A RUN TO NICARAGUA. 359 



attract settlers to explore for themselves the mineral 

 and agricultural wealth of a country which only re- 

 quires an enterprising population to enable it to take, 

 when joined with the neighbouring States, an indepen- 

 dent position as a Central American Republic with 

 a constitution doubtless constructed on very different 

 principles from that of the United States, but which, 

 wisely and energetically carried out, would render her 

 a formidable competitor to the Northern Federation. 



Secretly entertaining these views, which, how- 

 ever, he had not thought it prudent openly to ex- 

 press, General Walker induced President Rivas to 

 send a minister to the United States, in the hope 

 that his recognition by that Government would pre- 

 vent the neighbouring Central American republics, 

 who had already shown symptoms of alarm at his 

 progressive tendencies, and the power he had acquired 

 over Rivas, from combining to eject him from Nicar- 

 agua. The United States Government, however, did 

 not think that Walker's chances of success were at 

 that time sufficient to warrant a recognition of the 

 government he had been instrumental in establish- 

 ing, and therefore refused to receive Colonel French, 

 upon the ground that the condition of political affairs 

 in Nicaragua was not acquiesced in by the citizens of 

 that country. In consequence of this refusal by Mr 

 Marcy, diplomatic relations between the government 

 of Nicaragua and Mr Wheeler, resident minister of 

 the United States there, were suspended. 



