Nicaragua

PROPOSED VISIT TO SAN SALVADOR AND HONDURAS—DEPARTURE FROM LEON—CHINANDEGA—LADRONES—THE GOITRE—GIGANTIC FOREST TREES—PORT OF TEMPISQUE—THE ESTERO REAL AND ITS SCENERY—A NOVEL CUSTOM HOUSE AND ITS COMMANDANTE—NIGHT ON THE ESTERO—BAY OF FONSECA—VOLCANO OF COSEGUINA—THE ISLAND OF TIGRE—PORT OF AMAPALA—VIEW FROM THE ISLAND—ENTRANCE TO THE BAY—SACATE GRANDE—EXCITING NEWS FROM HONDURAS—ENGLISH FORTIFICATIONS—EXTENT, RESOURCES, AND IMPORTANCE OF THE BAY—DEPARTURE FOR THE SEAT OF WAR.

I had now been nearly a year in Nicaragua, and although repeatedly urged to do so, had not yet found an opportunity of visiting the neighboring States. At this time, however, the condition of public affairs was such as to permit of a brief absence from the capital, and I lost no time in preparing for a journey to Honduras and San Salvador,—States identified with Nicaragua in their general policy, and struggling, in concert with her, to revive the national spirit, and build up again the prostrate fabric of the Republic. This effort, as I have already said, was opposed by the old serviles in the city of Guatemala, and their coadjutors in the other States, who had succeeded in exciting disturbances in Honduras, which threatened the complete overthrow of its Government. Gen. Guardiola, an able but impetuous officer, the head of the army of that State, had been so far deceived and misled by them, as to put himself in arms against the constituted authorities. He had, in fact, obtained possession of the capital, and at the head of a large force was now marching against Señor Lindo, the President, who had taken up his position and fortified himself at the town of Nacaome, near the Bay of Fonseca. Here he had solicited the intervention of Nicaragua and San Salvador, which States were bound by treaty to sustain Honduras and each other whenever they should be threatened with violence from within or from abroad. San Salvador had accordingly sent a considerable force to the support of Lindo, under the command of Gen. Cabañas, a distinguished officer of the old Republic, and Nicaragua was making preparations to afford further aid in case of necessity.

Under these circumstances, and with the hope of being able to avert a collision, which could only result in evil, I started on my journey. It was at the beginning of the “Semana Santa,” or Holy Week, and by the dim, gray light of the morning, as we rode through the silent city, we could make out the arches and evergreen arbors with which the streets were spanned and decorated, preparatory to this principal festival of the calendar. Early morning on the plain of Leon, when the purple volcanoes are relieved against the sun’s coronal of gold, and their ragged summits seem crusted over with precious stones, while the broad plain rests in deep shadow, or catches here and there a faint reflection from the clouds,—early morning on the plain of Leon, always beautiful, was never more gorgeous than now. Broad daylight overtook us at the Quebrada of Quesalguaque; and although the dust was deep, for it was now past the middle of the dry season, yet we rode into Chinandega, twenty-five miles, in time for breakfast.

Here I found my old friend Dr. Brown, who had been the first to welcome me at San Juan, and who had just arrived from Panama in the “Gold Hunter,” the first American steamer which had ever entered the ancient harbor of Realejo. Here we also found a considerable party of Americans from California, homeward bound, “with pockets full of rocks,” who, taken with the luxuriant climate and country, and oriental habits of the people, had rented a house, purchased horses, and organized an establishment, half harem and half caravansary, where feasting and jollity, Venus and Bacchus, and Mercury and Momus, and half of the rare old rollicking gods, banished from refined circles, not only found sanctuary, but held undisputed sway. They were popular amongst the natives, who thought them “hombres muy vivos,” and altogether prime fellows, for they never haggled about prices, but submitted to extortion with a grace worthy of Caballeros with a mint at their command.

The streets near the plaza were blockaded with carts and piles of stones, for the troop of captured ladrones had been put to the useful employment of paving the principal thoroughfares. They were all chained, but in a manner not interfering with their ability to labor, although effectually precluding escape. Yet they were guarded by soldiers, man for man, who lounged lazily in the doorways of the houses on the shaded side of the streets. I observed that most of the criminals were Sambos, mixed Negro and Indian, who seem to combine the vices of both races, with few if any of their good qualities. Yet physically they were both larger and better proportioned than the parent stocks.^[37] Their exists between them and the Ladinos, or mixed whites and Indians, a deeply seated hostility, greater than between any of the other castes of the country.

