The History of the last Quarter-Century in the United States, 1870-1895 ... With ... illustrations

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF THE LAST QUARTER-CENTURY IN THE UNITED STATES Lexow Gaff Creedtn Reppenhagen Pariburst THE LEXOIV INVESTIGATION Scene in the Court Room after Creeden' ' $ Confession, December /J, l8<)4 {As Captain Creeden left tbe witness stand, after making a full confession of tbe corrupt practices in vogue among the police, all the spectators crowded forward to shake his hand and congratulate him.) Drawn by IV. R Leigh from photographs THE HISTORY OF THE LAST OUARTER-CENTURY IN THE UNITED STATES 1870-1895 BY E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY WITH MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME II.

LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd CONTENTS I Monroe's Doctrine and Arthur's Practice i Uncle Sam in Africa. — The Brussels Conference of 1876. — Congress of 1877. — The United States Represented. — Henry M. Stanley. — His Career. — His Fame. — Darkest Africa. — The Congo Free State. — The United States Helps in its Formation. — Scramble for "A Piece of Africa." — Arthur's Policy Criticised. — Berlin Conference of 1884. — Its Objects. — Its Results. — De Lesseps at Panama. — Origin of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. — Its Provisions. — Its Resurrection in 1880. — President Hayes's Attitude. — Blaine's Controversy With Lord Granville. — Frelinghuysen's Contentions. — Great Britain's Position. — Blaine Criticised at Home. — De Lesseps's Failure at Panama. — Early Plans for Piercing the Isthmus. — The Nicaragua Canal Scheme. — Joys and Troubles in Nicaragua. — Congressmen Favor United States Aid for the Enterprise. — Description of the Proposed Canal. — Difficulties and Cost. — Feasibility and Profitableness. — Opposition. — Growing Intimacy Between the United States and Spanish America. — The Commission of 1884. — Panama Congress of 1825. — John Quincy Adams and Clay. — Later Efforts at a Pan-American Union. — Trepidation at Walker's Filibustering Expeditions. — Union Movements in 1864, 1877, 1880, 1881 and 1888. — David Davis Proposes a Central and South Amer ican Railway. — Frelinghuysen's Suggestions. — The Congress of 1889-90. — Scope of its Possible Deliberations. — The Delegates' "Junket" Across the Continent. — Difficulties and Misunderstandings. — The Reciprocity Idea. — Outcome Meagre.

II " Farthest North " 27 The Jeannette Expedition. — Its Officers. — Its Plans. — The Start. — Sus pense and Search. — Rumors. — Tidings At Last. — Course and Fate of the Expedition. — Melville Finds Nindeman and Noros. — DeLong's End. — His Journal. — New Polar Research. — The Greely Expedition. — The Pro teus'; Passage Out. — The Neptune's Efforts at Relief. — The Garlington Cruise of 1883. — Wreck of the Proteus. — Greely Meantime. — Expedition of 1884. — Schlev's Enterprise. — " News from Greely." — His Discoveries. — "Farthest North." — Experiences of his Band in the Arctic Regions. — CONTENTS Their Course Southward. — Could Any of Them Be Alive ? — The Thetis to the Rescue. — Seven Starving Survivors. — Life at Starvation Camp. — Efforts for the English Meat. — Rice's Death and Frederick's Heroism. — The Death-Roil. — Rescue of the Seven. — Their Condition. — Homeward Bound. — Arrival. — No Official Praise. — The Survivors Subsequently. — Peary on Greenland's Icy Mountains. — He Crosses Greenland in 1892. — Geographical Discoveries. — Peary's 1894-95 Tour. — Value of these Ex plorations.

Chapter I Monroes Doctrine And Arthur's Practice Uncle Sam In Africa

THE BRUSSELS CONFERENCE OF 1876. CONGRESS OF I 877. — THE UNITED STATES REPRESENTED. — HENRY M. STANLEY. HIS CAREER. HIS FAME. — DARKEST AFRICA. THE CONGO FREE STATE. THE UNITED STATES HELPS IN ITS FORMA TION. SCRAMBLE FOR "A PIECE OF AFRICA." ARTHUR'S POLICY CRITICISED. BERLIN CONFERENCE OF 1884. ITS OBJECTS. ITS RE SULTS — DE LESSEPS AT PANAMA. ORIGIN OF THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY. ITS PROVISIONS. ITS RESURRECTION IN I 880. — PRES IDENT hayes's attitude. — blaine's controversy with lord GRANVILLE. FRELINGHUYSEN'S CONTENTIONS. GREAT BRITAIN'S POSITION. BLAINE CRITICISED AT HOME. DE LESSEPS'S FAILURE AT PANAMA. EARLY PLANS FOR PIERCING THE ISTHMUS. — THE NICARAGUA CANAL SCHEME. JOYS AND TROUBLES IN NICARAGUA. CONGRESSMEN FAVOR UNITED STATES AID FOR THE ENTERPRISE. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED CANAL.

