Page 83 - The Interest of America in Sea Power Present and Future

6 4 The Isthmus and Sea Power. ;

because of the direction in which it lay from
its discoverer. During these early years the
history of the region we now know as Central
America was one of constant strife among the
various Spanish leaders, encouraged rather
than stifled by the jealous home government
but it was also one of unbroken and venture-
some exploration, a healthier manifestation of
the same restless and daring energy that pro-
voked their internal collisions. In January,
1522, one Gil Gonzalez started from Panama
northward on the Pacific side, with a few frail
barks, and in March discovered Lake Nicara-
gua, which has its name from the cacique,
Nicaragua, or Nicarao, whose town stood upon
its shores. Five years later, another adventurer
took his vessel to pieces on the coast, trans-
ported it thus to the lake, and made the circuit
of the latter ; discovering its outlet, the San
Juan, just a quarter of a century after Colum-
bus had visited the mouth of the river.
The conquest of Peru, and the gradual
extension of Spanish domination and settle-
ments in Central America and along the
shores of the Pacific, soon bestowed upon the
Isthmus an importance, vividly suggestive of