In Chinandega, as in fact every other town of the State, I observed numerous instances of the goitre. It is chiefly, if not wholly, confined to the women. This circumstance particularly attracted my attention, as it is popularly supposed that this is a disease peculiar to elevated or mountainous regions. The inhabited portions of Nicaragua, excepting the sparsely populated districts of Segovia and Chontales, are elevated not exceeding from one to five hundred feet above the sea. Chinandega is only seventy feet, and Leon, Granada, and Rivas, not more than a hundred and fifty feet, above tide water; yet in all these towns the goitre is common. I also saw several cases of elephantiasis, but they are rare.

We spent our first night at our old quarters in El Viejo, and started next morning before daylight for what is called “El Puerto de Tempisque,” on the Estero Real, where we had engaged a bongo to take us to the Island of Tigre, in the Bay of Fonseca. The distance to Tempisque is about seven leagues; the first three leading through an open, level, and very well cultivated country. That passed, we came to a gigantic forest, including many cedro, cebia,^[38] and mahogany trees, amongst which the road wound with labyrinthine intricacy. This forest is partially under the lee of the volcano of Viejo, where showers fall for nearly the whole of the year, and hence the cause of its luxuriance. Here we overtook our patron and his men, marching Indian file, each with a little bag of netting, containing some cheese, plantains, and tortillas for the voyage, thrown over one shoulder, a blanket over the other, and carrying the inseparable machete resting in the hollow of the left arm.

Within a mile or two of Tempisque, the ground began to rise, and we found ourselves on a high, broad ridge of lava, which had ages ago descended from the great volcano above mentioned. It was partially covered with a dry and arid soil, supporting a few coyol palms, some groups of the Agave Americana, and a great variety of cacti, which contrive to flourish where no other plants can grow. The coyol palm is the raggedest of the whole family of palms, yet it is one of the most useful. Its flower is the largest and most magnificent to be found beneath the tropics; it forms a cluster a yard in length and of equal circumference, of the color of frosted gold, flanked and relieved by a deep brown shell or husk, within which it is concealed until it is matured, when it bursts from its prison and shames the day with its glories. The fruit is small, not larger than a walnut, but it is produced in clusters of many hundreds each. The kernels resemble refined wax, and burn almost as readily; when pressed, they yield a fine, clear oil, equal to the best sperm, and well adapted for domestic uses. The shell of the nut is hard, black, and susceptible of the highest polish, and is laboriously carved by the natives into rings and other articles of ornament, which, when set in gold, are very unique and beautiful, and highly valued by strangers. But the uses of this palm do not end here. The heart of the tree is soft, and may be cooked and eaten. And if a hollow or cavity is cut in the trunk, near its top, it soon fills with juice, of a slightly pungent flavor, called chiche by the Indians, which is a delicious and healthful, and when allowed to ferment, an intoxicating beverage.

From the summit of the lava ridge, we obtained a view of the level alluvions bordering the Bay of Fonseca. They are covered with an unbroken forest, and the weary eye traverses a motionless ocean of verdure, tree-tops on tree-tops, in apparently unending succession.

We paused for a moment to contemplate the scene; but its vastness and silence were painful, and I felt relieved, when, after descending rapidly for ten minutes, we found ourselves amidst some evidences of life, at the “Puerto de Tempisque.” These evidences consisted of a single shed, open upon three sides, and inhabited by an exceedingly ill-looking mestizo, an old crone, and an Indian girl, naked to the waist, whose occupation extended to bringing water, and grinding maize for tortillas. There was a fine spring at the base of the hill near by, and around it were some groups of sailors, engaged in cooking their breakfast. The ground back of the hut was elevated and dry, but immediately in front commenced the mangrove swamps. Here too, scooped in the mud, was a small shallow basin, and extending from it into the depths of the swamp, a narrow canal, four or five feet deep, and six or eight in breadth, communicating with the Estero Real. The tide was out, and the slimy bottom of both basin and canal, in which some ugly bongos were lying, was exposed and festering in the sun. Altogether it was a forbidding place, suggestive of agues and musquitos. Ben prepared breakfast, and meantime I amused myself with a tame coati or tropical raccoon, which I found beneath the shed, and which was as frolicksome and malicious as a kitten. Its principal delight seemed to be to bite the toes of the Indian girl, who evidently owed it no good will, and was only prevented from doing it a damage, by the old crone, whose pet it was.

