the attack on Port San Juan in 1779, with the ulterior purpose, it appears, of controlling the river and lake communications between the two oceans, of which the fort was supposed to be the best debouché; fever, however, decimated his crew, and he returned to England. In the meantime, Charles III. of Spain sent out the really first exploring expedition under Manuel Galistro, in 1780; but the subsequent political complications in European politics diverted attention from the project. In the beginning of our century, Humboldt, who studied on the spot the problem of piercing the isthmus, strongly indorsed its feasibility; but all Europe was then, and remained for many years afterwards, engaged in a great and general political reorganization. Most of the Spanish colonies in America threw off the yoke of the mother country between 1820 and 1825, and although the first survey of any part of the isthmus did not really take place until twenty years later, the well-known configuration of the isthmus strengthened the belief in the possibility of opening a canal, and the question was now and then ventilated. It is to the great credit of the Spanish Central-American republics that, as soon as they had secured their independence, they devoted themselves to the problem of procuring aid to forward the idea interoceanic communication. In 1823, Lacerda, afterwards governor of Nicaragua, called the attention of the Legislature of the republic to the subject. Two years later we find the Minister of the republic in Washington addressing a note to the Secretary of State, Mr. Clay, urging the United States to co-operate for the construction of a canal, which, he says, should have been built long before. That proposal, dated February 8, 1825, really invited the United States to conclude a treaty for a canal, so as to "perpetually secure the posses

sion of it to the two nations." At that time no sufficient data had been brought to light to warrant Mr. Clay in committing the United States to a policy which otherwise would have been entirely acceptable to President Adams and to the American people. Mr. Clay appointed a new Minister to Central America, and instructed him to further investigate the matter. In 1826 the Mexican Government ordered a survey of the Tehuantepec to be made by General Orbegozo, who, however, only made a casual examination.

In 1828, Bolivar, President of the republic of New Granada, gave to John A. Lloyd and to Falcmar a com-. mission for a reconnaissance, with the immediate object of a roadway between the two oceans. They found the mean height of the Pacific at Panama to be 3·52 feet above that of the Atlantic at the Chagres mouth, and that at low water both oceans are the same quantities below their respective mean levels; and as to interoceanic communication, they seemed to favour the isthmus at its narrowest region, just where there is a depression in the great range of mountains.

One year after the return of Lloyd, the King of the Netherlands, as patron of a private association, arranged with Central America for cutting a canal, "to be opened on same terms to all nations." But the political troubles between Belgium and Holland caused the scheme to mis

carry.

For five years no effort was made that was deserving of consideration, until the United States Government despatched Charles Biddle to the isthmus as an agent to investigate what plans, surveys, estimates, &c., had been made, and to report on the expediency of opening negociations with the Central American Government for the building of a canal. Biddle died soon after

arriving at the isthmus, but not before he had obtained for himself from Columbia a concession to build a railway across the isthmus of Panama, which act President Jackson disapproved of in strong terms.

About a year afterward the President of Central America, General Morazin, ordered a reconnaissance of the Rio San Juan route by John Bailey, an English

man.

In 1838, New Granada, anxious to take the lead of Nicaragua, listened to the propositions of the French house of Solomon and Co., and granted it a concession to build a canal by a supposed newly discovered route, where no locks would be required. Six years later on, Louis Philippe commissioned Napoléon Garella to verify the surprising reports of Solomon's agents. Garella's investigations were perhaps the most serious that had been undertaken until that time. They constitute at least the first semblance of a regular survey. He disproved the reports submitted to him, but came to the conclusion that a canal was possible between Porto Bello and Panama, with thirty-five locks and a tunnel, 5,350 metres in extent, at an elevation of 99 metres, and about 135 feet above high water of the Pacific. The scheme, however, came to nothing.

In the same year Nicaragua gave a concession to a Belgian company, the negotiation being carried on by the Nicaraguan Minister in Paris, Castellon, but it also came to nothing. On the other hand, Marcoleta, two years later on, left Brussels, where he represented his Government, and went to Paris and London in order to arrange for a concession to Prince Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, then a prisoner in Ham.

It is apparent that none of these schemes was ever supported by any powerful agency, or with steadiness

enough to be carried through. There was always a doubt about the possibility of the work, or a doubt that it might never be possible to obtain money enough to push it to a successful conclusion. On the other hand, advantageous as it was evident the canal would be to the whole world, the shipping trade that would seek it did not appear to be extensive enough to remunerate the capital that would be required. But at last the world found a powerful incentive to give close attention to the commercial and political importance of the canal. The acquisition of California by the United States, and the discovery of gold in its territory, marks a new era in the history of the attempts to make serious studies of the isthmus with a view to establishing a continuous water communication between the two oceans. The problem, too, now became one of actual live political interest to the Americans, and the period between 1848 and 1861 was full of interest to them on account of the political discussion with Great Britain as to the preponderating influence in Central America and the occupation of the isthmus by either Government. But as we shall have to deal with these political questions in separate chapters, we will for the present content ourselves with showing the several efforts to survey and build a canal as an industrial enterprise.

While that problem was not settled, the Americans, anxious for means of communication, if not by water, then by an overland route, obtained from New Grenada a concession for a railway; and for that purpose they formed a company in 1849, and entrusted the surveys to Colonel Hughes and to J. C. Trautwine. The United States Government soon after sent General Barnard, of the corps of Engineers, to survey the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, also with a view to building a railway. Barnard found the route impracticable, while Hughes and Trautwine

succeeded much better in Panama, and designed a road of the total length of 473 miles, of which about half was to be level. The road was built between 1850 and 1855 by the engineers Totten and Trautwine.

In the meantime the idea of a canal was not to be given up. The United States Minister in Nicaragua, Elijah Hise, concluded at the same time (1849) with that Government a treaty for establishing "a passage and communication between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, to facilitate the commerce between the two oceans, and to produce other great results." Owing to its several provisions of a political nature, the authorities at Washington did not approve that scheme, known thenceforth as the "Hise-Selva convention." But the country received the arrangement with every mark of approval, and a company was at once organized by Cornelius Vanderbilt, Joseph L. White, and others, under the style of "American, Atlantic, and Pacific Ship Canal Company," which obtained from Nicaragua the right to build the proposed canal. That was, we repeat, in 1849, when the English were trying hard to get a firm hold on what was supposed to be the future termini of the canal, while the Americans were protesting against that occupation, and had themselves repudiated the treaty concluded by their Minister in Honduras, Squier, for the cession by the latter country to the United States of the Tigre Island, in the Fonseca Bay. It was from these conflicting interests that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 1850 originated.

However, the "American, Atlantic, and Pacific" was organized by strong men, who proposed to survey the route thoroughly, and then appeal for money, both in America and England. On March 9, 1850, Norberto Ramirez, "supreme director" of Nicaragua, confirmed the company's grant, and the company commissioned