MR. SQUIER. 
343 
Chap. XXI.-B. P.J 
In the meantime, while their Government intrigued, 
certain American capitalists were quietly but deter¬ 
minedly pursuing their object, namely, the monopoly 
of a transit through Nicaragua, which they succeeded 
in opening, and would have made permanent and far 
superior to that by way of Panama, had it not been 
for their own dissensions and the distracted state of 
the country. 
They soon found that it was impracticable to carry 
out the original project for which they had obtained a 
concession; namely, the construction of a Ship Canal 
between the oceans ; but under cover of it, they 
started a so-called “ Accessory Company,” ostensibly 
to pave the way for the grander scheme ; but really, 
by skilf ull y using the natural advantages afforded 
by the Eiver and Lake, via Grey town and Yfrgen 
Bay, to secure the traffic between New York and 
California. This was accomplished, and resulted in 
even greater pecuniary advantages than had been 
anticipated; but the project originated under false 
pretences, and the fiction of making a Ship Canal 
having been played out, the proprietors themselves 
began to quarrel; one section openly bearing the stock 
with a view to buying it cheap, and thus obtaining the 
control. The port dues were then refused to the local 
authorities at Greytown, and the squabble over that 
point nearly brought England and America into colli¬ 
sion. Finally the Government of the United States 
stepped in, and demanded reparation from the citizens 
of Greytown for alleged insults to an ex-American Mi¬ 
nister ; he had witnessed, it is even said encouraged, a 
