San Juan River - Lake Nicaragua Waterway, 1502-1921
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1971 San Juan River - Lake Nicaragua Waterway, 1502-1921. Max Harrison Williams Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Williams, Max Harrison, "San Juan River - Lake Nicaragua Waterway, 1502-1921." (1971). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2100. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2100 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. • w 5 U w 72-3536 WILLIAMS, Max Harrison, 1937- SAN JUAN RIVER-LAKE NICARAGUA WATERWAY, 1502-1921. The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1971 History, general University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan SAN JUAN RIVER-LAKE NICARAGUA WATERWAY, 1502-1921 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ■ 'tin - The Latin American Studies Institute by Max H. Williams B.A., Northeast Louisiana University, 1960 B.A. , Northeast Louisiana University, 1963 M.A. , Northeast Louisiana University, 1965 August, 1971 PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages have indistinct print. Fi imed'as-received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS FOREWORD A natural waterway of over two hundred miles in length connects the town of San Juan del Norte (Greytown) on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and Granada in the interior. The two water features which make up this passage, Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan River, are al most equal in length. The former, some forty miles wide at the broadest point by one hundred miles long, lies oriented northwesterly- southeasterly along the tall axis. Beginning at the southeastern extremity of this lake, the San Juan River carries that body's fresh water one hundred twenty miles before emptying into the Atlantic. From the discovery of the Caribbean outlet of Lake Nicaragua in the mid-sixteenth century until the early twentieth century, the history of the waterway has practically been the history of the country. During the colonial period that water route made Nicaragua a base of supply for other mineral-wealthy, yet agriculturally poor colonies. After independence, hope of building an isthmian canal by excavating the short distance between the lake and the Pacific kept Nicaragua a special subject in the portfolios of United States and European diplomats. In both the colonial and national periods, the waterway pro vided the means for attacks made on the interior. First a polyglot of pirates, then the British and their Mosquito Indian allies, and later the filibusters all used the waterway for warlike purposes. These incursions, its use as a transit route in the 1850's, and the many canal-building schemes and projects which would have employed parts or all its length, make this water highway the most important . single facet of Nicaraguan history, at least until the twentieth cen tury. By 1921, the one-hundredth year of independence, however, its role in national and international affairs had dimmed almost to the point of extinction. While the San- man liver-Lake Nicaragua Waterway has often been the object of research in diplomatic history, other areas of its history have generally been overlooked. Moreover, in most of the ma terial concerning the waterway, it is seen merely as a catalyst which triggered yet played little active part in the occurrences which fol lowed. The author's interest, on the contrary, is in bringing the waterway to life as an entity by minimizing, though not eliminating, its diplomatic aspects, and concentrating instead on its social, com mercial, and military contributions. In other words, this is a bio graphy of the waterway itself, not its embroilment in international politics. The nature of the topic and the author's mission, therefore, call for maximum use of descriptions and travel accounts left by travellers using the lake and the river. Writings of Spanish his torians such as Oviedo y Valdes and Herrera y Tordesillas, as well as collections of documents, provide the backbone of the material for the colonial period; for the national period the works of Nicaraguan and Costa Rican historians are supplemented largely with many diaries and accounts by visitors. In putting together the research material, the author has used the chronological method of writing, although on occasion the topical method is also employed. iii The author began his research in the Louisiana State Univer sity Library, then the trail led him to Tulane University, New Orleans, where he worked on the Fayssoux Collection found in its Latin American Library; to Bancroft Library, the University of California (Berkeley); to Biblioteca Nacxonal and other libraries in Mexico City; and to the libraries of Universidad Centroamerica and Banco Central in Managua, Nicaragua. Probably the most interesting part of the re search occurred during the several weeks that the author lived on the waterway itself, making personal observations. Various people contributed in many ways toward the completion of this project. Dr. Jane Lucas DeGrummond, advisor and committee chairman, deserves priority among the persons on that list. Mention should also be made of the cooperation and help from: the Inter- Library Loan section ofi: Louisiana State University; Dr. John Bart Tompkins, Bancroft Library; Sehorita Orfa Baez, library of La Univer sidad Centroamerica, Managua; Banco Central, Managua. The author is especially appreciative of the efforts of Mrs. Cy (Miriam) De Hart, not only for her typing but also for her proofreading and valuable suggestions. The writer also treasures fond memories of the people met along the waterway— no doubt they will never read this acknowledg- ment--whose kindness and interest made the research much more enjoyable. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. NICARAGUA BEFORE THE SPANIARDS...................... 1 Geographical Orientation Creation of a Waterway Pre-Colombian Inhabitants II. DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION .................... 14 The First Europeans Northward Advances from Panama The Waterway is Opened to the Atlantic After the Discovery The San Juan Unmasked III. THE COLONIAL P E R I O D .................. 40 1540-1600 Seventeenth Century Eighteenth Century 1800-1821 IV. INDEPENDENCE AND INSTABILITY ................ 91 The Non-Adjustment Period The First "Californians" Birth of a Transit Route Prelude to Filibusterism V. FOREIGN INTERVENTION,. 1855-1857 . 131 William Walker Arrives Walker Takes Granada Popularity Mounts for the Democrats A Compromise Government Formed Foreign Invasion Walker Goes It Alone Evacuation of Granada On Ometepe Henningsen is Rescued Costa Ricans on the San Juan Conquest of the Waterway Complete The Allies Close In More Action on the San Juan Walker Surrenders CHAPTER PAGE Costa Ricans Retain the Waterway The Filibusters Return VI. THE WATERWAY IN THE 1850'S ........................... 192 The Bongo The Steamboat Waterway Settlements VII. THE DECLINE OF A W A T E R W A Y ............. 233 The Transit The Canal The Last Hurrah VIII. EPILOGUE .............................. 252 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................. 255 vi LIST OF MAPS PLATE PAGE I. Central America.................... , ................ xi II. The W a t e r w a y ........................................ xii III. Map 1.— Ptolemy's Map of the New World, 1 5 1 3 ........... 20 Map 2.— Central America, 1740 ......................... 20 IV. Kemble's Sketch of Lake Nicaragua and the Upper San Juan River, 1780 77 V. The Upper San Juan River from San Carlos to El Castillo, 1781 ............................. 80 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 1. Fruto Chamorro........................................... 124 2. Maximo Jerez.............................................126 3. William Walker........................................... 132 4. Francisco Castellon ................................... 134 5. Santos Guardiola ....................................... 135 6. Jose Maria Cahas............................. 131 7. Frederick Henningsen ................................... 153 8. Jose Joaquin M o r a ................................ 170 9. C. I. Fayssoux........................................... 177 10. Roberdeau; .Wheat........................... 179 11. A Bongo ................................................ 203 12. San Juan del Norte (Greytown), 1849 223 13. El Castillo, 1849 223 14. San Carlos, 1849 ....................................... 223 15. Dredging on the Nicaraguan Canal.......................... 250 ABSTRACT The "San Juan River-Lake Nicaragua Waterway, 1502-1921" is a study of an aquatic highway which penetrates 220 miles into the Cen tral American isthmus from the Atlantic coast. Although today the waterway is scarcely used, from the early sixteenth century until the first part of the twentieth century events concerning this passage made up practically the history of Nicaragua, its country of origin. Commerce over this channel made Granada one of the richest cities in Central America. Since emphasis today is on development, the author felt it worthwhile to trace the rise and