Chap. IX. AND THE ACCESSOKY TRANSIT COMPANY. 
149 
patriotic as well as . sectional views, were opposed to the 
granting of the transit contract, while their political adver- 
saries at Granada and Rivas, situated so as to derive im- 
mediate advantages from the transit through the southern 
section of the country, were inclined to yield to the argu- 
ments of the friends and agents of the Company. Thus 
certain American interests, sufficiently strong to act upon 
the government of the United States, became associated 
with a Nicaraguan party which had always been considered 
as peculiarly inclined to enter into English views. And 
while thus American interests in Nicaragua were in conflict 
with themselves the same was the case with British in- 
terests in the country. These, of course, were decidedly 
opposed to the transit scheme. If the canal, as it now 
appeared, was not to be constructed, and if the transit 
project could be frustrated, there would be some hope to 
drive the Yankees out of the field in Nicaragua, and " to 
free so desirable a spot in the commercial world from 
the competition of so adventurous a race as the North 
Americans." 1 To produce this effect was the object of 
all who were in the British interest in Nicaragua ; and 
thus it happened that these same agencies found reasons to 
support the Leonese party, with General Munoz, in their 
opposition to the transit contract. 
President Pineda, though belonging to the party of 
Granada and Rivas, was of the opinion of his political 
antagonists in this particular question. The intrigues of 
the New York speculators accordingly turned against him, 
and by a combination of various interests brought into 
1 See No. 9, p. 40, of the 'Docu- 
mentos relativos a la legacion de los 
estados de Nicaragua y Honduras cerca 
el gabinete Britanico, sobre el territorio 
de Mosquitos y puerto de San Juan del 
Norte. Los publica el Senor Don Fran- 
cisco Castellon, Ministro Plenipoten- 
ciario y Enviado Extraordinario de 
dichos estados. Granada, 1851.' There 
is an English edition likewise. 
