Nicaragua

THE PORT OF SAN JUAN DE NICARAGUA; ITS POSITION; CLIMATE; POPULATION; EDIFICES OF ITS INHABITANTS; ITS INSECTS; THE NIGUA; THE SCORPION, ETC.; ITS EXPORTS AND IMPORTS; POLITICAL CONDITION; IMPORTANCE, PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE; SEIZURE BY THE ENGLISH, ETC.—MOUTH OF THE RIVER SAN JUAN—THE COLORADO MOUTH—THE TAURO—NAVIGATION OF THE RIVER—BONGOS AND PIRAGUAS—LOS MARINEROS—DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE PORT OF SAN JUAN.

The Port of San Juan derives its principal importance from the fact that it is the only possible eastern terminus for the proposed grand inter-oceanic canal, through the territories of Nicaragua, via the river San Juan and Lake Nicaragua; and from the farther circumstance of being the only available port of Nicaragua upon the Atlantic. The harbor is not large, yet it is altogether better and more spacious than is generally supposed. The entrance is easy, and vessels of the largest class find little difficulty in passing the mouth, and obtaining within a safe and commodious anchorage. It has been represented that, in consequence of the peculiar make of the land, it is extremely difficult to be found. This is true to a certain extent; but although the coast in the immediate vicinity is low, yet a short distance back the land is high and marked, and cannot be mistaken. With proper charts, correct sketches of the coasts, and with a lighthouse on Point Arenas, every difficulty would be obviated. This is evident even to the unprofessional observer. The harbor is probably adequate to every purpose connected with the proposed canal.

The town of San Juan consists (June, 1850) of fifty or sixty palm thatched houses, or rather huts, arranged with some degree of regularity, upon the south-western shore of the harbor. It is supported entirely by the trade carried on through it; and its inhabitants are dependent upon the supplies brought down from the interior, or furnished from trading vessels, for the means of subsistence. There are no cultivated lands in the vicinity, and excepting the narrow space occupied by the town, and a small number of acres on the island opposite, where a few cattle find pasturage, the primitive forest is unbroken by clearings of any description. The ground upon which the town is built is sandy, and although elevated but a few feet above the water, is, nevertheless, dry. The country all around it is low, and is a short distance back from the shore really marshy, interspersed with numerous lagoons. After penetrating a number of miles into the interior, however, higher land is found, with a soil adapted for every purpose of cultivation.

Although the climate of San Juan is warm and damp, it is exempt from the fevers and epidemics which prevail in most places similarly situated, upon the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. I could not learn that any cases of the yellow fever, or vomito, have ever occurred here; and when the cholera, in 1837, (five years after the period of its ravages in the United States,) devastated the interior, and almost depopulated the ports to the northward and southward, San Juan entirely escaped its visitations. It may safely be said that there are few ports, if any, under the tropics of equal salubrity. The nature of the soil, the fact that the malaria of the coast is constantly swept back by the north-east trades, and that good water may be obtained in abundance, at a depth of a few feet below the surface, no doubt contribute to this result. It is, however, a singular circumstance, vouched for by the older residents of San Juan, that the island or opposite shore of the harbor, not more than half a mile distant, and which, from the greater depth of water immediately fronting it, and other circumstances, seems to be the best site for a town, is fatal to those who may attempt to occupy it. A settlement was commenced there a number of years ago, but the inhabitants were decimated within the first two months; after which the rest removed to the other shore. The same cause, it is said, led to the abandonment of the military works which the Spaniards had erected there before the revolt of the colonies. The cause of this difference is not apparent, but no doubt as to the fact seems to exist among the inhabitants. Foreigners at San Juan, however, by observing ordinary and proper precautions, need not, I am convinced, form exceptions to the general good health of the native inhabitants.

The temperature of San Juan varies a little with the different seasons of the year, but is generally pleasant, differing not much from that of New York in the month of July. The range of the thermometer is not, however, so great as it is with us during that month. During my stay in June, 1849, and upon my return in the same month, in 1850, the range was from 74° of Fahrenheit at sunrise, to 85° at the hottest hour of the day. In the evening there is usually a pleasant and invigorating sea-breeze.

