Note XXXIV-14 — Chapter XXXIV · INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION. 1801-1887.

Herewith I give a synopsis of what occurred. In 1823 a franchise was given to John Baily for a house in London, who did nothing, and the privilege was granted to parties in New York, who also failed to carry out the stipulations. Numerous proposals came between 1825 and 1829, which were successively accepted, but neither of them had effect. In 1829 a franchise was decreed to the king of Holland, and there was some prospect of a canal being constructed; but the war which detached Belgium from Holland broke out, and the king abandoned the project. President Morazan then contemplated doing the work on Central American account, and the survey was begun in 1837, interrupted by Morazan's fall, but continued in 1838 for account of Nicaragua. This same year Edward Belcher, of the Brit. navy, suggested the possibility of an artificial communication between Lake Managua and the bay of Fonseca. Baily's explorations along the line from Rio Lajas to San Juan del Sur were terminated in 1843, and their publication furnished exact data on the canal. Meanwhile, P. Rouhand (1839), Viteri (1840), Castellon and Jerez (1842), had unsuccessfully tried to raise funds for the work in Europe. The king of France in 1844 refused his coöperation. In 1846 Louis Napoleon became warmly interested for a time. Great Britain in 1847 seized San Juan del Norte on the north, and Tiger Island on the south. Louis Napoleon turned his thoughts to other subjects. Örsted studied, in 1847-8, for the Costa Rican govt, a canal project which differed from Baily's in choosing a low line south of San Juan del Sur along the Sapoa River into Salinas Bay. Nicaragua in 1848 entered into a contract to build the canal with a house in New York, which, however, surrendered it. Baily's Cent. Am., 127-50; Annales des Voy., cliii. 14-17; clvii. 16-17; Nouv. Annales des Voy., xxviii. (1825), 370-82; xxxii. (1826), 369-74; Squier's Trav., ii. 251-80, 405-20; Id., Nic., 658; Liot's Pan. Nic. and Tehuan., 13-16; Niles' Reg., xxx. 447; xxxi. 2, 72-3; lxiv. 130-1; lxv. 57-61; lxvii. 148; Salv., Diario Ofic., Dec. 16, 1879; Reichardt, Cent. Am., 171-3; Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xiv. 127-9; xx. 172; Scherzer, Cent. Am., 241; Belly, Nic., i. 84-7, 137; Id., Carte d'études, 35-45; Strain's Int. Comm., 7-8; Garella, Projet, 182-8; Sampson's Cent. Am., 7-18; Marure, Mem. Hist., 1-47; Bülow, Nic., 44-57; U. S. Comm. Rept, 145, p. 230-65; U. S. Gov. Doc., Sen. Miscel., Cong. 30, Sess. 1, no. 80, 69-75; Id., H. Ex. Doc., Cong. 31, Sess. 1, no. 75, 50-326, passim.