THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 125 



longing to the American Canal Company, the Prometheus^ 

 was fired upon by a British man-of-war, for refusing to pay 

 certain port dues to the Anglo-Mosquito authorities. 



The matter being reported to Mr. Webster, he promptly 

 renewed his efforts to reach an understanding with the Brit- 

 ish Minister regarding Central American affairs. The act 

 of firing upon the Prometheus was at once disavowed by Earl 

 Granville; but the issue which Secretary Clayton had care- 

 fully avoided was now sharply presented, and the Secretary 

 of State appreciated the urgent necessity for coming to a 

 clear and perfect understanding as to the construction of 

 the term "dependencies of British Honduras." The 

 boundary dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica had 

 become violent, and in this quarrel the sympathies of the 

 United States and of England were arrayed upon opposite 

 sides. Costa Rica, which had always cultivated British 

 favors, claimed the right bank of the San Juan River, includ- 

 ing Greytown and a small adjoining settlement of Ameri- 

 cans who operated the temporary transit route across the 

 state. Nicaragua, on the other hand, insisted upon the 

 inclusion of Greytown within her limits, and she naturally 

 resented the English occupation of that port; she also denied 

 her neighbor's territorial rights to the south bank of the San 

 Juan River. . In these contentions she was encouraged and 

 upheld by the sympathies of the United States. 



Mr. Webster and Mr. Crampton, the English Minister (Sir 

 Henry Bulwer having returned to England) entered upon 

 the settlement of the new disputes by attempting first to 

 locate the true boundary line between the two little repub- 

 lics, thus hoping to eliminate one irritating factor from the 

 total of their differences. To accomplish this, of course, it 

 would be necessary to formulate a plan which would prove 

 acceptable to both republics as well as to themselves. On 

 April 30, 1852, an agreement was signed in Washington 

 which, as a tentative arrangement, provided that Greytown 

 arid "Mosquitia" should be receded to Nicaragua and a 

 reservation set apart for the Indians. The Costa Rican 

 territorial claims were acknowledged as far north as the 