DIFFICULTIES AND COST. FEASIBILITY AND PROFITABLENESS. OPPOSITION. GROW ING INTIMACY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND SPANISH AMER ICA. THE COMMISSION OF 1884 PANAMA CONGRESS OF 1825. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND CLAY. LATER EFFORTS AT A PAN AMER ICAN UNION. — TREPIDATION AT WALKER'S FILIBUSTERING EXPEDI TIONS. UNION MOVEMENTS IN 1864, 1877, 1880, 1881 AND 1888. — DAVID DAVIS PROPOSES A CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN RAIL WAY. — FRELINGHUYSEN'S SUGGESTIONS. THE CONGRESS OF 1889 -90. SCOPE OF ITS POSSIBLE DELIBERATIONS. THE DELEGATES' "JUNKET" ACROSS THE CONTINENT. DIFFICULTIES AND MIS UNDERSTANDINGS. THE RECIPROCITY IDEA. — OUTCOME MEAGRE. IN 1884 occurred an event presaging a change in the time-honored foreign policy of the United States. Our diplomatic representatives took leading part in the Berlin Con ference of that year, a conference which dealt with important questions touching the Dark Continent.

In September, 1876, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, had convened at his palace a conference of African travelers, to discuss the best means of opening equatorial Africa. Half a year later a Congress was convoked at the same place, where appeared delegates from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain Switzerland and the United States, A committee of three, headed by the King, and including General Henry S. Sanford, of Florida, representing the English-speaking races, recommended the formation of an International Afri can Association, to found " hospitable and scientific " stations in Africa under the association's own flag. A chain of HENRT M. STANLEY such stations was formed from Zanzibar to Lake Tangan yika. The royal enterprise was advertised to the world mainly by the labors of Henry M. Stanley.

Born in 1841, near Denbigh, Wales, where he was known as John Rowlands, from three years of age to thirteen the lad lived and was schooled inside St. Asaph Poor-house. He later ascribed all his success to the education here received. When sixteen he shipped for New Orleans, where he found a foster-father in a trader named Stanley, whose name he assumed and henceforth bore. At the outbreak of the civil war his energy took a military turn, and the man who was later reverenced by the Congo blacks as " Father and Mother of the Country," enlisted on the pro slavery side. He was taken prisoner, escaped at night by swim ming a river amid a storm of bullets, and made for Wales, but not to stay. Returning, he enlisted once more, this time in the Federal navy, acting presently as ensign on the flagship Ticonderoga.

Peace restored, the path of a newspaper corre spondent in wild and distant lands attracted the bold fellow ; and we find him by turns in Spain, Turkey and Syria. Stanley's fame was not sealed, however, till James Gor don Bennett, of the New York Herald, despatched him to the STANLEY TO FIND LIVINGSTONE Dark Continent to "find Livingstone." More explicit direc tions would have been impossible at the time, as well as need less and insufferable for Stanley. The new explorer found the old one, who refused to return to civilization before com pleting his explorations. Livingstone died in Africa, his work still incomplete, but it was taken up and astonishingly supplemented by his strong successor. The -Queen sent Stanley a gold snuff-box set with diamonds. France decorated him with the cross of the Legion of Honor.

Bismarck entertained him. Leopold II. treated him as if he had been a prince of the blood. The poor-house boy became the most famous man on earth. After Stanley had discovered the Upper Congo in 1877, " The Comite d' Etudes of the Upper Congo," a branch, or Captain Nelson Lieut. W. G. Stairs, R. _. Surgeon T. M. Park,, A.M.D. Henry M. Stanley A. J. Moununeyjeph MR. STANLEY AND HIS OFFICERS perhaps a partner, of the International African Association, devoted its labors to that region. In 1884 General Sanford wrote : " This work has developed into extraordinary propor tions and has had for practical result the opening up to civiliz ing influence and to the world's traffic this vast, populous, and fertile region, securing certain destruction to the slave trade wherever its flag floats." The flag — blue, with a golden star in the centre — was as yet unrecognized.

