361 
Chap. XXII.—B. P.] NICARAGUAN CONCESSION. 
Pending the meeting of Congress, I returned to 
England with my expedition, and read a descriptive 
account of onr proceedings before the geographical 
and mathematical sections of the British Association 
at Newcastle, in August of that year. 
In the following October (1863), I again left Eng¬ 
land for Nicaragua, this time quite alone. Arrived 
in the country, with the help of some Caribs, who have 
served me with great fidelity ever since, in spite of 
the hardships and dangers encountered in my ser¬ 
vice, I succeeded in adding extensively to the topo¬ 
graphical knowledge of the interior of Nicaragua; and 
when Congress met in February, 1864, I had the ad¬ 
ditional good fortune to obtain a concession which was 
passed by both chambers and approved by the Presi¬ 
dent, granting me the right to open a transit on the 
route I proposed. 
With this concession* I lost no time in returning to 
England, where I arrived in June; hut I soon found 
that its terms were not sufficiently favourable to 
tempt capitalists to embark their money in an under¬ 
taking based upon the conditions it contained. And 
here, I may remark, in parenthesis, that I now began 
to learn how incompatible are business transactions 
in which money is concerned with patriotic notions 
of progress, or with ideas of advancing national pro¬ 
sperity by the extension of its commerce. The main 
thought with men of business is how much a scheme 
will yield to them, and to this standard every enter- 
* The full text is published in the Appendix to ‘ The Isthmus of 
Panama.’ Chapman and Hall. 
