334 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XX— B. p. 
mistake; for it gave rise, at the outset, not merely to 
international but to individual rivalry in its worst 
form: added to this, the ignorance of the native autho¬ 
rities was so profound that they deemed it politic to 
fan these heartburnings and jealousies with a view 
to increase this deplorable spirit of rivalry as much as 
possible; thus both Nicaragua and Mosquito have suf¬ 
fered, and instead of making Transit the means of at¬ 
taining prosperity and commercial influence, it has 
been made a curse. 
The two great rivals for securing such a communi¬ 
cation as Central America offered were the English 
and the Americans, and the hitter animosity which 
resulted from the insane rivalry which ensued has 
more than once brought these two countries to the 
verge of war. Indeed, there is hardly any subject 
which has given diplomatists more trouble than the 
much-vexed Mosquito question, under which name 
the “ Battle of Transit ” was fought. 
The Americans, however, from the first adopted the 
bolder policy, and, therefore, to use a phrase of their 
own, were “bound to win.” Their President, Mr. 
James Monroe, about the time of Spanish- American 
independence (1820), proclaimed the famous Monroe 
doctrine, “America for the Americans,” or, as it has 
subsequently been defined to mean, “ America for the 
Yankees,” by which the principle was laid down that 
no European enterprise should he countenanced on 
the American continent. 
Canning* snapped his fingers at this ; hut his man- 
* “ Mr. Canning wrote ‘ The fight has been hard, but it is won ; the 
