune and his time to the investigation of the problem of the discovery of a practicable canal route. It is not within the scope of this work to give a detailed account of the causes which rendered the labors of Kelley and his contemporaries futile. So far as the Isthmus of Panama is concerned, the explorations and surveys resulted in the construction of the Panama Railroad, which was commenced in 1850, at a cost of $7,500,000, by a company chartered by the State of New York, and protected by treaty stipulations between the Colombian and American governments.

The construction of this railroad was a memorable achievement of human energy, and has made famous

the names of our countrymen, Aspinwall, Stephens, and Totten, by whose perseverance and zeal the enterprise was carried to a successful conclusion.

Even after the suspension of the projects of Louis Napoleon, the prospects of the Nicaragua inter-oceanic canal seemed good. The work was taken in hand by the Browns of New York, and on the 27th August, 1849, a contract for constructing a canal was entered into by a New York company, called the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company. O. W. Childs, a distinguished engineer of Philadelphia, employed by the company to make a thorough survey of the route, began the work in August, 1850. His survey, the most careful and scientific made to that date, was, at the request of the company, referred, by Mr. Conrad, Secretary of War, to Colonel J. J. Abert and Major W. Turnbull, of the United States Topographical Engineers, who pronounced the plan practicable, and expressed the opinion that no other route is so well supplied with water as that through Nicaragua.

The plans submitted by Childs did not, however, meet the approval of capitalists, chiefly because the size of the canal proposed by him was not deemed sufficient for the wants of commerce. The failure of the American Atlantic and Pacific Canal Company to undertake the construction of a canal, was really due to the fact that a subordinate company, formed