Across Nicaragtia with, Transit and Machete. 835 



" What if, in this camp, we should, like Rip Van Winkle, sleep 

 for ten years, and then awakening look about us ? We are still 

 at Brito, but instead of being in the wilderness, we look down 

 upon a thriving city. In the harbor are ships from all ports of 

 the world. Ships from San Francisco, bound for New York, 

 about to pass through the canal and shorten their journey by 

 10,000 miles. Ships from Valparaiso, headed for New York, 

 which will take the short cut and save 5000 miles and the dread 

 storms of Cape Horn. At many a masthead floats the British 

 flag, and vessels from Liverpool, with their bows turned towards 

 San Francisco, have shortened their journey by 7000 miles." 



" We go aboard one of the many steamers flying the " stars and 

 stripes " and start eastward. All along the line the face of the 

 country has changed ; the fertile shores of the Tola basin are 

 occupied by cacao plantations, fields have replaced forests, vil- 

 lages have grown to towns, and factories driven by the exhaust- 

 less water power furnished by the canal have sprung up on every 

 available site." 



"Along the shore of the lake are immense dry docks, and vessels 

 are resting in this huge fresh water harbor before setting out 

 again on their long voyages. The broad bosom of the noble San 

 Juaii is quivering with the strokes of tireless propellors. Tlie 

 roar of the great dam at Ochoa is heard for a moment and then 

 the eastern section of the canal is entered. Here the country is 

 scarcely recognizable so greatly has it changed. Wilderness and 

 marsh have disappeared, and only great fields of plantains and 

 bananas and dark green orange groves are to be seen. A day 

 from Brito and the steamer's bow is rising to the long blue swell 

 of the Caribbean at Greytown." 



Well is this picture calculated to excite enthusiam, for it means 

 the dream of centuries realized, the cry of commerce answered, 

 and our imperial Orient and Occident-facing Republic resting 

 content with coasts united from Eastport to the Strait of Fuca, 



