Lake Nicaragua

“ The Nicaragua depression is the most northern. The elevation of the valley east of Lake Nicaragua is about three hundred and fifty feet above the sea, although the San Juan has further dissected it so as to reduce its channel to one hundred and three feet above tide. Between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific the divide is reduced to two hundred and thirty feet, but a subsidence of the land to three hundred feet or so would connect the lake basin with the Pacific Ocean by eight or ten straits between as many islands. ”

“ The Americans have always looked with favour on a scheme for a canal here, owing to the fact that Lake Nicaragua, which is one hundred and ten miles long by thirty-five miles broad, offers navigation for a considerable portion of the route to be traversed. This lake, situated some hundred and twenty-five feet above the level of the sea, is fed by about forty different streams, and empties itself by means of the River San Juan into the Gulf of Mexico. ”

“ Passengers going the Nicaragua route now take a steamboat at San Juan, which runs up to the Castilian Rapids; then, after a portage of half a mile, another steamboat takes them up the river to San Carlos; thence across Lake Nicaragua to Virgin Bay. Then by pack-mules they are taken to San Juan del Sud, on the Pacific. The distances on the river and lake are about equal, being about seventy-five miles each, and from twelve to fifteen miles by land. There is every facility for crossing here, there being several steamboats plying on the river and lake. ”

“ Lake Nicaragua, in its broadest part, is about 35 miles: it has several considerable islands, some of them active volcanoes, and all of them fertile. The country around its shores is stated to be very healthy and very fertile, and studded with high peaks, mostly volcanic, and many of them, on both sides, volcanoes in activity. ”

“ The rapids of the San Juan can be passed by locks of moderate depth, the total difference between the level of Lake Nicaragua and that of the Atlantic being hardly twenty-five feet. The lake itself will need no improvements. ”

“ At Nicaragua the distance is greater, being about 156 m. in a straight line, but more than one third is covered by Lake Nicaragua, a sheet of fresh water with an area of about 3000 sq. m. and a maximum depth of over 200 ft., the surface being about 105 ft. above sea-level. Lake Nicaragua is connected with the Atlantic by a navigable river, the San Juan, and is separated from the Pacific by the continental divide, which is about 160 ft. above sea-level. At Nicaragua only a canal with locks is feasible, but at Panama a sea-level canal is a physical possibility. ”

“ To the south the eye first passes over about six miles of forest, then savannahs and grassy ranges stretching to the lake, which is only dimly seen, with the peaks of Madera and Ometepec more distinct, the latter bearing south-west by west. Alone on the summit of a high peak, with surging green billows of foliage all around, dim misty mountains in the distance, and above the blue heavens, checkered with fleecy clouds, that have travelled up hundreds of miles from the north-east, thoughts arise that can be only felt in their full intensity amid solitude and nature's grandest phases. ”

“ Should the plans of Engineer Menocal for the Nicaragua Canal be realized, the waters of the upper San Juan and the lower San Carlos would be impounded and form an arm of Lake Nicaragua, which would flood a large area in Costa Rica. The interval between the San Carlos and the River Frio is an extensive forest, covering an undulating plain with occasional low hills and watered by numerous little streams. This territory is fertile and beautiful. ”

“ Throughout the volcanic area earthquakes and landslides are of frequent occurrence.
The narrowness of the level ground between the mountains and the sea renders almost impossible the formation of any navigable river. The most important streams are those of the Atlantic seaboard, notably the San Juan, which drains Lake Nicaragua. Issuing from the lake within Nicaraguan territory, the San Juan has a course of 95 m., mostly along the frontier, to the Colorado Mouth, which is its main outfall, and belongs wholly to Costa Rica. ”

“ The States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras are the only Central American States whose consent or cooperation would in any event be necessary for the construction of the ship canal contemplated between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans by the way of Lake Nicaragua. ”

“ The Panama Canal has proved that the avoidance of locks can only be purchased in an uneven country at an immense cost, and the canal engineer has therefore to consider whether the resources at his disposal will enable him to pay the price involved. The proposed Nicaraguan Canal is another enterprise that presents some interesting problems of this description. This canal will make use for a great part of the total distance between ocean and ocean—169 miles—of Lake Nicaragua, and as that lake is 600 feet above sea level, it is manifestly necessary to make use of locks. ”

