THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 109 



rights of transit to all nations," and that it " should not be 

 hampered by any restrictions, either from local government 

 or the company building it." Mr. Squier at once drew up 

 a treaty with Nicaragua which granted the United States a 

 right of way from sea to sea, and the United States in return 

 guaranteed Nicaragua's right of sovereignty over the route 

 and at both terminal ports ; the right was reserved to Nicara- 

 gua to make similar treaties with any other nation or nations 

 that cared to share this open right of way. Obviously, by 

 entering into such a compact with the United States, Nicara- 

 gua again violated her treaty of the year before with Eng- 

 land, and in guaranteeing Nicaragua's sovereignty over both 

 ports at either terminus of the proposed canal, the United 

 States necessarily stamped her disapproval upon the British 

 seizure of Greytown. 



While Mr. Squier was negotiating this very liberal treaty, 

 the English resolved to strengthen even more firmly their grasp 

 upon Nicaragua and the canal route by obtaining landed inter- 

 ests at the Pacific terminus of the canal. A British expedition, 

 accordingly, started for the Gulf of Fonseca, in the territory of 

 Honduras, which was the supposed future Pacific entrance to 

 the inland waterway, for the purpose of seizing the islands in 

 this gulf, points of the greatest strategic value. Mr. Squier 

 hurried to Honduras, and in order to forestall these British 

 encroachments, he hastily concluded a preliminary treaty 

 with Honduras (September, 1849), whereby, pending final 

 negotiations, the Island of Tigre, in the Gulf of Fonseca, was 

 ceded to the United States for a limited period. Now, strangely 

 enough, Mr. Squier's hasty mission to Honduras had scarcelv 

 been accomplished, when the British expedition appeared, and 

 upon the transparent excuse of an unpaid debt seized this 

 same Tigre Island (October, 1849). Thus, in their struggle 

 for the control of the territory through which the inter- 

 oceanic canal was likely to pass, the two powers came face to 

 face, and as the English commander refused to surrender his 

 newly acquired island, it seemed that war was inevitable. In 

 the meantime, the British had been no less active along the 

 Atlantic coast ; under pretext of definitely fixing the boun- 



