430 



NICAEAGUA. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



Commerce and Production. Rearing cattle 

 and raising coffee and cacao are the chief indus- 

 tries of the country. Bananas have been planted 

 extensively in recent years. Americans and Ger- 

 mans are the largest coffee planters. Sugar cane 

 was formerly grown more than it is now, the 

 plantations having been injured through political 

 disturbances. Tobacco is raised in some districts. 

 Plantations of rubber trees have been made with 

 Government aid, and good profits are expected. 

 The export of rubber from the forests has been 

 interdicted, except from those of the Mosquito 

 Territory. The mines, most of the ore contain- 

 ing both gold and silver, some of it silver and 

 copper, are owned by American companies. There 

 \\ere. 16,242 ounces of bar gold shipped abroad in 

 1898, the quantity having doubled in three years. 

 The shipments of coffee were about 120,000 bags; 

 of rubber, 6,907 hundredweight; of hides, 8,211 

 hundredweight; of cattle, 10,003 head; of silver 

 dollars, 271,591. The trade in 1898 was divided 

 among different countries, as follows, values being 

 given in , pounds sterling from British consular 

 reports : 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. A rail- 

 road, 58 miles long, connects the port of Corinto 

 with Momotombo and another runs from Mana- 

 gua to Granada, 33 miles. The cost of these lines 

 was $2,700,000. Another railroad has been built 

 by the Government from Masaga to Jinotepe, af- 

 fording transportation for coffee to Corinto. The 

 post offices ,in 1896 sent out 1,376,366 pieces of 

 mail matter and delivered 1,242,876. There are 

 1,245 miles of telegraph wire. 



The Nicaragua Canal. The Maritime Canal 

 Company, a Nicaraguan corporation created for 

 the purpose of constructing a canal across the 

 isthmus of Nicaragua by an American company 

 with headquarters in New York, began the woi'k 

 under a concession from the Government of Nic- 

 aragua in April, 1887, which provided that the 

 canal should be completed within ten years from 

 Oct. 9, 1889. The parent company was organized 

 with the view of obtaining a subsidy from the 

 United States Government or having that Govern- 

 ment as a partner in the enterprise, or transferring 

 to it the concession and the partly constructed 

 canal. The United States Congress took action 

 at various times, but none that was decisive, and 

 successive technical commissions have examined 

 the route and reported to the Government. The 

 engineering questions connected with the project 

 were not solved to the general satisfaction of Con- 

 gress and the American public, and beyond these 

 there was the political question of the rights of 

 the United States over the canal even if the Gov- 

 ernment should decide to construct it. An inter- 

 oceanic canal was desired not alone for the facili- 

 tation of American commerce and for intercom- 

 munication between the Atlantic and the Pacific 

 States in time of peace, but for the passage of 

 naval vessels between the two oceans in time of 

 war; or at least the military security demanded 

 that it should not by any possibility be made use 

 of by an enemy for the transit of naval forces 

 or troops. The Clayton-Bulwer treaty stood in the 

 way of the military control of the canal by the 



United States, as it provides that neither the 

 United States nor Great Britain shall acquire ter- 

 ritorial rights in Central America, and that both 

 powers shall exercise joint control over any canal 

 that may be built there to join the two oceans. 

 The modification proposed in the treaty by Secre- 

 tary Hay, by which the United States shall have 

 exclusive control, but shall not be permitted to 

 fortify the canal, and shall leave it open to the 

 ships of all nations in peace or war, was not 

 acceptable to the Senate. Meanwhile the Isicara- 

 guan Government, on the expiration of the term 

 of the concession granted to the Maritime Canal 

 Company, took possession of the property of the 

 company and removed cars, rails, and other prop- 

 erty from Greytown into the interior, the Nicara- 

 guan Congress having approved the decision of the 

 Minister of Public Works that the concession was 

 void owing to nonfulfillment of its conditions. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY, IMPORTANT 

 EVENTS OF THE. The century just closed is 

 universally recognized as the most wonderful, in 

 many respects, since the dawn of history. Before 

 that century immense territories that are now 

 under cultivation and contain cities and villages 

 in communication with the whole civilized world 

 were unexplored wilderness; the ports of China 

 and Japan were closed to foreigners; there was 

 not in the whole world a railroad, a steamboat, 

 an electric telegraph, a sewing machine, a reaping 

 machine, a telephone, a photograph, an electric 

 light, a power printing press, spectrum analysis, 

 utilized India rubber, or a known anaesthetic. The 

 lives of some of the greatest men in various de- 

 partments of activity were entirely within the 

 nineteenth century Dickens, Thackeray, and Mrs. 

 Stowe among novelists; Tennyson and the Brown- 

 ings among poets; Green and Parkman among his- 

 torians; Goodyear, Howe, and Mergenthaler among 

 inventors; Darwin and Henry among scientists; 

 Gladstone, Bismarck, Cavour, and Lincoln among 

 statesmen; and Gordon and Grant among soldiers. 

 Two of the very greatest Lincoln and Darwin 

 were born on the same day, Feb. 12, 1809 a year 

 that is notable for the famous men that it brought 

 into the world. Elaborate chapters have been 

 written for various journals and magazines, eaeli 

 tracing the century's development of some one 

 science, industry, or literature. A complete his- 

 tory of the century would fill a book much larger 

 than this volume. The following notes are in- 

 tended only to indicate briefly such events as were 

 in one way or another significant, and to refresh 

 the reader's memory as he reviews his reading <>r 

 his experience. 



1801. 



Jan. 1, the first asteroid (Ceres) was discovered 



by Piazzi. 

 Jan. 1, the union of Great Britain and Ireland was 



effected. 

 March 12, a British expedition defeated the Freneli 



at Alexandria. 

 March 24, Paul, Emperor of Russia, was a .1- 



sinated. 

 April 2, Nelson destroyed the Danish fleet be 



Copenhagen. 



May 16, William Henry Seward was born. 

 July 5, David G. Farragut was born. 

 Aug. 8, the war between the United States 



the pirates of Tripoli was begun. 

 Sept. 10, the compound blowpipe was invented 



by Prof. Robert Hare, of Philadelphia. 

 Oct. 19, Philadelphia was first supplied with aque- 

 duct water. 

 Nov. 2, the independence of Hayti was proclaimed 



by Toussaint 1'Ouverture. 





