ESSAY on the possibility of effecting A NAVIGABLE COMMUNICATION between The Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.

By Baron von Humboldt.

The kingdom of New Spain, the most northerly point of Spanish America, extends from the sixteenth to the thirty-eighth degree of latitude.

The length of this vast region from south-southeast to north-north-west is about 270 myriameters (610 common leagues); its greatest breadth is in the latitude of 30°.

From the Red river in the province of Texas (Rio Colorado) to the island of Tiburon, on the coast of the province of La Sonora, is 364 leagues.

That part of Mexico in which the two oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific are nearest to each other, is unfortunately not that in which the two ports of Acapulco and Vera Cruz, and the capital of Mexico, are situated.

According to my astronomical observations, there is from Acapulco to Mexico an oblique distance of 2° 40′ 19″ of a great circle (or 155,885 toises); from Mexico to Vera Cruz 2° 57′ 9″ (or 158,572 toises); and from the port of Acapulco to the port of Vera Cruz, in a direct line, 4° 10′ 7″. It is in these distances that the old maps are the most faulty.

According to the observations published by Mr. Cassini, in the Journal of Chappe’s Voyage, the distance from Mexico to Vera Cruz is stated to be 5° 11′ of longitude, instead of 2° 57′, which it has been found to be by more accurate observation.

Assuming for Vera Cruz the longitude given by Chappe, and for Acapulco that of the map of the French Depôt of the Marine, compiled in 1784, the breadth of the isthmus of Mexico, between the two ports, would be 175 leagues, which is 71 leagues too much.

The isthmus of Tehuantepec, to the southeast of the port of Vera Cruz, is the part where the continent of New Spain is the narrowest; the distance being 45 leagues from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

The proximity of the sources of the rivers Huascualco and Chimalapa seems to favor the project of a canal for internal navigation, which was long meditated by Count Revillagigedo, one of the most intelligent and active of the viceroys.

When we describe the province of Oaxaca, we shall return to this subject so important to all civilized Europe.

We will here content ourselves with considering the problem of the communication between the two rivers under the most general point of view.

We shall present nine points which are not known in Europe, and all of which afford more or less easy means of facilitating navigation, either by canals, or by internal communications between the rivers.

At a moment when the new continent, profiting by the misfortunes of Europe, and its perpetual dissentions, makes rapid progress in civilization; at a time when the commerce with China and the north-west coast of America becomes from year to year more advantageous, the subject, which we here treat in a summary manner, is highly interesting for the balance of commerce and the political preponderance of nations.

The nine points which I have marked in Plate IV.

of my geographical and physical atlas, have at different periods attracted the attention of enlightened merchants and statesmen who have made a long stay in the colonies: they present very different advantages.

We shall arrange them according to their geographical position, commencing with the most northern part of the New Continent, and follow the coasts to the south of the isle of Chiloe. It is not till after we have examined all the projects here formed for the communication of the two oceans, that we shall be able to decide which deserves the preference.

Previous to this examination, for which the correct materials are not yet collected, it would be imprudent to dig canals in the isthmuses of Huasacualco, of Nicaragua, of Panama, or of Cupica.

I. Under 54° 37′ north latitude, in the parallel of Queen Charlotte’s Island, the sources of the river de la Paix or Ounigigah (Unjigah) approach within seven leagues the sources of the Tacoutché Tesse, which was supposed to be the same as the river Columbia.

The first of these rivers empties itself into the Polar Sea, after having mingled its waters with those of Slave lake and Mackenzie river.

The second river, the Columbia, falls into the Pacific ocean near Cape Disappointment, to the south of Nootka Sound, and, according to the celebrated Vancouver, in latitude 46° 19′.

The Cordillera of the Rocky Mountains, abounding in coals, was found by Mr.

Fiedler to be 3520 English feet above the level of the neighbouring plains.

It separates the sources of the rivers Peace and Columbia.

