The Republican journal., 1896-10-22

facts, adding that if he could find tract
of mineral land worth working he would
try to develop it. President Bogran saw
at a glance that Mr. Daniels was lust the
sort of man Honduras needs, and deter
mined not only to keep him, but to make
him an example that others of his kind
would follow. Bogran furnished him
with escort and everything needful and
sent him Off prospecting, down towards
the Nicaragua line where presently MI
Daniels found the promising field that he
wanted. Then Bogran presented him
outright with 100 miles of rich territory,
an absolute legal gift, and told him to do
what he liked with it. He had not mis-
taken his man, for Mr.. Daniels went to
work with will and is to- day the owner
of mine which yields him couple of
thousand dollars worth of gold a week
Other Americans have followed his ex-
ample, with varying success. Of course
the government has not dealt SO generous
ly by them all, but it still follows the
lead of Bogran, who used to say, eff our
own people will not develop our mines,
some one must and continues to give
away miles of territory to any foreigner
who wants it, on the simple condition
that he will make good use of the gift.
We have spoken in a previous letter of
the enormous grants to Gen. Z. A. Lever
and to Maj, Burke of the New Orleans
Times Democrat. The late Senator
Tabor of Colorado was largely interested
here: also Gen. Benz. F. Butler, Gen'ls
| Sickles and Rosecrans. Bonanza MacKay
OF California has the bad habit, Journal
istically considered, of keeping his affairs
to himself as much as possible--but it is
known that several of his mining experts
have long been quietly spying out the fat
ness of this fair land while Senator Jones
of Nevada, Hon. Jay Hubbell of Mich-
gan, and other Northern capitalists, are
more or less mixed up in things Hondur-
ian \ few years ago, when Don Marco
Soto Of tilibustering notoriety, governed
Honduras somewhat for its benefit, but
vastly more for his ,own-he gave away
concessions, grants and franchises. right
and left with reckless hand. to every
body who wanted them, natives OF for
eigners. One of the most important of
these concessions was the ''Uloa and
Hlnnco bi4-Ar NAVIGATION, Er.p+ x,-L;oI,
| gives to the corporation now holding it
the exclusive privilege Of the navigation
| OF both OF those rivers, from the seacoast
to their head waters. To reward the
and loss of establishing a steamship line
! on rivers where but little freight traffic can
be expected for a generation or two-the
government granted the corporation
most favorable land franchise, with the
provision that said land grants were to be
located on the banks of the Uloa and
Blanco rivers. All mineral deposits found
on these lands became by the term of
the concession, the absolute property of
the company, and at the same time such
, deposits, mines or 'leads'' We're exempt
from the provisions of the mining code
of the Republic. The grantee, Col.
Shears of New York-a fnancier as sharp
as his name would indicate, finding that,
in Western parance, he had ''bit off more
than he could chew formed another com
pany, of which Hon. Jay Hubbell was
the head, to carry it into operation. Be-
fore going into it, however, Mr.. Hubbell
stipulated that Col. Shears should first
obtain the privilege of locating the COM
pany's land in small pate hes, wherever
the corporation might choose. Even the
reckless De Soto hesitated about acceding
to this modest demand, which, if granted,
would actually put in the company's
hands an unlimited amount of the richest
mineral deposits in the Republic; and the
matter chung fire. until Bogran came
into power
Finally the latter, persuaded by his
friend, Gen. Lever, granted the petition,
with few insignificant stipulations; and
thus the ''Uloa and Blanco River Naviga-
ton Company become possessed of min
eral privileges of untold value. Why, in
ten years time, they have not done more
with the splendid possibilities open before
them. remains mystery. | am informed
that not one of the principal stockholders
has ever set foot in the country, and with
+t,, 6 Il ~.
company agents have ventured more than
three days distance into the interior. The
only lands they have examined were pros
pected and re prospected long before they
thought of coming to Honduras. / have
heard of only one mineral property being