The population of the town does not exceed three hundred, having considerably diminished since the English usurpation. Besides what may be called the native inhabitants, and who exhibit the same characteristics in language, habits, and customs with the lower classes in the interior of the state, there are a few foreigners, and some creoles of pure stock, who reside here as agents, or consignees of mercantile houses, and as commission dealers. There are also the English authorities, consisting chiefly of negroes from Jamaica. The inhabitants, therefore, exhibit every variety of race and complexion. Whites, Indians, negroes, mestizos, and sambos,—black, brown, yellow, and fair,—all mingle together with the utmost freedom, and in total disregard of those conventionalities which are founded on caste. In what might be called the best families, if it were possible to institute comparisons on the wrong side of zero, it is no uncommon thing to find three and four shades of complexion, from which it may be inferred that the social relations are very lax. This is unfortunately the fact; and the examples which have been set upon this coast in times past, by Jamaica traders, have not had the effect of improving morals. There is neither church nor school-house in San Juan, nor indeed in the whole of what the English facetiously call the “Mosquito Kingdom.” Before the seizure, San Juan was a curacy, dependent upon the Diocess of Nicaragua, but subsequently to that event it was vacated, in consequence of the obstacles thrown in the way of its continuance by the English officials, whose high sense of Christian duty would not permit them to tolerate anything but the English Church, which is, I believe, the established religion throughout the dominions of “His Mosquito Majesty!” Occasionally a priest, in his black robes, is seen flitting about the town; but unless it is desired to find out the residence of the prettiest of the nut-brown señoritas, it is not always prudent to inquire too closely into his movements.

The dwellings of the inhabitants, as already intimated, are of the rudest and most primitive description, and make no approach to what, in the United States, would be regarded as respectable out-houses. They are, in fact, mere thatched sheds, roughly boarded up and floored, or made of a kind of wicker work of canes, sometimes plastered over with mud. The furniture, which seldom consists of more than a hammock, a high table, a few chairs, and a bed, is entirely in keeping with the edifices. Yet, mean and uninviting as these structures are, they answer a very good purpose in a climate where anything beyond a roof to keep off the sun and the rain may almost be regarded as a superfluity. The heavy thatch of palm leaves or long grass is an effectual protection against these, and though it furnishes excellent quarters for scorpions, small serpents, and other pleasant colonists, yet these soon cease to excite apprehension, and, with the mice and cockroaches, sink into common-places. The sting of the domestic scorpion, so far as I am able to learn of its effects from others, never having myself experienced it, is not much worse than that of a wasp or hornet, and seldom produces any serious result. The alacran del monte, scorpion of the forest, or wild scorpion, is more to be dreaded; its sting sometimes induces fever, causing the tongue to swell so as to render utterance difficult, or impossible. This latter never inflicts its sting unless pressed upon, or accidentally disturbed by some part of the person. It is quite as common in San Juan as in any part of the country; being brought there probably with the Brazil wood, the knots and crevices of which afford it an excellent lodgment. And, while upon insects, I may mention a kind of a flea, called nigua or chigoe by the Spaniards, and “jigger” by the West Indian English, which generally attacks the feet, working its way, without being felt, beneath the skin, and there depositing its eggs. A small sack speedily forms around these, which constantly increases in size, first creating an itching sensation, and afterwards, unless removed, becoming painful. When small, it may be extracted without difficulty, but when larger, the operation is delicate and often painful; for if the sack is broken, a bad ulcer, extremely liable to inflammation, and sometimes affecting the entire foot and leg, is a probable result. The best surgeon in these cases is an Indian boy, who always performs the operation skillfully, and considers a medio (sixpence) a capital fee for his services. He has a sharp eye for “las niguas,” and will frequently detect them before they are seen or felt by the strangers in whose feet they are burrowing. It is well to submit one’s pedal extremities to his criticism as often as once every three days, while sojourning in San Juan, where this insect is more common than anywhere else in Central America. When to this digression on insects and reptiles, I have added that the harbor is infested by sharks, and that alligators are far from rare both there and in the lagunas near the town, the catalogue of things annoying and disagreeable to be encountered here is nearly complete. But after all, the inconvenience or danger from such sources is chiefly imaginary, and exists more in anticipation than in reality.

