issaries through the island to mislead the people, and that he
countenanced and abetted the disgraceful and lawless acts of the
marauders.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

XVI.

THE ISTHMUS TRANSIT SCHEMES.

By the second half of the last century the supply of gold and silver
from Peru had much diminished, and the road across the isthmus almost
fell into disuse. In 1780, during the great war, the British appear to
have had some vague notion that it would be good policy to secure the
track across Nicaragua, for which purpose an expedition was fitted out.
Early in that year Nelson sailed from Jamaica with five hundred men, and
after getting a number of Indians from the Mosquito shore and a
reinforcement of British troops, the party made the difficult ascent of
the San Juan river, and captured the fort of the same name. But, through
ignorance, the whole affair proved disastrous--the fort was useless, and
the losses through sickness very great. Of eighteen hundred men only
three hundred and eighty survived, and Nelson himself nearly lost his
life. He was obliged to go home to recruit, and it was only after
spending two or three months at Bath that he recovered to continue that
glorious career which made him so famous.

However, it was not long afterwards that a project for utilising the
isthmus was brought under the consideration of the British Government by
General Miranda, of whom we have spoken in another chapter. He wanted
Pitt to assist him in his projects for the emancipation of the Spanish
colonies, and, as a means to this end, in 1790, proposed that the
British should take possession of Darien, and thus further their
commerce in the Pacific. Nothing was done at that time, and a few years
later Miranda made a second proposition that the United States should
join with Great Britain, and open roads and canals for both nations.

Mr. Pitt seems to have agreed to this, and was only prevented from
attempting to carry it out by the delay of President Adams. The United
States were to furnish ten thousand men, and Great Britain money and
ships. In 1801, under Lord Sidmouth, an expedition was actually set on
foot, only to collapse at the Peace of Amiens. Again, in 1804, Pitt
tried to carry out the project with Miranda, but the condition of Europe
stood in the way of expeditions to the Spanish Main.

[Illustration: ATLANTIC ENTRANCE TO DARIEN CANAL.

(_From Cullen's "Darien Canal."_)]

In enumerating the ad