Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1891 — The Nicaragua Canal Project. [ARTICLE]

The Nicaragua Canal Project.

A Mexican gentleman lately gave a bit of curious history with regard to the proposed Nicaragua canal. He said that in the early days of the Spanish occupation there was talk of a canal across the Isthmus, and a-Spanish explorer named Gomara in 1551 ind cated the Nicaragua route as the most feasible between the two seas. The Spanish government did not at the time the matter attention, but in 1781, desiring quicker communication between the oceans, sent out an officer named Galisteo to make a survey of three different routes, and among them that through Nicaragua. He also reported in favor of the latter, but Spain could not raise the funds for construction. In 1838 the route was again surveyed, this time by an Englishman named Baillpy, who was employed by the State of Nicaragua, and again in 1851, by Col. Childs, for a company which proposed to undertake the canal. Nothing came of it, but in 1873 an officer of the United States navy made the survey which resulted in the choice of the route by the company which is now engaged on the work.