Page:The Panama Canal Controversy.djvu/19

 same terms as her commercial rivals. The possibility of any discrimination in tolls between her shipping and that of the United States would have been to her then, as it would be to her to-day, a grave blow to her carrying trade and to her commerce. But the important point is that she was at that time in a position to enforce those interests, for not only did she hold the command of the Caribbean Sea—her superior naval force and the possession of her West Indian Islands gave her that—but she was also in actual occupation of the greater portion of the coast of Nicaragua and of Grey town (or San Juan de Nicaragua), the expected terminus of the Canal. At least as far as the Nicaraguan Canal was concerned she was in a dominant position; it was within her power to control the whole of that Canal enterprise and to dictate her own terms to the promoters. The United States had on their side done what they could to secure equal treatment for their ships. They had made a treaty with New Granada (within whose territories Panama then was) in 1846 ensuring equal treatment for their own vessels as compared with those of New Granada in return for a guarantee for the sovereignty: of the latter State; but this gave them no exclusive rights, nor did it bind New Granada to discriminate against their commercial rivals. They had also made some attempts to obtain a treaty from Nicaragua, and to these I must now refer as part of the narrative. In 1849 the United States charge d'affaires, Mr. Hise, had obtained a convention giving the United States exclusive power over a canal through Nicaraguan territory; but this he had done without authority and his convention did not meet with the approval of the United States Government; and it is especially to be noted that the main reason which determined them was their opinion that no nation should attempt to monopolize to itself the