In the course of a couple of hours the tide began to rise; our bongo was loaded, and by eleven o’clock, we were pushing slowly through the narrow canal. After penetrating about three hundred yards, we entered an arm of the Estero. It was wider than the canal, and permitted the use of oars. All around us, so dense that not a ray of the sun could penetrate, was a forest of mangroves. These trees cover the low alluvions of the coast, which are overflowed by the tide, to the entire exclusion of all other vegetation. Their trunks commence at the height of eight or ten feet from the ground, and are supported by naked roots shooting downward and outward, like the legs of a tripod, hundreds in number, and those of one tree interlocking with those of another, so as to constitute an impenetrable thicket. Bare, slimy earth, a gray wilderness of roots surmounted by tall spire-like trunks, enveloped in a dense robe of opaque, green leaves, with no signs of life except croaking water-fowls and muddy crabs clinging to the roots of the trees, an atmosphere saturated with damps, and loaded with an odor of seething mire—these are the predominating features of a mangrove swamp! I never before comprehended fully the aspects of nature, described to us by geologists, at the period of the coal formations,—“when rivers swollen with floods, and surcharged with detritus, heaved mournfully through the silence of primeval forests; when endless fens existed, where the children of nature stood in ranks so close and impenetrable, that no bird could pierce the net-work of their branches, nor reptile move through the stockade of their trunks; when neither bird nor quadruped had yet started into being.” Half an hour carried us through these Stygian solitudes; and I breathed freer, when our boat pushed into the broad and magnificent Estero Real. This is an arm of the sea, projecting from the lower extremity of the Bay of Fonseca, for a distance of sixty miles, behind the volcanic range of the Marabios, in the direction of Lake Managua. Where we entered, about thirty miles above its mouth, it was three hundred yards wide, and forty-eight feet, or eight fathoms, deep. The tide, which here rises about ten feet, had just turned, and we floated down rapidly, with the current. The banks were now full; the water washed the feet of the mangroves, and they appeared as if rising from the sea. Being all of about equal height, and their foliage compact and heavy, they shut in the Estero as with walls of emerald. The great volcano of El Viejo, its dark brown summit traced boldly against the sky, came into view, sole monarch of the scene, now on one side, now on the other, as we followed the windings of the stream. Though the elements of the scenery were not many, yet the atmospheric effects, the long, dreamy vistas, and the dark, leafy arches, bending over some narrow arm of the Estero, left an impression upon my memory, in many respects as pleasing, and in all as ineffaceable, as the richer and more varied scenery around the great lakes of the interior.

As we proceeded, and the tide fell, the steep, slimy banks, before concealed by the water, began to come in view. Seen from the middle of the Estero, they appeared of a rich umber color, contrasting strongly with the light blue of the water and the dense green of the trees. Life now began to animate the hitherto silent banks; for thouCsands of water-fowls, before concealed in the leafy coverts, emerged to prey upon laggard snails, and to snap up presumptuous crabs, induced by the sunshine and the slime to linger on the shore, when they should have been “full fathoms five” beneath the water. Amongst these birds I then noticed some white and rose-colored herons, of exceeding beauty. Many of the latter are to be seen on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, in the vicinity of the Estero of Panaloya.

At five o’clock, during the last hour of the ebb, we observed that the left bank of the Estero was higher than the other, and that the stream had now widened to upwards of half a mile, and had deepened to ten fathoms. It is here called “Playa Grande,” and here the Government maintains a kind of Custom House. When we came in sight of the establishment, our sailors took to their oars, and pulled towards the shore. If Tempisque was solitary, this was utterly desolate. The trees had been cleared away, for a few hundred feet, and in the midst of the open space stood two thatched sheds, elevated on posts, so that the floors were eight or ten feet above the mud, which was now partially dried, cracked, and covered with leprous spots of salt, left from the water of the overflows. To reach these structures, a tree had been cut so as to fall down the bank; this was notched on the upper surface, and stakes had been driven at the sides, to prevent whoever should attempt to pass from slipping off into the mire. As we approached, the Nicaraguan flag was displayed, and the half-dozen soldiers comprising the guard were drawn up on the platform of the first hut. They presented arms, and went through other formalities, in obedience to the Commandante’s emphatic orders, with a gravity which, considering the place and the circumstances, was sufficiently comical. The Commandante assisted me up the slimy log, and upon the platform of the Custom House, and gave me a seat in a hammock. Beneath the roof were several coffin-like shelves, shut in closely by curtains of cotton cloth, and reached by pegs driven in the posts of the edifice. These were dormitories or sleeping places, thus fortified against the musquitos. From the roof depended quantities of plantains, maduras and verdes, intermixed with festoons of tasajo or hung-beef. A large box filled with sand, at one end of the platform, was the fire-place, and around it were a couple of old women engaged in grinding corn for tortillas. The Commandante smiled at my evident surprise, and asked if we had anything quite equal to this, in the way of customs establishments, in the United States? It was a delightful place, he added, for meditation; and a good one withal for young officers lavish of their pay, for here they couldn’t spend a quartillo of it. He had held the place for three months; but the Government was merciful, and never inflicted it upon one man for more than six, unless he had specially excited its displeasure. “In fact,” continued the Commandante, “my devotion to the women is the cause of my banishment; not that I was more open or immoderate in my amours than others, but because my superior was my rival!” And the Commandante made a facetious allusion to King David, and the bad example he had set to persons in authority. After this I might have left the Commandante with an impression that, whatever his past delinquencies, he was now a correct and proper young man. But just at that moment the curtains of one of the dormitories, which I had observed was occupied, were pushed apart, and a pair of satin slippers, and eke a pair of tiny feet were projected, followed in due course by the whole figure of a yellow girl, of more than ordinary pretensions to beauty, dressed in the height of Nicaraguan fashion. I comprehended at once that she had fled to the dormitory, upon our approach, to make her toilette; and when the Commandante introduced me to her as his sobrina, niece, I only ejaculated, picaro! rascal!