From what has been said it will be seen that San Juan has no resources of its own, and derives its present importance solely from the trade which is carried on through it with the interior. A considerable part of the exports and imports of Nicaragua passes here. The exports are indigo, Brazil wood, hides, and bullion, and the imports manufactured goods of every description, suitable for general use. The indigo and bullion go, in great part, to England, by the British West Indian line of steamers, which touches here monthly, and which has already nearly monopolized the carrying of those articles of high value but small bulk, upon which it is desirable to realize quick returns. The Brazil wood and hides, on the other hand, pass chiefly to the United States and Jamaica. By far the greater proportion of the carrying trade is in the hands of Americans, conducted through native houses, and through travelling agents in the interior: and considerably more than two-thirds of the tonnage entering the port is American. An Italian vessel comes once or twice a-year, and a couple of French vessels occasionally, as also some nondescript coasters, bearing the New Granadian or Venezuelan flags. A portion of the trade of Costa Rica, via the rivers San Juan and Serapiqui, is now carried on through this port. There are no means of ascertaining its value, nor that of the general commerce of San Juan, inasmuch as no regular tables have been kept at the Custom House. Previous to the seizure of the port by the English, in 1848, the duties collected here by the Nicaraguan government amounted to about $100,000 per annum; and as the rate of imposts was about 20 per cent., the value of the imports may be approximately calculated at nearly $500,000. Since the English usurpation, the trade has seriously diminished, in consequence of the depression and uncertainty which it has created in the interior, and which have induced many of the native merchants to contract their business. The additional duties levied by the usurping authorities have also contributed to the same results. They have imposed an import and export duty of 2½ per cent. ad valorem, and made other onerous restrictions on commerce. Under these, they have nevertheless lately farmed out the customs at $10,000 per annum, which, as this is apart from the cost of collection, implies a trade of at least $300,000.^[1] The actual trade of the port may now be roughly estimated at $400,000, not allowing for the increase which has already followed the general commercial activity induced by the California movement, nor for the direct influences of the partial opening of the Nicaragua route of transit, and the consequent direction of public attention and individual enterprise to that portion of the Central American Isthmus. As the trade of Nicaragua, by way of this port must pass through the river San Juan, the Nicaraguan Customs Establishment has been fixed at the old Fort of San Carlos, at the head of the river, on the lake. The average rate of duty exacted under the Nicaraguan tariff, is about 21 per cent. ad valorem,^[2] which, added to the British impositions at San Juan, makes the total duty to be paid on articles passing into the interior about 24 per cent.

When the political questions connected with British aggressions in Nicaragua shall have been satisfactorily and permanently adjusted, and the projected canal really commenced, this port will become one of the first importance, if not the most important, on the continent. Its prospective value can hardly be estimated; for apart from its position in respect to the proposed work, it is the only Atlantic port of one of the finest countries under the tropics, possessing inexhaustible agricultural and mineral resources, which recent movements indicate with certainty are destined to a speedy development.

