CONTENTS. vii. 



CHAPTER XL 



History of Nicaragua — Its Discovery by the Spaniards^ — Their 

 Expeditions — Gonzalez de Avila — Hernandez de Contreras 

 Wholesale Slaughter of the Natives — Oviedo— Pedro de 

 Alvarado — History of the Independence of Central America 

 — Morazan — Presidents of Nicaragua — Civil Wars — Expedi- 

 tion of Walker — Walker — His Fall and Execution in Honduras 

 — The Mosquito Kingdom ........ 113-125 



CHAPTER XII. 



Projects for Opening Interoceanic Canals by Nicaragua, 

 Panama, Darien, and Tehuantepec — Manuel Alfonso de la 

 Cerda — John Bailly — Pierre Rouhaud — Napoleon Garella — 

 Napoleon Bonaparte — Vanderbilt Company — What the 

 South American Republics ought to do — Felix Belly — The 

 Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua — My opinion about 

 the Cost of Opening a Canal — Certainty of the Opening of 

 the Panama and Nicaragua Canals in the Future. . . 126-137 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Departure from Granada — The Lake — River San Juan — San 

 Juan del Norte — Sailing from San Juan del Norte — At Sea 

 — Arrival in New York — New York in 1853-1854 — Inter- 

 national Exhibition of New York — Adelina Patti — Natural 

 History of New York — Humming Birds — The English 

 Sparrow — Population — Climate — Industry — Commerce . 138- 161 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Is America part of the Atlantis of the Ancients ? — The first 

 European Discoverers of that Continent — Prophecy of 

 Tasso of the Discovery of America by Christopher 

 Columbus — European Expeditions in North America — 

 Discovery oi Labrador by Sebastian Cabot — John Vervazani, 

 the first Discoverer of North Carolina and the harbours of 

 New York and Newport — Discovery of Virginia by Captain 

 Philip A mid as d.nd Arthur Barlow, acting for Sir Walter 

 Raleigh — Colonization oi North America by the English . 162-168 



CHAPTER XV. 



First Settlements in New York by the Dutch — Wars between 

 the Dutch and the English — Old Description of New 

 Netherland and New Amsterdam — Of the Country and 

 its Natives — Inhabitants — Their Customs — Vegetable and 

 Animal Life — Mineral Ore — Definitive Occupation of New 

 Netherland and New Amsterdam by the English — War 

 of Independence — Treaty of Peace signed by the English 

 and the North Americans — Declaration of Independence 

 of the United States — George Washington elected 

 President of the United States. ...... 169-178 



