Nicaragua : $b its people, scenery, monuments, resources, condition, and proposed canal

by E. G. (Ephraim George) Squier

Nicaragua : its people, scenery, monuments, resources, condition, and proposed… by E. G. Squier is a historical travel account written in the mid-19th century. It surveys Nicaragua’s landscapes, people, antiquities, resources, and politics while arguing for the feasibility and importance of an interoceanic canal, mixing on-the-ground observation with history and diplomacy. The opening of the work follows the author’s cramped voyage on the brig Francis to San Juan de Nicaragua (Greytown), a tense bar crossing that nearly wrecks the ship, and his first close look at a palm-thatched port under British consular control. He sketches vivid street scenes—mixed races, cigar‑smoking women in naguas and guipils, hammocks in doorways, lagoons alive with alligators and snakes, and a comical equality among pigs, babies, dogs, and chickens—alongside visits with a courteous local host and the ailing British consul. A farcical clash erupts when two wan “policemen” try to enforce a new rule to pen free‑roaming livestock, winning the Americans local favor and a serenade; a side trip across the harbor shows squalid Mosquito Indian camps and turtle fishers. The narrative then turns descriptive: the port’s location and healthfulness, flimsy but adequate housing, pests like scorpions and chigoes, the pattern of trade and duties, and a sharp critique of Britain’s seizure of the port under the Mosquito pretext, all set against the looming canal project.