The United States, so prominent in the inception of the enterprise, was the first to recognize it. In his annual message for 1883, President Arthur called attention to the work of the association, " of which a citizen of the United States was the chief executive officer." " Large tracts of territory," he said, " have been ceded to the association by native chiefs, roads have been opened, steamboats placed on the river, and the nuclei of States established at twenty-two stations under the flag, which offers freedom to commerce and prohibits the slave trade. . . The United States cannot be indifferent to this work nor to the in terest of their citizens involved in it. It may become advisable for us to co-operate with other commercial powers in promoting the rights of trade and residence in the Congo valley, free from the interference or political control of any one nation."

The succeeding April the Secretary of State found him self authorized to proclaim " that in accordance with the tra ditional policy of the United States, which enjoins their careful attention to the commercial interests of American citizens, avoiding at the same time all interference in the controversies engaged in between other powers or the conclusion of alliances with foreign nations, the Government of the United States declared its sympathy with and approbation of the humane and noble object of the International Association of the Congo, acting in. the interest of the Free State established in that region, and commanded all officers of the United States, either on land or sea, to recognize the flag of the International Asso ciation as that of a friendly government." AMERICA AND THE BERLIN CONFERENCE This step was much criticised abroad.

The scramble for " a piece of Africa " had begun, and the association, which, unrecognized, might be a cat's paw, once recognized became a rival. France and Portugal, each of whom had her claim (one very ancient, the other just laid, but both much cackled about) to lands occupied by the association, were especially nettled. A French paper petulantly dubbed Uncle Sam the new State's " godfather." Had the claims mentioned been fully conceded the new State would have been left without sea-coast. The adjustment gave to the new-flag nation a coast frontage of from thirty to forty miles north from the Congo estuary, as well as a vast empire of back country. The guarded recog nition by the United States at this juncture was, as Stanley said, " the birth unto new life of the association, seriously menaced as its existence was by opposing interests and am bitions."

More vital ends than these touching the African continent waited to be attained, appealing to " the commercial interests of American citizens," and to their " sympathy " and " approbation." Besides, Americans had founded Liberia, American missionaries were not few in Africa, a wealthy American journalist had furnished the means for rescuing Dr. Livingstone and a famous American explorer performed the task. All these facts aroused public interest here and led to our participation in the Berlin Con ference. This step was as fiercely criticised at home as our recognition of the blue flag had been abroad. The timid shrieked appeal to the Monroe Doctrine. Our commercial interests in Africa, it was said, were small, even in posse. Con sidered as -Yj-interested, the action was denounced as meddling.

We should regret it, critics said, when the Nicaragua controversy reached an acute phase. The JOHN A. KASSON The Representative of the United States at the Berlin Conference A Pigmy Family in front of Stanley"1 s Tent correspondent of the London News considered the conspicuous part taken bv our delegates in the conference an intima tion that this country was henceforth to be more active in foreign affairs. The Conference assembled in November, 1884. It was formally -opened by Prince Bismarck, who stated its main objects to be : 1. To secure free navigation and trade on the River Congo. 2. To secure free navigation of the River Niger. 3. To determine the formalities to be in future observed for the valid annexation of territory on the African continent. The neutralization of the Congo and Niger, an American proposition put forward by our delegate, Mr. Kas son, was attained in part, but not perfectly, owing to the oppo sition of France.

The treaty powers promised, in case of war by or against a possessor of Congo land, to lend their good PURPOSES OF THE BERLIN CONFERENCE offices to induce both belligerents to keep hands off from the free trade belt, which included much French and Portuguese as well as other territory. In the event of disagreement touching the free trade belt, the powers undertook to resort to mediation before appealing to arms, and reserved the option of proceeding by arbitration. The motion to restrict the sale of liquor in the Congo basin, though introduced by Italy, was also of American origin. It was bitterly assailed by Germany and Holland, but was partly realized afterward when measures measures were adopted to prevent the introduction of liquor into tracts yet uninfected, or where the Mohammedan religion forbade its use.

The United States, with England, joined the enlightened King of the Belgians in securing provisions for the preserva tion and amelioration of native races, the suppression of slav ery and the slave-trade, and the encouragement of all religious, scientific and charitable enterprises, with perfect religious liberty tor white and black. Arrangements were made to include the neutralized strip in the Postal Union. Mr. N. P. Tisdell, appointed by the United States Gov ernment to report upon its advantages for American trade, was unfavorably impressed with the country and the character of the natives. Yet subsequent events justified Stanley's asser- One of Stanley's Stockaded Camps tion that the course of the United States toward the new sov ereignty was " well worthy of the great republic." The abo rigines no longer dreaded the merciless Arab slave-raider, for his power was broken.

