Let us not forget, then, that despite their failure the French did a great deal of good work, which they passed on many years afterwards to their American successors. A quantity of the French machinery, tools, and hardware was also available. It is true that among this was included a large consignment of snow-shovels (for use at sea-level less than 10 degrees from the Equator!), and a quantity of petroleum torches for the festivities which were one day to celebrate the completion of the canal. But a great deal of the plant was in good condition. The extravagance and corruption which prevailed at the isthmus during the first French company were almost incredible. But it may be doubted whether any other nation could have succeeded in the 'eighties of last century where the French failed. CHAPTER V. THE HAY-PAUNCEFOTE TREATY. In 1893 a new corporation, known as the New Panama Canal Company, took over all the assets of the De Lesseps Company, including the railway, and the work of construction was continued, or at least not wholly interrupted. Meanwhile the people of the United States were not greatly displeased at the collapse of the great French enterprise. They became more and more determined to construct an American canal under American control. The Nicaraguan route was still favoured by many as compared with that at Panama. In 1887 a surveying party was sent to Nicaragua, and the next year the Maritime Canal Company was established to promote the building of a canal there. It is important to notice this particular scheme, for under it work was actually begun. Wharves, warehouses, and a breakwater were constructed at Greytown, a railway was built, and some progress made with the canal itself. Outside the Panama route this was the only actual work of canal construction performed in Isthmian and Central America. The project failed owing to the great depression of trade which occurred in 1893 and the impossibility of getting more capital. It should be noticed that these projects of constructing an American canal at Nicaragua quite independently of Great Britain were right in the teeth of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, which still remained in force. Most sensible persons saw that the first preliminary to an American canal was to get this treaty abrogated or modified. But this purpose and canal schemes in general were delayed by the outbreak in 1898 of the Spanish-American War.