THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 131 



Granada; the incident also stimulated the unfriendly feel- 

 ings between England and the United States, and served as 

 well to estrange from ourselves the good will of the Cen- 

 tral American states. Walker was eventually deported and 

 tried; but before his death he made several warlike expedi- 

 tions into Central America, and succeeded in almost hope- 

 lessly entangling the United States in a triple contest, full 

 of ill will, between herself, England, and Nicaragua. 



These events in Central America reopened all the old 

 wounds which the Clayton-Bulwer treaty had been designed 

 to heal, and another series of acrimonious discussions in the 

 Senate, levelled against British interference in Greytown 

 and in Nicaragua, tended in no way to assuage the popular 

 anger. 



Mr. Buchanan had been succeeded in London, in the fall 

 of 1855, by Mr. Dallas, and the latter was directed by the 

 President to make a strenuous effort to secure a settlement 

 of these Central American questions. These, along with 

 other grievances against Great Britain, were rapidly assum- 

 ing a dangerous aspect. The country was already deeply 

 agitated by the drift of internal political issues, and party 

 zeal was alarmingly strong. In the excitement and passions 

 of the period, there was no skill of prophecy that could fore- 

 tell the length to which either party might go, should for- 

 eign complication offer relief from the strain of that fearful 

 domestic difficulty the slavery question. 



The Dallas-Clarendon negotiations were hurried along, 

 and, on October 17 (1856), an agreement was reached, which 

 was immediately sent to Washington for confirmation. It 

 provided: (1) for the freedom of the port of Gre}^town under 

 nominal Nicaraguan sovereignty; (2) the establishment of a 

 reservation for the Mosquito Indians, thus abandoning the 

 British protectorate; (3) the limiting of the Belize settle- 

 ment within certain fixed lines ; (4) the cession of the Bay 

 Islands to Honduras. The convention was made conditional 

 upon the ratification of a certain treaty just drawn up be- 

 tween Honduras and Great Britain. This latter treaty 

 had been made in August, 1856, and constituted the Bay 