There was little to interest us at this desolate place, and although the Commandante urged us to stay to dinner, it was of more consequence to avail ourselves of the ebb tide than to eat; so the six soldiers were paraded again, and we pushed off, and fell down the stream. As we rounded the first bend, we discovered several large boats, fastened to the shore, and waiting for the turn of the tide, to ascend the stream—for the current in the channel is so strong as to render it impossible to row against it. Consequently all navigation is governed by the rise and fall of the tide. The boats were filled with men, women, and children, flying from the seat of war in Honduras. They gave us a confused account of the advance of Gen. Guardiola to the coast, and said that there had been a battle, in which the Government had been beaten, with a variety of other startling rumors, which turned out to be unfounded.

At six o’clock it was slack water, and our men pulled for awhile at the oars. But the moment the flow commenced, they pushed in at a place where a little cleared spot, and some grass, showed that there was an elevation of the shore, and made fast to the roots of the overhanging mangroves. The banks were very abrupt, and covered with little soldier crabs, which paraded beneath the trees, and scrambled along their roots in thousands. Some of the men stripped, dragged themselves up the slimy banks, and with some wood, which they had brought, made a fire. For our own part, we essayed to fish; but did not get even the poor encouragement of a nibble. Yet there were abundance of fishes, of a peculiar kind, all around us. They were called “anteojos,” or spy-glasses, by the sailors, from their goggle eyes, which, placed at the top of their heads, project above the water, like so many bubbles. They were from six inches to a foot long, with bodies of a muddy, yellow color, and went in shoals. When frightened, they would dart off, fairly leaping out of the water, making a noise like a discharge of buckshot skipping past. They were impudent fishes, and gathered round the boat, with their staring eyes, while we were fishing, with an expression equivalent to “what gringos!”

Our boat rose with the tide, and when it got within reach of the overhanging branches, we clambered ashore. We found that here was an open, sandy space, a hundred feet square, covered with traces of fires, and with oyster and muscle shells,—evidences that it was a favorite stopping-place with the marineros. The sun had so far declined as to throw the whole Estero in the shade, while the light still glowed on the opposite leafy shores. Altogether I was taken with the scene, and sipped my claret amidst the swarthy sailors with a genuine Robinson Crusoeish feeling. As night came on, we pushed out into the Estero, to avoid the musquitos, and cast our anchor (a big stone) in eleven fathoms water.

The moon was past her first quarter, and the night was one of the loveliest. The silence was unbroken, except by the sound of the distant surf, brought to us by the sea breeze, and by an occasional, sullen plunge, as of an alligator. I have said that at this season, when the grass on the hills, with the ephemeral vegetation generally, is dried up, nearly the whole country is burnt over. The forests through which we had ridden that morning had been traversed by fiery columns. And now, as it grew dark, we could see them slowly advancing up the sides of the great volcano. At midnight they had reached its summit, and spreading laterally, presented the appearance of a flaming triangle, traced against the sky. So must the volcano have appeared in that remote period when the molten lava flowed down its steep sides, and devastated the plain at its base.

