Here however, the United States encountered not only the local independent authorities but also Great Britain.

Just to the north of the proposed route Great Britain possessed Belize, now British Honduras, a meager colony but with elastic boundaries.

For many generations, too, she had concerned herself with securing the rights of the Mosquito Indians, who held a territory, also with elastic boundaries, inconveniently near the San Juan River, the Caribbean entrance to the Nicaraguan thoroughfare.

From Great Britain, moreover, must come a large portion of the capital to be employed in constructing the canal which was expected soon to cut the isthmus.
The local situation soon became acute.

Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Mosquitoes all claimed the mouth of the San Juan; Honduras and Nicaragua, the control of the Pacific outlet.