THROUGH THREEFOLD TENSION 157 



treaty giving to the United States the exclusive 

 right to construct a canal or railway through 

 Nicaragua, in return for the guarantee of her 

 just limits. Mr. Hise, who negotiated this con 

 vention, was succeeded shortly afterward by 

 President Taylor s appointee, Mr. Squier, who 

 in September, 1849, concluded a treaty with 

 Honduras by which the island of Tigre, on the 

 Pacific coast, was ceded to the United States. 

 This island commanded the western end of the 

 Nicaraguan route as Greytown commanded the 

 eastern end. Less than a month after the con 

 clusion of this treaty, a British force took pos 

 session of Tigre. 



The situation thus created was a decidedly 

 serious one. If all the successive proceedings 

 had become public as they occurred, the two 

 great English-speaking peoples would doubtless 

 have been at each other s throats in short order. 

 But communication with Central America was 

 arduous and slow, and diplomacy was able 

 to smooth out the wrinkles in the situation 

 before the public was aware that they existed. 

 Clayton, the new secretary of state at Wash 

 ington, was of pacific disposition, and President 

 Taylor had none of the aggressive propensities 

 of his predecessor. Nor did Lord Palmerston 