As already observed, this is the only possible Atlantic terminus for the (probably) only possible ship-canal route across the continent. And this is to be regarded as the great and controlling fact which led to its seizure by the English, at the moment when it became certain that California would fall into the hands of the United States, and the question of an inter-oceanic communication became one of immediate and practical importance. The seizure, it is well known, was made under the shallow pretext of supporting the territorial pretensions of a tribe of savages, or mixed negroes and Indians, called Moscos, or Mosquitos, and in virtue of some equivocal relations which the pirates of Jamaica anciently maintained with them. When, however, it is known that this was the principal port of entry of Nicaragua under the Spanish dominion; that for more than three hundred years it was the avenue through which its trade was conducted; that the river flowing past it was defended by massive and costly works, which, although in ruins, are yet imposing; that no Mosquito Indian ever resided here; that all its inhabitants were, and with the exception of a few foreign merchants and the English officials, still are Nicaraguans; and that England herself recognized it as pertaining to Nicaragua by blockading it as a part of her territories; and when to all this is added the fact, that the Mosquito Indians never, themselves, pretended to any territorial rights here or elsewhere, until induced to do so by British agents, the enormity of the seizure is rendered apparent. But as the facts connected with these and similar encroachments will form the subject of a separate chapter, it is unnecessary to refer further to them here. Since the seizure of the port, and in ludicrous commentary on the assertion of the British Government, that its sole design in taking that step was the “re-establishment of Mosquito rights and authority,” its municipal and other regulations, not excepting its port charges and customs’ rates, have been promulgated and fixed by an officer styling himself “Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul,” or “Vice Consul;” who has for his executive force a few Jamaica negroes, called, probably in irony, “police.” He is, in fact, dictator of the place, and the inhabitants are subject without appeal to his will, for there are no written laws or fixed regulations of any kind. He assumes to dispose of lands, and gives titles under his consular seal; nor does he, ever so remotely, appear to recognize the so-called Mosquito King. Indeed, the only evidence that this farcical character is held in remembrance at all is that a flag, said to be his, is occasionally hoisted in an open space in the centre of the town. The English flag, however, floats over what is called the Custom House, and is the only one for which any degree of respect is exacted. The new tariff, promulgated here in April, 1850, was signed “J. M. Daly, Collector,” and did not purport to have been enacted by any superior authority. Indeed, the present situation of the town, over-awed as it constantly is by one or two British vessels, is anomalous in the extreme. If, as it is pretended, this port belongs to the supposititious Mosquito King, it is difficult to understand how a second party can exercise sovereignty over it; or upon what principles of international law the consuls of one nation can assume municipal and general administrative authority in the ports of another. The simple fact is, that Great Britain, having secured possession of this important port, under a pretext which deceives nobody, no longer cares to stultify herself by affecting to conform to that pretext. The thing is too absurd to be continued.

The River San Juan reaches the ocean by several mouths. The divergence takes place about twenty miles from the sea, forming a low delta, penetrated by numerous canals, or, as they are called on the Lower Mississippi, bayous, and lagunas. The principal branch is the Colorado, which carries off at least two-thirds of the water of the river, and which empties into the ocean some ten or fifteen miles to the southward of the port. There is an almost impassable bar at the entrance, which would preclude the ascent of vessels, even if the depth of water above permitted of their proceeding after it was passed. The little steamer “Orus,” nevertheless, after repeated trials, succeeded in passing it in August last. There is another small channel called the Taura, which reaches the sea midway between the port and the mouth of the Colorado. The branch flowing into the harbor, the one through which the ascending and descending boats pass, carries off only about one-third of the water of the river. It has also a bar at the mouth, that is, at its point of debouchure into the harbor, upon which, at low tide, there are but three or four feet of water. This passed, the bed of the river is wide and studded with low islands; but excepting in the channel, which is narrow and crooked, the water is very shallow. It has been suggested that the Colorado branch might be dammed, and a greater column of water thrown into the other, or San Juan branch. But this suggestion can only be made by those who are wholly unacquainted with the subject. Allowing it to be possible to build a dam, the stream would find a new channel to the sea; or if it took the direction of the harbor, fill it up, during the first rainy season, with mud, or at once destroy the sandy barriers which now form and protect it. As will be seen, when I come to speak of the practicability of a canal, the utmost that can be done with the river is to dredge out the channel to the Colorado, and remove some of the obstacles at the various rapids above, after which it might be navigated by small steamers. It cannot be made navigable for ships or vessels of any kind, except of the lightest draught, by any practicable system of improvements.

