NICARAGUA.

Press, Volume XI, Issue 1329, 9 February 1867, Page 2

NICARAGUA.

[From the "Southern Cross," January 2G]

The Nicaragua route will soon offer to the world a new *' short cut " over the land dividing the Atlantic from the Pacific. In two years' time the lease of the American Panama Transit Company is at an end, and all the world knows what a Spauish American Government like that of New Granada will make of such a line of transit. By that time the Nicaragua route will probably be open to goods and passengers, and as the choice of the two routes may come before many of the New Zealand public, it may be as well to give some information on the new route. Captain Bedford Pirn, EN., while in command of the Naval West India station at Grey Town (Nicaragua), made the capabilities of the old canalisation scheme of the river San Juan, debouching at Grey Town, his especial study. He found, like many more berore him, that the Castillo rapids and the ever-shifting sand on the lower course of the San Juan made the scheme next to impossible on account of expense; also the harbor of Grey Town, an excellent harbor not twenty years ago, had become totally useless through the silting action of the river sand. The next question became, waa there at all any good harbor in the neighborhood ? The only poiut within thirty miles of Grey Town fit for anchorage was Monkey Point, to the north of Grey Town, on the territory of the King of the Mosquito Indians, a protege of tl c West Indian Government. Mou-of war had often frequented this anchorage, formed by a bold headland and adjacent islands. The absence of a river running into the bay has preserved, and will preserve, good depth of water. This point satisfactorily ascertained, probably set Captain Pirn thinking how to connect this harbor with the general transit route. With considerable boldness of conception the projector struck out an entirely new line, leaving the San Juan river, the Lakes of Nicaragua and Leon, far to the south, making the port of Realejo at the Pacific and the level lands of Chontales the main basis of his project. The question then remained to be answered whether an opening or gap of sufficient lowness could be found in the mountain chain running at the back of Monkey Point, and being the connection between the ranges of North and South America. Fortunately for Captain Pirn, the temper of the volcanic influences that have had dealings with Central America, has been of such unparalleled ferocity that nothing like a connected ridge has been left standing ; the opening for this railway was found therefore. The next step was, for a far-seeing man like Captain Pirn, to secure to himself a good share of the benefits likely to result from this scheme. He bought the site of Monkey Point from the King of Mosquito for the su:n of £10, got his purchase accredited by the consuls residing at Grey Town, and in due time returned to England, where he made no delay iv bringing his scheme before the public. The Admiralty, incensed at any of their officers getting hold of such a very tempting good thing, upbraided him with malversation of his trust, in having turned her Majesty's time to his own account. Captain Pirn regretted to have displeased the Admiralty, and resigned his comission into their hands, having iv the meantime received one hundred thousand pounds for the sale of about one-third of his land at Monkey Point. Since that the Admiralty has viewed the scheme and the successful projector in a very different light from what " their " captain and his "talk" had stood formerly. It has been officially announced that the Admiralty will support Captain Pirn's transit line by subsidising steamers, &c- i

There is no doubt that the new line will be a success, and a great boon to the world. Countries that have been up to this perfect terne incognita;, except to the most adventurous traveller, will now be opened up, and bring their wealth, dormant up to the present, into this market. The Mosquito siiore, once but an impenetrable labyrinth of gloomy virgin forest, where a fe-.v scattered tribe* of Indians are occasionally met with, will now send its precious woods and indiarubber into tho world, while the unparalleled capabilities of its soil and climate for the growth of sugar-cane, rice, and cotton, will soon attract enterprise. Those capabilities, moreover, are not merely idle coujecture; for, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Musquito

shore, then an English colony, produced all these articles in such perfection that, the West India interest beeomim; jealous (those were narrowminded d:\ys), that colony was <_;iven up in 1709* in a treaty with Spain, in which England surrendered certain rights to that country in consideration of certain benefits elsewhere. At the present moment, the ruin of forte and factories, and here and there half-buried found in the virgin forestry hich has once more asserted its power over man's ; and som« decrepid and half-blind old negro dame may tell you of the time she was a slave on the plantation of so-and-so, where now the tiger and the wild boar alone argue territorial rights. The Mosquito Indians have been an exceedingly fine race, aud are partly so to this day. They are the boldest boatmen in the world, either for surf or a voyage of hundreds of in-les at sea in their dutrout canoes. They inhabit principally the coast, and live by fishing aud selling tortoiseshell and green turtle. They were the only race ol' Indians the Spaniards never conquered. Six vessels of war sent agaiust them were surprised at anchor one boisterous night, and crews and soldiers massacred, with the exception of the one to carry the despatch. These Indians were the staunchcat and bravest allies of the Buccaneers; and later, Lord N"elson, on his disastrous expedition up the San Juan river, speaks of the Mosquito Indians who accompanied him in the highest terms. They are now drunken, lazy, and debauched, but the old spirit seems to awaken in them as soon as they enter their canoe and ride triumphantly on the rollers ot a crashing surf.

Chontales is a province of the State of Nicaragua, and is famous for the cattle herds on its plains along the shores of the fairy lake of Nicaragua, and the metallic riches of its hills to the north-east, whero copper, silver, and gold have formerly and lately been obtained in large quantities. The State of Nicaragua one had won for itself a name amongst the five republics of Central America as being the most abandoned country under the sun. Gifted with a delicious climate; with vegetable and mineral wealth untold; with a scenery where bold volcanoes, lakes, islands and forests, savannahs aud rivers, blend their ineffable beauty ; a country well populated by early Spanish civilisation, —the people of Nicaragua lived but in a whirlpool of passions the worst, social aud political, making of their beautiful cities of Leon, Granada, Nicaragua, Managua, and Masaya modern Sodoms and G-ornorrahs. Nothing seemed capable of teaching them prudence, till Walker the filibuster, taking advantage of one of their periodical revolutions, succeeded in fastening the robber's clutch upon them. When Walker bad proved that he was incapable of rising from the robber to the regenerator, and had to leave Nicaragua in spite of unlimited as-istance from the Southern States, the Nicaraguans rose, like one from a sick-bed, and altered people, and ever since have gone on progressing. liealejo, the harbor on the Pacific side, is well sheltered. The channel of an inlet running to the settlement is rather intricate for sailing vessels with certain winds, but for steamers that difficulty does not exist. In that port embarked for California, in IS-19, the first party of Americans who had crossed Central America from the Atlantic. They had brought out with them a large wooden flat boat (in pieces), which, by means of a small steam-engine, was to be propelled up the San Juan river ; thence taken once more to pieces to be transported to San Francisco to do river service there. The machinery proved inadequate to deal with the San Juan current, and native boats had to transport; the bold but not successful pioneers. Their experience, however, was utilised by Vanderbilt, the great American gentleman who, with a party of friends and his family, can afford to go in a steam yacht of 2000 tons on a tour round the world, of which the expenses are estimated at 500,000 dole. During Walker's time the Vanderbilt Transit Company had great losses and sold out. Some other company took it up, but the concern languished till the Panama line took the wind out of their sails altogether. Now, however, it is expected that the traffic will not only give full occupation to both the Panama and the Nicaragua lines, but that another line will soon be required ; this will be the line across the ishtnue of Tehuantepec, in Southern Mexico. The Panama line does nothing for the accommodation of goods, and so the Nicaragua line intends to devote itself to that branch, a matter of great importance to n».