GREYTOWN (

See also:

• SAN

SAN JUAN DEL NORTE)  , the principal seaport on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, in the extreme south-eastern corner of the republic, and at the mouth of the northern channel of the San Juan river delta . Pop . (1905) about 2500 . The townoccupies the seaward side of a narrow peninsula, formed by the windings of the river . Most of its houses are raised on piles 2 or 3 ft. above the ground . The neighbourhood is unhealthy and unsuited for agriculture, so that almost all food-stuffs must be imported, and the cost of living is high . Greytown has suffered severely from the accumulation of sand in its once fine harbour . Between 1832 and 1848 Point Arenas, the seaward end of the peninsula, was enlarged by a sandbank more than 1 m. long; between 1850 and 1875 the depth of water over the bar decreased from about 25 ft. to 5 ft., and the entrance channel, which had been nearly zm. wide, was almost closed . Subsequent attempts to improve the harbour by dredging and building jetties have only had partial success; but Greytown remains the headquarters of Nicaraguan commerce with Europe and eastern America . The village called America, 1 m . N., was built as the eastern terminus of a proposed interoceanic canal . The harbour of San Juan, discovered by Columbus, was brought into further notice by Captain Diego Machuca, who in 1529 sailed down the river from Lake Nicaragua .

The date of the first

Spanish settlement on the spot is not known, but in the 17th century there were fortifications at the mouth of the river . In 1796 San Juan was made a port of entry by royal charter, and new defences were erected in 1821 . In virtue of the protectorate claimed by Great Britain over the Mosquito Coast (q.v.), the Mosquito Indians, aided by a British force, seized the town in 1848 and occupied it until 186o, when Great Britain ceded its protectorate to Nicaragua by the treaty of Managua .