Note XXXIV-16 — Chapter XXXIV · INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION. 1801-1887.

S. Bayley in 1852 proposed a route from La Vírgen to San Juan del Sur, nearly following that of the Transit Co. without passing through the valley of the Lajas, which Baily recommended in 1843. In 1853 E. G. Squier tried to revive Belcher's plan of utilizing both lakes, and reaching Fonseca Bay through the Conejo Valley and the Estero Real. Squier's proposed Honduras railway also was to reach that bay; and it is quite possible that he contemplated connecting the two works. Felix Belly, for Belly, Millaud, and Company, in a contract of May 1858 with the Nicaraguan government, purposed carrying into execution Örsted's proposition; but after several years' waiting without Belly or his assigns, the International Canal Co., accomplishing anything, or offering better prospects for the future, the government, in 1868, declared his contract forfeited, and entered into another with Michel Chevalier, from which better expectations were entertained; but they were destined not to be realized. Chevalier required, as a condition sine qua non, that the contract should be ratified by the Costa Rican congress. This took place a year later, and then came the war between France and Prussia, and Nicaragua's last effort, like all former ones, was frustrated. Belly, Nic., i. 31-50, 170-4, 401-6; ii. 1-13, 27-36, 59-464; Id., Carte d'études, 19-27, 49-91; Nic. Canal de, 1-21; Col. Dec. y Acuerdos, 1863, 39-40, 118; 1869-70, 8-23; Pim's Gate of the Pac., 1-14, 58, 116-34, 221-30, 322-70, 394; Nic., Gaceta, Jan. 7, Apr. 8, 1865; March 20, Apr. 17, 1869; Id., Informe Sec. Rel., 1869, 8-9; Id., Id., Hacienda, 1869, 3-5; Marcoleta, Min. Nic., 1-32; Hunt's Merch. Mag., lv. 31-48; lvi. 32-4.