As the survey of Colonel Childs is the only one which can be accepted as conforming to modern engineering requirements, it will be enough to present the detailed results to which he arrived. The line proposed by him, and on which all his calculations and estimates were based, commences at the little port of Brito, on the Pacific, and passes across the Isthmus, between the ocean and lake, to the mouth of a small stream called Rio Lajas, flowing into the latter, thence across Lake Nicaragua to its outlet, and down the valley of the Rio San Juan to the port of the same name on the Atlantic. The length of this line was found to be 194⅓ miles, as follows:
| Miles. | |
| Western Division.—Canal from the port of Brito on the Pacific, through the valley of a small stream called Rio Grande, falling into the Pacific, into that of the stream called Rio Lajas, to Lake Nicaragua | 18.588 |
| Middle Division.—Though Lake Nicaragua, from mouth of Rio Lajas to Fort San Carlos, at the head of San Juan River | 56.500 |
| Eastern Division.—First Section.—Slack-water navigation on San Juan River from San Carlos to a point on the river opposite the mouth of the Serapiqui River | 90.800 |
| Second Section.—Canal from opposite mouth of Serapiqui to port of San Juan del Norte | 28.505 |
| Total, as above | 194.393 |
Origin of the Canal Grant.—The charter of this company under which Colonel Childs carried on his investigations is dated September 22, 1849, and was obtained for a term of eighty-five years from the completion of the proposed canal. The surveys were to be commenced within one year, and the whole to be completed in twelve years. The canal, by the terms of the charter, was to be of dimensions sufficiently great to admit and pass vessels of all sizes with speed and safety. The company was to pay to the state, during the period assigned for the construction of the work, the annual sum of $10,000; to give to the state $200,000 of stock in the canal, on the issue of stock; the state to receive, for the first twenty years, twenty per cent annually out of the net profits of the canal, after deducting the interest on the capital actually invested, at the rate of seven per cent; and for the remaining sixty-five years, twenty-five per cent of the profits. The company, on the other hand, were to receive fifteen per cent annually out of the net profits of the canal for the first ten years after it should revert to the state, provided it did not cost over $20,000,000; but if it should cost more than that sum, the company to receive twenty per cent for twenty years. During the period of constructing the canal (twelve years), the company had the exclusive right of navigating the waters of the state by steam, and also the privilege of opening a transit route through its territories, upon the principal condition of paying ten per cent of the net profits to the state. There were some other provisions as to lands, tolls, etc., of no special importance.
Under this charter, the company perfected its organization. It divided its original shares into a considerable number, called 'canal rights,' which were sold, and their holders brought into the organization. The first instalment was paid, and in August 1850, just in time to meet the stipulation providing that the surveys should be commenced within one year from the date of the contract, a party of surveyors was sent out to Nicaragua. They were under the direction (as already said) of Colonel O. W. Childs as chief engineer. He arrived in Nicaragua on the 27th of August, 1850, and so far as his report is concerned, we are left to infer that he at once commenced the surveys for the canal. His report is dated March 9, 1852.
DIVERSIONS OF THE CANAL.
The Line of Survey.—In the various projects for uniting the two seas, the line of the river San Juan has always been contemplated as that by which the great lake of Nicaragua is to be reached. From that lake to the Pacific, various routes have been suggested:
1. From Lake Nicaragua via the river Sapoa to the bay of Bolaños, in the gulf of Salinas, on the Pacific.
2. Via the Rio Lajas to the port of San Juan del Sur, or some point not far from it, on the Pacific.
3. Via the Rio Tipitapa into the superior lake of Managua, and from this lake to the Pacific at the little port of Tamarindo, the port of Realejo, or into the magnificent gulf or bay of Fonseca.
By his instructions, Colonel Childs was limited to a survey of the direct routes from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific, provided either of them should prove practicable. As a consequence, finding a route which, in his opinion, was practicable, he made no surveys from the superior lake of Managua to the Pacific. He, however, made some observations on the line of the connection between the two lakes by the river Tipitapa—if a channel dry for most, if not all, of the year can be called a river. This is a source of great regret, especially in view of the deficiency, on the surveyed routes, of a good harbor on the Pacific, while both Realejo and the gulf of Fonseca are all that can be desired as ports.