Cannibals who in 1877 assailed ORIGIN OF THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY Stanley with flights of poisoned arrows soon enlisted in the little standing army of the Free State. The sale of liquor, arms and gunpowder was restricted. Commerce more than doubled the proportions it had when the Conference rose. A railroad around Livingstone Falls was begun and part of it speedily in operation. It is to be said that rumors, for the time impossible either to verify or to refute, reached the press, of outrages upon natives at the hands of Belgian of ficials, grosser than those which Burke imputed to Warren Hastings. While the Congo episode was broadening American ideas of the Monroe doctrine, events in Central America led to the emphatic reassertion of that doctrine. M. de Lesseps's ill starred attempt to ditch the Isthmus of Panama was begun in 1 88 1.

The prospect of its success raised anew questions of neutrality and control over land or water routes joining the oceans. During President Taylor's administration the United States had requested Great Britain to withdraw her preten sions to the Mosquito Coast, that Nicaragua and ourselves might join to construct a canal from there to the Pacific. Great Britain declined, but signified her consent to a treaty admitting her to a share in the protection of the proposed canal. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty resulted, having in view, so far as the United States was concerned, the encouragement of a canal enterprise under the so-called " Hise" grant made us by Nicaragua. The treaty declared that neither government should " ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive con trol over the said ship-canal," or " occupy, or fortify, or colo nize, or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast or any part of Central America," the last provision, however, not to apply to the British settlement at Belize.

The governments further agreed to " facilitate the construction of the said canal by every means in their power," to protect it and to guarantee its neutrality. The eighth article of the treaty extended the agreement to any other practicable communications, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus. The projected canal was never begun, and interest in the subject subsided until after the American Civil War. It was revived by the attempt of France to join us, perhaps with other nations, in guaranteeing the neutrality of the new isthmus route which de Lesseps was designing. On March 8, 1880, in a special message, President Hayes said: "The United States cannot consent to the surrender of control (over an inter oceanic canal) to any European power or to any combination of European powers."

Hayes evidently assumed that the British guarantee mentioned in the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty had relation solely to the schemes in mind at that date. He continued: " An inter-oceanic canal across the American isthmus will be a great ocean thoroughfare between our Atlantic and our Pacific shores and virtually a part of the coast line of the United States. No other great power would under similar circumstances fail to assert a rightful control over a work so closely and vitally affecting its interest and welfare." Before the close of the Hayes administration a treaty permitting such control was negotiated with Colombia, but that republic, owing to French influence or finding the treaty distasteful, declined to ratify it. Secretary Blaine, under Garfield, maintained the same po sition which his predecessor had assumed.

The United States, having guaranteed the neutrality of any route which might be opened across the isthmus, would brook no participation of European nations in this office. The London press cried out at the danger of entrusting the neutrality of one of the greatest commercial routes in the world to a single very strong power and a single very weak one. The American states men in time to come could say : " The governments of the two republics are alone parties to the treaty. What they have made they can tear up. The neutrality of the canal is for the time suspended " Mr. Blaine proposed certain modifications VIEWS OF BLAINE AND FRELINGHUYSEN of the Clayton- Bulwer Treaty, made, as it was, under extraor dinary and exceptional conditions, and operating, as it would in case of war, to place the canal in the hands of England's navy.

He said: "As England insists, by the might of her power, that her enemies in war shall strike her Indian posses sions only by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, so the United States will equally insist that the canal shall be reserved for ourselves, while our enemies, if we shall ever be so unfortunate as to have any, shall be remanded to the voyage around Cape Horn." In declining Blaine's proposition to modify the treaty Lord Granville pointed out the great interest of his country and of the whole civilized world in an unobstructed passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He painted " the melan choly spectacle " of " competition among the nations in the construction of fortifications to obtain the command over the canal and its approaches," a consequence apprehended (in other words threatened) by Her Majesty's government, should the United States persist in demanding supreme authority over the canal.

