430 



NICARAGUA. 



Zelaya was elected President of the republic for 

 the term ending Jan. 30, 1902. The Cabinet at 

 the beginning of 1902 was composed of the follow- 

 ing members: Minister of the Interior, Justice, 

 Police, and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Gen. Fernando 

 Abaunza; Minister of War and Marine, A. Saenz; 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs and Public Instruc- 

 tion, Dr. Fernando Sanchez; Minister of Finance 

 and Public Credit, Col. Felix Pedro Zelaya; Min- 

 ister of Public Works, Dr. Leopoldo Ramirez 

 Mairena. 



Area and Population. The area of Nica- 

 ragua is estimated at 49,200 square miles; the 

 population at 450,000 to 500,000, mostly Indians 

 with an infusion of negro blood. The white popu- 

 lation of Spanish stock is exceedingly small, but 

 Americans and other whites have settled in the 

 country in recent years to the number of about 

 1,200. Managua, the capital, has 30,000 inhab- 

 itants; Leon, 45,000; Granada, 25,000; Masaya, 

 20,000; Chinandega, 20,000. 



Finances. The revenue for the calendar year 

 1899 was $4,475,827 in silver, and expenditure 

 $4,557,794. For 1900 the revenue was estimated 

 at $6,408,000, and expenditure at $6,414,951 ; reve- 

 nue for 1901 at $5,760,920, and expenditure at 

 $5,758,923. In 1899 customs yielded $2,187,700; 

 liquor and tobacco duties, $1,118,120; the tax on 

 slaughtering cattle, $214,069; railroads, steam- 

 boats, posts, and telegraphs, $690,400. The ex- 

 penditures were $1,573,885 for the army and navy, 

 $941,014 for public works, $656,237 for finance, 

 $398,382 for education, $536,573 for police, $315,- 

 936 for government, and $119,640 for justice. 



The foreign debt, consisting of a railroad loan 

 raised in England at 6 per cent, in 1886, read- 

 justed at 4 per cent, in 1895, amounted on July 

 1, 1901, to $273,900. The internal debt on Jan. 

 1, 1900, amounted to $8,064,935. 



The Army and Navy. All young men be- 

 tween the ages of eighteen and thirty-five can 

 be called into military service, and for ten years 

 longer they belong to the reserve, and then to the 

 National Guard until they are sixty-five years 

 old. The number in active service must not ex- 

 ceed 3,500; in 1900 it was about 2,000. The war 

 strength approximates 25,000. 



The naval force consists of 2 steamers on the 

 Atlantic coast, 2 on the Pacific, and 4 on the Lake 

 of Managua. 



Commerce and Production. Coffee, banana, 

 cacao, and sugar cultivation are being extended 

 by foreign settlers. The people have about 400,- 

 000 cattle and export live animals and hides. The 

 export of coffee in 1900 was about 200,000 bags; 

 of sugar, 12,238 hundredweight. Rubber must 

 not be exported except from the state of Zelaya, 

 the old Mosquito Territory. There are 109 gold 

 and silver and silver and copper mines belonging 

 to American and English companies. The ship- 

 ments in 1900 were 18,500 ounces of gold, besides 

 14,050 pounds of ore. The total val-e of im- 

 ports in 1900 was estimated at $8,441,880; and 

 that of exports at $9,406,436 in silver. The value 

 of cotton goods imported was $3.852,000; of wool- 

 ens, $234,000; of provisions, $183,120; of flour, 

 $420,000; of wines and spirits, $384,000; of hard- 

 ware, $219,600; of drugs, $206,400; of sacks, $123,- 

 000. Among the exports the value of coffee was 

 $4,800,000; of rubber, $828,000; of mahogany and 

 cedar, $616,560; of dyewoods, $215.280; of cattle, 

 $540,000; of hides, $378,000; of gold bars, $432,- 

 000; of gold-dust. $312,000; of gold ore, $968,280. 

 Of the imports Great Britain supplied about 40 

 per cent., the United States 25 per cent., Germany 

 19 per cent., France 10 per cent., and other coun- 

 tries 6 per cent.; of the exports 30 per cent, went 



to Great Britain, 29 per cent, to the United 

 States, 28 per cent, to Germany, 5 per cent, to 

 France, and 8 per cent, to other countries. 



Navigation. The number of vessels entered 

 in 1900 at the port of Corinto, which has two- 

 thirds of the commerce of the country, was 200 

 in the foreign trade, of 328,622 tons. 



Railroads and Telegraphs. There are 140 

 miles of railroads, which connect with steam- 

 ers on Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. A 

 line from Managua to Leon and Corinto, 38 miles 

 long, was contracted for in October, 1900, to be 

 completed in 1902, which will do away with 

 steamboat transport between those points. Ex- 

 cept 7 miles, all the railroads are Government 

 property. 



Political Affairs. The Presidents of Costa 

 Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador met at 

 Corinto in January, 1902, to discuss matters of 

 common interest to Central American states. 

 The outcome of the conference was a treaty lay- 

 ing down a series of agreements in public law 

 and an undertaking to establish a tribunal of 

 arbitration which in the future will decide all 

 differences that arise between any of the four 

 states. The President of Guatemala was invited 

 to take part in the conference. Pleading inabil- 

 ity to attend, he sent his Minister of War to 

 represent him, but without full powers. By a 

 vote of the conference President Iglesias, of Costa 

 Rica, was commissioned to seek the adhesion of 

 President Estrada Cabrera, of Guatemala, to the 

 treaty, and he departed on Jan. 25 for this pur- 

 pose. Gen. Santos J. Zelaya was reelected Pres- 

 ident of Nicaragua for a third term and on Feb. 

 2 was inaugurated at Managua. He has con- 

 tinuously held the office since he was first pro- 

 claimed President in 1893 as the result of a revo- 

 lution in which President Roberto Sacaza was 

 overturned. Other politicians were now ambi- 

 tious for the presidency, the Opposition chafed at 

 exclusion from office for so long a period, and 

 many acts of President Zelaya's long adminis- 

 tration had given rise to popular discontent. The 

 aid extended to the Colombian revolutionists 

 from Nicaragua provoked a revolutionary move- 

 ment against Zelaya's Government from Colom- 

 bia as a base. Early in March, 1902, Government 

 spies heard of correspondence from exiles in 

 Panama which gave warning of an intended ri- 

 sing. The Government took the precaution to 

 arrest immediately prominent members of the 

 hostile party living in Granada, which is the Con- 

 servative stronghold. Those who did not escape 

 arrest were taken to Managua and imprisoned. 

 On July 7 a party of Nicaraguan revolutionists 

 were landed near Bluefields from the Colombian 

 gunboat Pinzon. The Government forces, acting 

 promptly, defeated the revolutionists, and 1110-1 

 of these surrendered. Their captors intended to 

 shoot their prisoners, but desisted when the 

 commander of the British gunboat Psyche land- 

 ed and insisted that no one should be executed 

 without a fair trial. The President sought a 

 defensive alliance with Salvador against Colom- 

 bia, fearing that the latter would retaliate with 

 warlike measures for active assistance rendered 

 by the Nicaraguan Government to the revolu- 

 tionary Liberals of Colombia. In consequence 

 of the impracticable conditions demanded by the 

 Colombian Government and its dilatory proceed- 

 ings in regard to the terms of a treaty to grant 

 a right of way to the United States for the con- 

 struction of the Panama Canal, Secretary Hay 

 l'L r an informal negotiations with the Nicaraguan 

 and Costa Rican governments with the object of 

 concluding a tentative treaty for the construction 



