From these discussions emerged the celebrated "Spooner Bill," under which the Panama Canal has been constructed. It empowered the American government to secure the rights and property of the Panama Company for not more than $40,000,000; to obtain from Colombia the perpetual control of a strip of land, not less than six miles wide, in which the canal should run; and then to proceed with the work. But if it should prove impossible to come to terms with Colombia and the New Panama Company, then the Nicaraguan project was to be revived. We shall see how, in the sequel, this latter proviso came very near fulfilment. But, as a matter of fact, the Spooner Bill marks the end of the great battle of the routes which had lasted for four centuries. The purchase price of the New Panama Company's property was happily settled, but the purchase was of course conditional on the conclusion of a satisfactory agreement between the United States and Colombia. It was no use for the United States to acquire unfinished canal-works if they were to be prevented from continuing and completing them. The situation was interesting. The Republic of Colombia was extremely "hard up." Its currency was debased, its treasury empty, its debt rapidly increasing through a large annual deficit. The government, if one may so express it, of the Colombian Republic was therefore not likely to overlook the chance of "making a bit" out of the necessities of the bigger and richer republic farther north. The United States wished to get their concession as cheaply as possible; Colombia wished to sell as dearly as possible. This is not infrequently the case with buyers and sellers; but Colombia pushed her haggling a little too far, and in the end very badly overreached herself. The United States began by proposing terms on which they might obtain the desired strip of territory. The conditions were carefully laid down. The territory was to remain under Colombian sovereignty, but to be administered by the United States. Sanitary and police services were to be maintained by both governments jointly. Colombia was to police the zone, with the help of the United States if necessary. But the business terms were chiefly interesting to Colombia. The United States were to pay Colombia a bonus of $7,000,000 in cash, and after fourteen years an annuity of $250,000. These terms, which were not ungenerous, the Colombian minister at Washington declined to accept.