Under Mr. Frelinghuysen, President Arthur's Secretary of State, the controversy assumed a tenor more legal and less journalistic. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty Frelinghuysen thought certainly voidable at our option. It had applied only to inter-oceanic ways definitely contemplated or in prospect in 1850, especially to a canal under the grant of 1849 from Nic aragua, a grant which the United States, "poor in money and floating capital," was unable by herself to make effective. In consideration of the speedy construction of the canal and of Great Britain's withdrawal from adjoining soil, our govern ment had " consented to waive the exclusive and valuable rights which had been given to them, consented to agree with Great Britain that they would not occupy, fortify, colonize or assume dominion over any part of Central America, and con sented to admit Her Majesty's government at some future day to a share in the protection which they have exercised over the Isthmus of Panama."

But, through Great Britain's fault alone, the proposed canal had never been constructed, while the tolerated mahogany-cutting settlement at Belize had been, in contravention of the treaty, erected into a veritable colony. Under an international guarantee of neutrality, Mr. Fre linghuysen argued, a canal across the isthmus " would affect this republic in its trade and commerce ; expose our western coast to attack ; destroy our isolation ; oblige us to improve our defences and increase our navy ; and possibly compel us, contrary to our traditions, to take an active interest in the affairs of European nations." On the other hand, the politi cal interest of this country as sole guarantor would not nec essarily conflict with the material interests of other nations, to whose free use the canal would still be open.

International agreements of the kind proposed by Lord Granville our Sec retary declared in peace useless, in times of dissension unen forceable. The discussion was, for the time, closed at the end of 1882, when the British Secretary announced England's con clusions as follows : " The meaning and effect of article vm " (as widening the scope of the treaty and establishing a general principle) " are not open to any doubt ; the British Govern ment has committed no act in relation to British Honduras or otherwise which can invalidate that treaty and justify the United States in denouncing it ; and no necessity exists for removing any of the provisions of that treaty." Many pronounced our opening of this question unwise, a foolish manifestation of a "jingo " policy. Mr. Blaine's spir ited manner in the discussion was particularly reprehended.

The criticism was unjust. The imbroglio was not of Mr. Blaine's creation, but came to him with the State portfolio from Secretary Evarts, upon whom it had been thrust by the action of Colombia, incited by France. Mr. Blaine's despatches upon the subject, perhaps less able than those of THE FRENCH FAIL AT PANAMA Evarts or those of Frelinghuysen, and almost dangerously bold in tone, yet took the only ground which a patriotic American Secretary of State could have assumed. Had Mr. Blaine been as reckless as many thought him, he would have moved to denounce the treaty forthwith and risk the consequences ; but the time had not come for that. Though international control in the isthmus made no headway, capital for Panama was lavishly provided, not by rich Frenchmen, but by the middle classes, who would have grudged their savings had not the enterprise been for the glory of France.

The French press grew more and more sanguine. Little by little, reluctantly acknowledging the task greater than expected, M. de Lesseps kept calling for new support, and at some rate or other kept getting it. He continued to color the Panama horizon a roseate hue, but it was sun set and not sunrise. At the end of 1888 night fell upon the hopes of his dupes, while day broke upon their senses. Panama was fatally mala rial ; the cost of excavation was greater than supposed ; the total amount of it not far from twice as large. The great cut through Culebra FERDINAND DE LESSEPS Pass was said to have unsettled the very mountain and to have caused it to tilt toward the canal. A dam more than a mile long to restrain the Chagres in flood time was started, but aban doned. Gross mismanagement marked every turn.

Interest was paid out of capital stock. Locomotives ordered from Belgium were of the wrong gauge and could be seen rusting by the railway tracks. Worst was the unparalleled corruption resorted to by the desperate directors to keep the facts from publicity, endeavors which utterly failed. The populace of Paris were furious at the cumulative revelations. Over a hundred members of the national Legislature were smirched, five ex-ministers being among those arrested. The chief culprits, including M. de Lesseps himself, were given heavy sentences; the rest were acquitted. In Panama they knew little of all this, but still lamented the departure of " canal times " as they contemplated the gash which not quite cut their isthmus. So early as the middle of the sixteenth century a Portu guese navigator projected four possible routes for an inter oceanic canal on the western hemisphere, at Darien, Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantapec.