During the night, when the tide turned, the patron lifted anchor, and floated down with the current. The proceeding did not disturb my slumbers, and when I woke next morning, we were in the midst of the Bay of Fonseca, with a fair wind and all sails set, steering for the island of Tigre, which lifted its high, dim cone immediately in front. Upon our right, distant, but distinct beneath the morning light, was the low, ragged volcano of Coseguina, whose terrible eruption in 1838 I have already described. Other volcanoes and volcanic peaks defined the outlines of this glorious Bay; and the porpoises tumbling around us, and gulls poising in the air, or slowly flapping their crescent wings just above the deep green waves, all reminded us that we were near the great ocean. We went through the water with great velocity, and at eleven o’clock, when the breeze began to decline, we were within five or six miles of the island, which now presented a most magnificent appearance. It is about thirty miles in circumference, with sloping shores; but immediately in the centre rises a regular, conical, volcanic mountain, between four and five thousand feet high, clothed almost to the summit with a robe of trees. The top, however, is bare, and apparently covered with burnt earth, of a rich brown color.

At noon, the wind having entirely died away, the men took to their oars, and we coasted for upwards of two hours along the base of the island, before reaching the Port of Amapala, which is situated upon its northern side. In places the shore was projecting and abrupt, piled high with rocks of lava, black and forbidding, upon which the sea-birds perched in hundreds; elsewhere it receded, forming quiet little bays, with broad sandy beaches, and a dense background of trees. We finally came to what seemed to be the entrance of a narrow valley, where the forest had been partially removed. Here we saw the thatched roofs of embowered huts, with cattle grazing around them; and shortly after, turning round an abrupt lava promontory, where, upon a huge rock, the English had painted the flag of their country, in evidence of having taken possession of the island “in the name of Her Majesty, Victoria the First,”—we darted into the little bay of Amapala.

Two brigs, one Dutch, and the other American under the Chilian flag, were lying in the harbor, which was still and smooth as a mirror, bending with a crescent sweep into the land, with a high promontory on either side, but with a broad, clear beach in front, upon which were drawn up a great variety of bongos and canoes, including one or two trim little schooners. In a row, following the curve of the shore, were the huts of the inhabitants, built of canes, and thatched in the usual manner. Back of these the ground rose gently, forming a broad ridge, and over all towered the volcano of El Tigre. The most conspicuous features of the village were two immense warehouses, belonging to Don Carlos Dardano, an Italian merchant, whose enterprise had given importance to the place. Through his influence the State of Honduras, to which the island belongs, had constituted it a Free Port, and made a concession of a certain quantity of land to every family which should establish itself there. As a consequence, within two or three years, from a temporary stopping-place for fishermen, Amapala had come to possess a considerable and constantly increasing population and trade, and now bade fair to rival La Union, the only port of San Salvador on the Bay of Fonseca.

We landed immediately in front of the principal warehouse, which was now closed, by a decree of the authorities against Don Carlos, who had been weak enough to accept the office of “Superintendent of the Island of Tigre,” during the temporary English occupation, and who had been obliged to retire into San Salvador, when it was evacuated. We found one of his agents, however, a German, who, with his family, lived in the smaller building, eating and sleeping amongst great heaps of hides, and piles of indigo and tobacco bales, bags of Chilian flour, and boxes of merchandise. He appeared to be a civil, well educated man, but wore his shirt outside of his pantaloons, and altogether conformed to the habits of the people around him.

The Commandante of the port had withdrawn the principal part of the garrison, and joined the forces of the Government at Nacaome. His lieutenant, nevertheless, “put himself at my disposition,” in the most approved style; but I made no demand upon his courtesies, except for a guide to lead us to the top of the hill overlooking the port. A scramble of half an hour brought us to the spot. It was cleared, and commanded a most extensive view of the Bay and its islands and distant shores. At our feet, upon one hand, were the town and harbor, with a broad sweep of tree-tops intervening; and on the other, a wide savanna, forming a gigantic amphitheatre, in which were gardens of unbounded luxuriance. But these only constituted the foreground of the magnificent panorama which was spread out before us, and which combined all the elements of the grand and beautiful. A small portion of the view, the entrance to the Bay from the ocean, is presented in the frontispiece to the first volume of this work. Upon one side is the volcano of Coseguina, rough and angular, and upon the other that of Conchagua, distinguished for its regular proportions and sweeping outlines. They are stupendous landmarks, planted by nature to direct the mariner to the great and secure haven at their base. Between them are the high islands of Conchaguita and Mianguera, breaking the swell of the sea, and dividing the entrance into three broad channels, through each of which the largest vessels may pass with ease. All of these entrances, as shown by the map, are commanded by the Tigre; and it is this circumstance, joined to its capabilities for easy defence, which gives the island much of its importance.

