Then the youths turned their attention to Nicaragua, and especially to the proposed ship-canal which is to make use of Lake Nicaragua for a part of its route. On this subject they questioned Doctor Bronson, and received the following reply:
PROFILE OF NICARAGUA CANAL.
"The idea of an interoceanic canal originated soon after the Spanish Conquest. In 1550 Galvo, a Portuguese navigator, presented a plan for such a canal, and pointed out four possible routes, those of Darien, Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec, and it is a singular circumstance that no other routes have been discovered since his time. The world's commerce then and for more than 200 years afterwards was not sufficient to justify the construction of a canal, and the first step towards such a work was taken in 1779, when Lord Nelson seized the mouth of the San Juan River, in Nicaragua, as a preliminary to the control of the river and lake, and the opening of a water-way across the isthmus.
A SECTION OF THE CANAL.
"Very soon after Lord Nelson's action a Spanish exploring expedition arrived at the mouth of the San Juan, and the complications arising between the English and Spanish Governments prevented any active operations towards the making of the canal. In 1823 the President of Nicaragua opened negotiations with the Government of the United States with that object in view, but nothing was accomplished. In 1826 the Government of Mexico made a preliminary survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to ascertain the possibility of a canal across it, and two years later the Government of New Grenada permitted a survey of the Isthmus of Panama for the same object. In 1844 Nicaragua gave a concession to a Belgian company, which accomplished nothing; and in the same year Louis Philippe authorized a survey of the Isthmus of Panama.