In 1779 Lord Nelson seized the mouth of the San Juan as preliminary to the control of the waterway. In 1823 the President of Nicaragua invited the attention of the United States to the possibilities of this route, and renewed negotiations led in 1 849 to the formation of a company in this interest, in which Commodore Vander bilt was a stockholder. The doings of filibuster Walker put an end to that plan. Several surveys made after the war indi cated that, should a lock canal be contemplated, the Nicaragua route was better than any other. Preferring a tide-water enter prise like the Suez Canal however, the enthusiast de Lesseps pursued the Panama chimera. The failure of any tide-water scheme being probable, the Nicaragua proposal reappeared as a rival to the Panama project. Treaty arrangements initiated in 18 84 between the United States and the Nicaraguan Republic looking toward an inter oceanic canal, failed of consummation, as President Cleveland, taking office in 1885 and dissenting from the opinion of his predecessor, feared that such a scheme would lead to more embarrassments than benefits.

In 1887 Nicaragua and Costa Rica granted to a private association of United States citizens the right, for themselves or their assigns, to build a trans-Nicaraguan canal. In 1889 " The Maritime Canal Com pany of Nicaragua " succeeded to these rights agreeing to expend $ 2,000,000 the first year and to complete the canal "CANAL TIMES" IN NICARAGUA Machine Shop and Railroad Camp Number I, showing one of the Dredges al Wort on the Nicaragua Canal by 1900, though it, in fact, went little further than to make preliminary surveys and estimates. In 1 89 1 a construction company, of which Hon. Warner Miller, of New York, was president, undertook the building operations. In the same year an attempt was made, without success, to get the United States to guarantee $ 100,000,000 of the company's bonds.

" Canal times " in Nicaragua made the little republic tingle with speculative fever. The government revelled in extravagance and waste, but was in the midst of its debaucheries cut off by a revolution, or rather by a complicated series of domestic and foreign troubles, that for the time smothered peaceful enterprise. In 1896 a com mission of experts appointed by our Government made a report discouraging to the hopes of the promoters, spite of which the bill for lending the Government credit to the enter prise mustered numerous and influential supporters in both Houses of our Congress. At the Caribbean port a breakwater was to be built and the harbor deepened. The length of the proposed route was about 170 miles. For 121.1 miles ships were to pass through the lake and through rivers, for 21.5 through dammed basins, for 27 through channels excavated at the eastern and western divides.

From Greytown westward to the foot hills a sea-level canal 9.25 miles long was to be maintained. Thence three locks about 650 feet long and 65 feet wide would advance the vessel a mile or two and raise it 106 feet. Three to five miles beyond, the eastern divide loomed up, requiring amputation, the average depth to be 141 feet, the length 2.9 miles. Here the San Francisco and Machado were to carry the vessel 12 miles, entering the San Juan above a huge dam. This river leads to Lake Nicaragua, 64.5 miles farther on, through which the ship's path would extend for a distance of 56.$ miles. The levels here were to be raised four feet. The western divide must be channelled for 1 1.2 miles ; beyond for 5.5 miles a basin would be formed by penning the water in natural valleys. The descent thence to tide-water was meant to be accomplished by three locks, the last a tidal lock a mile and a half from the ocean.

Finally, THE CLEARING FOR THE NICARAGUA CANAL Looking West from Camp Daly across Laguna Benard DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED CANAL a harbor must be made on the Pa cific. The mini mum depth of the canal was to be 30 feet ; the width sufficient, except at the divides, for two ships to pass each other. No one doubt ed that the cost of construction must be large, perhaps exceeding careful A Giant Sili-cotton Tree in the line of the Canal Clearing estimates. Twenty-seven miles, or 10,000,000 cubic yards, of excavation were required, also 21.5 miles of basins, con structed by means of enormous dams. A shoal fourteen miles long on the east of Nicaragua Lake would have to be dredged and kept clear. Geologists said that basaltic lavas predomi nated underneath this as well as under the Panama route. Dams were required to cross the San Juan and the Tola, each nearly 2,000 feet long by 70 high, and one 3.25 miles long and 60 feet high to cross the San Carlos.

That, after all, a canal upon this route could be created and operated seemed beyond question. That it would be po litically valuable and its operation profitable from a business point of view also appeared quite clear. In an address to the public the Canal Company said : " The nation that controls this canal under terms of amity with Nicaragua will here find rest and refreshment for its fleets and a point d'appui from which either ocean may readily be reached in case of need." According to the Statesman's Year Book, the Panama Railroad had, in 1885,^17,000,000 worth of traffic. The Canal Company estimated the cargoes which, had it been in Engineer Camp of the Nicaragua Railway on the IVest Side existence, would have sought their canal, at 2,671,886 tons in 1879, at 4,507,044 in 1887, and at 7,616,904 in 1895.