208 



Doc. No. 75. 



CLIMATE OF NICARAGUA, ETC. 



There are other circumstances besides the actual topographical features 

 of the country necessary to be considered in estimating the practicability 

 of a grand work like the proposed canal: the means of subsistence, cli- 

 mate, ability of procuring and applying labor, (fee, must all be consid- 

 ered. Situated between latitude 10° and 13*^ north, the climate is essen- 

 tially tropical, but is favorably modified by a variety of causes. Upon 

 the Atlantic declivity it is unquestionably warmer than in the interior, or 

 upon the borders of the Pacific — more hilmid and more subject to rain. 

 The country, too, is low along the coast, with numerous lagoons and 

 inlets, and consequently more infested with annoying insects, and more 

 subject to fevers. The climate, however, is more salubrious than would 

 be supposed under the circumstances. This is illustrated by the fact 

 that in the months of March and April, 1849, a party of American emi- 

 grants — 130 in number — spent upwards of six months at this point; and 

 notwithstanding the sudden transition from midwinter to tropical heats, 

 not to mention inadequate shelter and indifferent food, not one was seri- 

 ously affected by illness. The same party, it may also be mentioned, 

 passed up the San Juan under the worst of circumstances, suffering great 

 exposures, and remained in the interior and upon the northern coast until 

 the middle of August, with scarcely any illness among them, and that 

 little generally the result of carelessness or excesses. But a single 

 member, whose health had been shattered by dissipation at home, and 

 whose habits would soon have proved fatal in any climate, died during 

 this period. It cannot be doubted that the surveys, excavations, &c., 

 on the San Juan, will not only prove the most difficult of any secj:ion of the 

 proposed canal, but, from the nature of things, be attended with greater 

 injury to the health of those engaged there. The forests which line that 

 river are dense and dark; and the removal of the trees and other vegeta- 

 tion, and the consequent exposure of the rich earth — the accumulated 

 vegetable deposite of ages — to the sun, would prove a prolific source of 

 fevers and kindred diseases. The evil consequences could only be ar- 

 rested by employing here, as ebewhere, the natives of this latitude, in- 

 ured to labor and hardened to exposure. In fact, the principal reliance 

 throughout must be upon this kind of laborers, who, for two reals (25 

 cents) per day, (the standard price,) would flock in all desirable numbers 

 from all the States of Central America. For a medio (6|- cents) per day 

 each man provides his own support, without further cost to his employer. 

 The laboring population is eminently docile, and can soon be brought to 

 perform any kind of simple labor, as excavating, clearing, quarrying, 

 burning lime, &c., in a satisfactory manner. In a country where there 

 are so many festival and saints' days, it would be necessary to keep them 

 a little in arrears, or possess some me;ins of forcing them to comply with 

 their contracts, to secure their constant attention to their work. The 

 valley of the San Juan once passed, the climate is unsurpassed for salu- 

 brity by an equal extent of territory under the tropics, or perhaps in the 

 world. The year is divided,rather anomalously to the stranger, into two sea- 

 sons — the wet and the dry; the first of which is called winter, and the latter 

 summer. The wet season commences in May, and lasts until November; 

 during which time, but usually near the commencement or close, rains 

 of some days' duration are of occasional occurrence, and showers are 