The view to the north takes in the islands of Martin Perez, Posesion, and Punta de Sacate, belonging to San Salvador; and Sacate Grande, belonging to Honduras. These had all been seized by the English at the time of their piratical descent on the Tigre. Sacate Grande is the largest, and, in common with the rest, is of volcanic origin. It is rough and fantastic in outline, and almost entirely destitute of forest trees. The scoriaceous hills support only sacate, or grass, which, during the dry season, becomes yellow, and gives the island the appearance of being covered with ripe and golden grain.

But beyond the islands, which Mr. Stephens has observed surpass those of the Grecian Archipelago in beauty, is a belt of mountains on the main-land, relieved by the volcanoes of San Miguel and Guanacaure, and numerous other tall but nameless peaks. I spent an hour on the hill in mapping the Bay and taking the bearings of the principal landmarks, and at four o’clock returned to the port, hungry, but too much excited by the scene to feel wearied. Here I found an officer of the Government of Honduras, who had come down to procure additional supplies for the army. He gave me the startling news that Gen. Guardiola, at the head of three thousand men, was only one day’s march from Nacaome, and that a battle might now be hourly expected. I had intended to spend the night on the island; but this news, joined to the solicitations of the officer himself, determined me to proceed at once to San Lorenzo, on the main-land, and thence, next morning, to Nacaome. But our bongo was high and dry on the beach, and we had to wait for the rising of the tide in order to get her off. Meantime we dined, and strolled along the shore to a little headland, which the English, during their stay, had attempted to fortify. They had constructed a kind of stockade, surrounded by a ditch, with embrasures for artillery, and loopholes for musketry. But in order to save labor, and yet to frighten off assailants, a considerable part of the enclosure was built of a kind of wicker-work of canes, plastered on the outside with mud. It was pierced for guns also, and looked as formidable as some of the pasteboard forts of the Chinese, from whom the suggestion seems to have been derived. The enclosure was now used as a pen for some sheep, which the agent of Don Carlos had recently introduced on the island. I hope this fact will afford some consolation to the builders; it must be gratifying to them to know that their labors have not been wholly lost!^[39]

The Bay of Fonseca probably constitutes the finest harbor on the Pacific. In its capacities it is said to surpass its only rival, the Bay of San Francisco, which it much resembles in form. Its entire length, within the land, is about eighty miles, by from thirty to thirty-five in breadth. The three States of Honduras, San Salvador, and Nicaragua, have ports upon it. The principal port is that of La Union, situated on the subordinate bay of the same name, and belonging to San Salvador. The inner shores are low, but with a country back of them of unbounded fertility, penetrated by several considerable streams, some of which may be navigated. The mountains which separate it from the sea are high, and effectually protect it from the winds and storms. It has, in nearly every part, an abundance of water for the largest ships, which, in the little bay of Amapala, may lie within a cable-length of the shore. The entrance may be effected with any wind, and the exit can always be made with the tide. Fresh water may be obtained in abundance on the islands and along the shores; the climate is delicious and healthy; the surrounding mountains furnish timber of superior quality, including pine, for ship building and repairs; in short, nature has here lavished every requisite to make the Bay of Fonseca the great naval centre of the globe. But what gives peculiar importance to it, and lends significance to the attempted seizure by Great Britain, is the fact that, if a ship canal is ever opened across the Continent, it seems more than probable that its western terminus must be, via the Estero Real, in this Bay. The evidence in support of this opinion will appear in another connection.

The islands in the Bay are of great beauty. Several of them had anciently a large population of Indians. In Dampier’s time there were two considerable Indian towns on the island of Tigre, and one on Mianguera. But the natives were so much oppressed by the pirates who made this Bay their principal station on the South Sea, that they fled to the main-land, and have never returned. Drake had his headquarters on the island of Tigre, during his operations in the Pacific, and, under one pretext or another, it has been much frequented by British national vessels for many years. Its importance, in a naval point of view, is well understood by the Admiralty, under whose orders it was carefully surveyed by Capt. Belcher, R. N., in 1839. No American war vessel, it is probably unnecessary to add, has ever entered the waters of this Bay, although it is clear, to the narrowest comprehension, that it completely commands the whole coast from Panama to San Diego, and in the hands of any maritime nation, must control the transit across either isthmus, and with it the commerce of the world.