“ The Pipiles, meaning children, according to Molina, are the chief people in Salvador, where their villages are scattered over a large extent of territory. In Nicaragua we find several distinct peoples. The aboriginal inhabitants seem to have been the different peoples known as Chorotegans, who occupy the country lying between the bay of Fonseca and lake Nicaragua. The Chontales (strangers, or barbarians) live to the north-east of the lakes, and assimilate more to the barbarous tribes of the Mosquito country adjoining them. ”

“ To the southward of Lake Nicaragua, between 9° and 10° North latitude, about Cortago or Carthage, the land, or rather ridge, is so elevated, that although within thirty miles of the Pacific on the one hand, and forty miles of the Atlantic on the other hand, yet during the winter months, from November to March, frost and ice abound. The climate everywhere, in the interior parts, is represented as being very healthy, and the country fruitful and pleasant.
Chagre and Panama. ”

“ Six small streams and one large river, the Rio Frio, flow across the northern frontier into Lake Nicaragua. On the Pacific coast all the rivers are rapid and liable to sudden floods. None is large, although three bear the prefix Rio Grande, “great river.” The Tempisque enters the Pacific at the head of the Gulf of Nicoya, and tends to silt up that already shallow inlet (5-10 fathoms) with its alluvial deposits. The Rio Grande de Tarcoles also enters the gulf, and the Rio Grande de Pirris and Rio Grande de Terrabis or Diquis flow into Coronada Bay. ”

“ The harbor of San Juan del Norte must be dredged, and otherwise improved, to insure that no water but that of the canal shall run into the harbor. Short breakwaters must be built to protect the entrances from the surf. Lake Nicaragua with a surface of 2,700 sq. miles, and a drainage area of 8,000 sq. miles, will supply 38 times the maximum possible demand of water. The depth of water would be 26 ft; the width at bottom 72 ft, and at surface 150 ft. The locks, 21 in number, with a lift of from 8 to 10 ft, would be 400 ft long, 72 ft wide. The cost was estimated at about eighty million dollars. ”

“ The hill slopes and table-lands of Nicaragua were found to be peculiarly adapted for its growth, and thousands of acres of young plantations were already thriving where for centuries only wild grasses had waved. Short lines of railroad, centering on Lake Nicaragua, and running in every direction, had made accessible a large extent of country. ”

“ Cora said that at the port of Nombre de Dios he met with some old friends who had built a felucca and brigantine on the shores of Lake Nicaragua at an expense of several thousand dollars. Among them was Diego Machuca, who had been commandant of the country of the Tenderí, and of the district about Lake Masaya. They embarked on these vessels on Lake Nicaragua for the purpose of exploring it. Captain Machuca, with two hundred men, advanced along the shore, keeping in sight of the boats, which were accompanied by several canoes. ”

“ Of Honduras, the chief lakes are the Laguna de Caratasca, or Cartago, close on the Atlantic coast, thirty-six miles long by [10] twelve wide; the Lago de Yojoa, between the Departments of Comayagua and Santa Bárbara, twenty-five miles long and from five to eight wide; the Lago de Cartina, eighteen miles by eight, and the Laguna de la Criba, fifteen by seven miles. Of all the lakes of Central America, none is so interesting commercially as the Lake of Nicaragua. It is large (ninety miles by forty) , and the largest south of Lake Michigan. ”

“ He coasted along the shore for some distance, gathered gold and pearls from the natives, and returned to Darien to meet death at the hands of political enemies. About six years later two other Spaniards explored northwestward from Panama as far as the Gulf of Fonseca, discovering Lake Nicaragua. ”

“ Then might the flag of Regeneration have waved even at this day over the hills and valleys of Nicaragua,—and the unfortunate author of this history have received a reward for his services!—Ay de mí! Even now, reposing in the shade of the palm-tree, fanned by the orange-scented breeze that blows over the lake, I might drink the immortal juice of the sugarcane, called aguardiente, and dream, and gaze at the cloud-wrapped cone of Ometepec!—But I must forget this.
The dead killed in this plantain-patch were all that our men obtained sight of. ”

“ Yet all along the shores of that lake land, with the exception of the richest alluvial creek estuaries, can be bought for three dollars an acre, even on flat topped bluffs and near rock springs in sheltered dells, more inviting than the finest artificial parks. Thus far only camping British sportsmen have now and then availed themselves of such opportunities, though Nicaragua offers hunting grounds to the lovers of nearly every kind of outdoor pastime and science. Geologists can watch the active operations of the Titans that have transformed so large a portion of our planet. ”

“ In the islands of the lake of Nicaragua, partly inhabited by Indians, there are at present, some few cattle and cocoa estates; and, with respect to the territory between the lake and the sea, although it is very fertile and has been called by some writers a Paradise, yet I had the testimony of Don Simon, who was a native of it, to assure me that it is the hottest in all the country, being equally so with Realejo and Sonsonate, the port at which I landed. ”

“ But the vegetation here is so powerful and luxuriant, that it has changed those piles of black [Pg 11] stones into smiling islands, which the traveller is never tired of admiring. Only on the outside of the archipelago, where the often angry lake of Nicaragua has checked the development of the verdant cover, the black, gloomy basalt is still open to the view, lashed by white-foaming waves. ”

“ This great lake valley and its adjacent highlands form the most plentifully inhabited part of Nicaragua, as the Spanish colonial development seized first upon its more fertile soil, watered by the lake and streams. This civilization entered the country from the Pacific side, from which we remark the grim and distant ramparts of the Central American Cordillera, with its volcanoes intervening between the western versant and littoral, and the low, monotonous and swampy region of the east, and the Mosquito Coast bordering upon the Atlantic. ”

“ The name of Nicaragua was first given by Gil Gonzales de Arila in 1521 to the great lake situated in the region now called after it, in consequence of his friendly reception by the Cacique, a Haytian term for a chief, whose own name was Nicaro, of a tribe of West Indians, with whom he fell in on the borders of the lake referred to. The Mosquito Coast owes its name to the troublesome insects (Spanish mosca, from the Latin musca, a fly) which infest this neighbourhood. ”

“ Nothing can excel the beauty and fertility of this group; tropical fruits grow spontaneously and in the greatest abundance, and the islands seem to nestle, with feeling security, in the bosom of this lake, which sleeps in perpetual calm. The foliage is most luxuriant, interlaced with vines bearing flowers of every conceivable hue; these flowers generally hang from the vines on tendrils, and spend their hours fondling with the air, loading its breath with perfume. The trees grow to the very margin of the lake, and seem to look admiringly into the mirror at their feet. ”

“ Nicaragua.—Of nearly the same area as Honduras, Nicaragua is chiefly distinguished by its lower level and the great lake which offers so inviting a route for an inter-oceanic canal. The same fertility and genial climate extend from the Hondureñan uplands into Chontales and Segovia, where Northerners can enjoy life; but it is hot and unwholesome near the sea, especially throughout the Mosquito Reservation, where the frequent river-floods and the miasmatic marshes breed an endemic fever very fatal to Europeans. ”

“ It is about eighty leagues in length and fifty in breadth; and consists, for the most part, of high and wooded mountains, some of which are volcanic. The valleys are watered by many streams, but only one of these is of any importance. This is the river Yare, which runs, from west to east, through the northern part of the province. The most important productions of Nicaragua are timber, cotton, [Pg 264] sugar, honey, and wax. The chief town is Leon de Nicaragua, a place of considerable trade, situated near the north-west border of the lake of Nicaragua ”

“ President Morazan then contemplated doing the work on Central American account, and the survey was begun in 1837, interrupted by Morazan's fall, but continued in 1838 for account of Nicaragua. This same year Edward Belcher, of the Brit. navy, suggested the possibility of an artificial communication between Lake Managua and the bay of Fonseca. Baily's explorations along the line from Rio Lajas to San Juan del Sur were terminated in 1843, and their publication furnished exact data on the canal. ”