Chap. XIX.—B.P.] NELSON’S ATTACK ON NICARAGUA. 313 
tunately, he knew too much, and was punished ac¬ 
cordingly ; the fate, probably, of many an enterprising 
Briton. 
Yery possibly the idea of the Spanish diplomatists 
who negotiated the treaty was rather to open the way 
for destroying the young colony of Belize, which is 
“ in the Bay of Honduras,” than to acquire possession 
of Mosquito, where former experience had taught 
them little was to be hoped for against the determined 
opposition of a warlike race. 
In 1780 Captain Horatio Nelson ascended the river 
San Juan, and made the celebrated attack on the 
Spanish forts in Nicaragua. 
The idea of cutting off the connection between the 
northern and ’southern possessions of the Spaniards 
in America by seizing the water communication 
which almost divides the American Continent at this 
point, viz. that of the river San Juan and the Lake 
of Nicaragua, was a grand conception, and if such a 
base for future operations had been taken possession 
of, and resolutely held, it must indeed have proved no 
slight embarrassment to the enemy ; but the nature of 
the country and climate had not been properly studied; 
the fitting out of the expedition was ill-considered and 
faulty; and, had it not been for the almost superhuman 
exertions of Nelson, the failure of the expedition would 
have been even more disastrous than it was. 
Nelson could not, of course, command success, how¬ 
ever much he deserved it; and in spite of all his efforts, 
the great object of the expedition was not accomplished. 
It is true that he satisfactorily disposed of every tan- 
