Although Carlo officially did not participate at all in the negotiations between the two governments, in secret, Prime Minister Canovas still had to report the progress of the negotiations to Carlo every day.
In the first few days of negotiations, the progress of both parties was quite slow, even to the point of being stagnant.
The British Government is no fool; they would never engage in a losing deal. For the British Government, even a small profit in colonial exchange is as good as a loss.
The Spanish Government proposed dividing Australia into two parts: Spain would trade the Cuban Colony for the Western Australian Colony and the United Kingdom's Strait Colony, and Spain and the United Kingdom would establish a buffer zone nearly 50 kilometers wide between the Western Australian and South Australian colonies.
This proposal was outright rejected by the British Government. Although the Western Australian Colony had a small population and little value beyond mineral resources,
