Nicaragua : its people, scenery, monuments, resources, condition, and proposed…
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. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
| How to read | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.html.images | 1.5 MB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.epub3.images | 17.8 MB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.epub.images | 17.8 MB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.epub.noimages | 741 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.kf8.images | 18.1 MB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.kindle.images | 18.0 MB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76906.txt.utf-8 | 1.3 MB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/76906/pg76906-h.zip | 18.8 MB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888 |
|---|---|
| Title | Nicaragua : its people, scenery, monuments, resources, condition, and proposed canal |
| Edition | Revised edition |
| Original Publication | New York: Harper & Brothers, 1860. |
| Credits | Peter Becker, KD Weeks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive). |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | F1521: Latin America local history: Nicaragua |
| Subject | Nicaragua -- Description and travel |
| Subject | Nicaragua Canal (Nicaragua) |
| Subject | Nicaragua |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 76906 |
| Release Date | Sep 21, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 898 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |