Castellon to that of Salvador, June 12, 1883
The minister for foreign affairs of Nicaragua to that of Salvador.
Mr. Minister: I have had the honor to receive, with your excellency’s esteemed dispatch, dated the 12th of May ultimo, a copy of that which, on the 4th of the same month, you addressed to the minister of Salvador in the United States, giving him instructions to ascertain the opinion which prevails in the councils of the Washington Cabinet relative to the projected Nicaragua interoceanic canal, and the hopes which may be entertained as to its co-operation in favor of the enterprise.
Your excellency explains the motives of interest for that Republic and for all Central America which move your Government to take that step, and in their name asks that of Nicaragua to direct its offices towards the Government of the United States in the same sense.
My Government is grateful for the fraternal solicitude shown by that of that Republic in favor of a work in which Nicaragua has placed her most nattering hopes of political advancement and of pacific aggrandizement, in common with her sisters of the Central American Isthmus. Understanding the grandeur of the work, and the incalculable benefits it should produce to these countries, she has labored alone, but constantly, in promoting its execution by such means as have been in her power, and particularly sending to Europe and the United States, at different times, legations charged with laboring to that end. She has done so recently after celebrating the contract with Mr. A. G. Menocal in conditions which assure to the other states of the Center the same advantages as to the sovereign of the territory in which the work should be constructed.
But in view of the meager result obtained up to the present in the United States, and of the lukewarmness manifested by the provisional company, concessionee of the privilege, this Government thinks best to abstain for the present from undertaking new efforts toward the Government of Washington, hoping that your excellency will be pleased to communicate to me the information which the minister of Salvador may obtain in virtue of the instructions which have been transmitted to him.
I reiterate, &c.,