Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/217

CH. XlII.] the specific objects which they entertain in carrying the plan into execution.

There were, at this time, two companies formed in England for the general purposes of effecting, by steam-navigation or otherwise, a water-communication between the two oceans; but the only proposals that had been made to the government by British merchants were proffered by the respectable firm which I have above mentioned. The purport of those proposals, bearing date the 18th September, 1824, was to form a navigable communication by means of the lake of Nicaragua and the river San Juan, without any expense to the government, provided the latter would give the projectors every necessary assistance. On the 2d of February, 1825, other propositions were made to the government by some merchants of the United States of North America, and signed by Colonel Charles Bourke and Mr. Mathew Llanos. They observe, that "on the strength of statements, which manifested the