The third route came to be known as the Nicaraguan route. For a long time this was the most popular of all the routes with the American Congress and the American people. The Nicaraguan route contemplated the utilization of the San Juan River on the east, between the Atlantic Coast and the Nicaraguan lakes, the Nicaraguan lakes as far as they extended westward, and thence through a canal across the dividing land from the upper lake to Nicaragua to the Pacific Ocean at Brita. The Nicaraguan route would be 377 miles shorter between San Francisco and New York than is the Panama route, along which the United States is now constructing a canal. A fourth route was surveyed between the Chirique Lagoon on the eastern side to the Pacific Ocean. The Isthmian Routes Three routes across the Isthmus of Panama have been surveyed and considered--two besides the one which the United States is now utilizing; and farther south two possible canal routes have been surveyed across the territory of Colombia. The two southern routes would use the Atrato River as a part of their course, and from that river across to the separating lands an excavation would be required. [Illustration: WATER FRONT, PANAMA.] Of these nine routes only three have been seriously contemplated by the engineers of the various governments and companies who have examined them. The three are the Tehuantepec, the Nicaraguan, and the Panama Canal route. In the year 1800 all South American territory, with the exception of Brazil and a few colonies, was under the sovereignty of Spain, but about the year 1811 a series of revolutions broke out in various parts of Central and South America, having for their object the establishment of independent republics, and by 1823 all Central and South American countries had achieved independence. The province of Panama secured her independence in the year 1823, maintained that independence for a short time and then merged with the Republic of New Granada. Panama remained a part of New Granada for several years, and then became a part of the New Granadan and Colombian confederacy, and continued to be a part of that confederacy through various vicissitudes of fortune and misfortune arising out of revolutions and war until November 3, 1903, when she seceded from the Colombian confederacy, hoisted her old flag, and resumed her ancient nationality. In 1825, the South and Central American Republics, desiring to bring themselves into closer relations and sympathy so that trade and commerce and industry might be better developed, conceived the idea of holding a convention in the City of Panama, in the year 1826. The United States Government was invited to participate and take a prominent part in that convention, and in order to induce the President of the United States to send his representatives, the subject of canal construction across the Isthmus was to be one of the most prominent subjects considered.