The boats used upon the river for carrying freight and passengers are exaggerated canoes, called bongos. Some are hollowed from a single tree, but the better varieties are built, with some degree of skill, from the timber of the cedro, a very light and durable kind of wood, which grows abundantly about the lakes. The largest of these carry from eight to ten tons, and draw two or three feet of water when loaded. They are long, and rather deep and narrow, and have, when fully manned, from eight to twelve oarsmen, who drive the boat by means of long sweeps and setting-poles. Sails are seldom if ever used, except upon the lake. The masts are unshipped and left at the head of the river in descending, and resumed again in returning. These boats have a small space near the stern, called the “chopa,” covered with a board roof, a thatch of palm leaves, or with hides, which is assigned to the passengers. The rest of the boat is open, and the oarsmen, or, as they call themselves, marineros, sailors, are without protection, and sleep upon their benches at night, covered only with their blankets, and with the gunwale of the boat for a common pillow. The captain, or patron, is the steersman, and occupies a narrow deck at the stern, called the pineta, upon which he also sleeps, coiling himself up in a knot, if the boat is small and the pineta narrow. The freight, if liable to damage from exposure, is covered with raw hides, which, between sun and rain, soon diffuse an odor very unlike the perfumes which are said to load the breezes of Arabia the Blest. The usual freight from San Juan to Granada, a distance of one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy miles, is from thirty to fifty cents per cwt.; if the articles are bulky, it is more. The boatmen are paid from seven to eight dollars the trip, down from Granada and back, which usually occupies from twenty to thirty days, although with proper management it might be made in less time. Time, however, in these regions is not regarded as of much importance, and everything is done very leisurely. It is only in active communities that its value is considered.

Columbus coasted along the entire eastern shore of Central America, from Cape Honduras to Nombre de Dios, or Chagres, in 1502, and was probably the first discoverer of the Port of San Juan. In 1529, Captain Diego Machuca, residing in the city of Granada, on Lake Nicaragua, undertook the exploration of that lake, discovered its outlet, passed down the San Juan to the port at its mouth, and sailed thence to Nombre de Dios. The principal rapids in the stream still bears his name. We are informed by the historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez, who was in Nicaragua in 1529, and was personally acquainted with Machuca, that the latter projected a colony at the mouth of the river, but was interrupted in his design by Robles, commandant at Nombre de Dios, who contemplated the same enterprise. At how early a date the Spanish made establishments at San Juan, is not known; but it is a historical fact, that early in the seventeenth century a fort existed at San Carlos, which was captured by the English in 1665, but recovered by De Mencos and De Caldas, officers of Spain in the then Kingdom of Guatemala. (Juarros’ History of the Kingdom of Guatemala, Baily’s Trans., p. 67.) In consequence of this event, a royal decree was issued, commanding that the entrance of the river should be fortified; which order was carried into effect by Don Fernando de Escobeda, who examined the port and river, and built a fort in obedience to his instructions. It is also a historical fact, that at the period of the rebuilding of the Fort of San Juan, on the river above, about 1727, a garrison was maintained here. At that time not less than twelve military stations existed on the river; the first was at San Carlos, at the head of the stream; the second at the mouth of the Rio Savalos; the third, a short distance from the mouth of the Rio Poco Sol; the fourth, the Castle of San Juan; the fifth, the Island of Bartola; sixth, a high bank below the Rapids de los Valos, called “Diamante;” seventh, at the Rapids of Machuca; eighth, on an island at the mouth of the River San Carlos; ninth, at the mouth of the Rio San Francisco; tenth, at the mouth of the Serapiqui; eleventh, at the point called “Conception,” opposite an island of the same name; and twelfth, at the Port of San Juan itself, with an intermediate temporary station called “Rosario.”

The commerce of Nicaragua with Europe and the West Indies was always carried on through this port; and we have records of as early a date as 1665, of vessels clearing for the ports of Spain from the city of Granada. San Juan was made a port of entry by royal order of the King of Spain, dated February 26, 1796. By a royal order of the 27th of March following, regulations were made for promoting the settlement of the country in the neighborhood of that port, among which was one authorizing the introduction, in the ports of Spain, of dye and other woods cut there, or of coffee grown there, free of duty. From this period an augmented military force was kept up at San Juan, and in 1821 additional defences were erected for their protection, as may be seen by the order of the Captain-General of Guatemala, of the date of May 2, 1821. Upon the declaration of independence, the royal troops were expelled by the patriots of Nicaragua, by whom the port was indisputably occupied until the British seizure in January, 1848.