According to the account of Mackenzie, who crossed this chain in August 1793, the portage is tolerably practicable, and the mountains do not appear to be very elevated.

To avoid the great detour which the Columbia makes, a shorter road for commerce might be opened from the sources of the Tacoutché Tesse as far as Salmon river, the mouth of which is to the east of Princess Royal Islands, in latitude 52° 26′. Mr. Mackenzie justly observes that a government which should open this communication between the two oceans, forming regular establishments in the interior of the country, and at the extremities of the rivers, would thereby become master of the whole fur trade of North-America, from the 48th degree of latitude to the pole, except that part of the coast which has long since been under the dominion of Russia.

Canada, by the number and course of its rivers, affords facilities for inland trade similar to those which exist in Eastern Siberia.

The mouth of the river Columbia seems to invite Europeans to establish a fine colony.

The banks of this river are fertile, and covered with fine timber.

It must be confessed, however, notwithstanding the examination made by Mr. Broughton, only a very small part of the Columbia is yet known, which, like the Severn and the Thames, appears to decrease extremely in breadth in proportion to the distance from the coast.

Any geographer who will carefully compare the maps of Mackenzie with those of Vancouver will be surprised that the Columbia, descending from the Rocky Mountains which we are inclined to consider as a prolongation of the Andes of Mexico, can traverse the chain of mountains which approaches the great ocean, and the principal summits of which are mount St.

Helen and mount Rainier. Mr. Malte Brun had already alleged important doubts against the identity of the Tacoutché Tessé and the Rio Columbia, before it was discovered, as it now is, that the Columbia or Oregon is entirely different from the Tacoutché Tessé or Fraser’s river.

If it is true that this chain of mountains enters the limits of perpetual snow (Mackenzie, Vol. III. p. 331) their absolute height must be at least from 1000 to 1100 toises; from whence it would result that the neighbouring plains, on which Mr. Fiedler was placed to take his measure, are from 450 to 550 toises above the level of the sea, or that the summits of which this traveller has marked the height are not the most elevated of the chain crossed by Mackenzie.

In latitude 50°, Nelson’s river, the Saskashawan and the Missouri, which may be regarded as one of the principal branches of the Missisippi, furnish equal facilities of communication with the Pacific ocean.

All these rivers rise at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

We have not yet any sufficiently accurate data respecting the nature of the ground where the portage must be fixed, to decide on the utility of this communication.

The expedition which Captain Lewis performed at the expence of the Anglo-American government on the Mississippi and Missouri, may throw great light on this interesting problem.

II.

In latitude 40°, the sources of the Rio del Norte or Rio Bravo, which falls into the Gulph of Mexico, are separated from the sources of the Rio Colorado by a mountainous district of twelve or thirteen leagues in breadth.

This tract is the continuation of the Cordillère des Grues, which extends towards Sierra Verde and the Lake of Timpanogos, celebrated in the history of Mexico.

The Rio St. Raphael and the Rio St.

Xavier are the principal sources of the river Zaguananas, which, with the Rio Nabajoa, forms the Rio Colorada, and mingles its waters with those of the Gulph of California.

The countries watered by these rivers abound in rock salt: they were examined in 1777 by Fathers Escalante and Antonia Velez, two monks of the order of Saint Francis.

However interesting the Rio Zaguananas and the Rio del Norte may one day become to the inland commerce of this northern part of New Spain, and however easy the portage across the mountains may be, no communication will ever result from it affording advantages equal to those of a canal between the two oceans.

III. The isthmus of Tehuantepec, under the sixteenth degree of latitude, comprehends the sources of the Rio Huasacualco or Goazacoalcos, which falls into the Gulph of Mexico, and the sources of the Rio Chimalapa.

The waters of this latter river mingle with those of the Pacific ocean near the barra de San Francisco. I consider here the Rio del Pasco as the principal source of the river Huasacualco, though the latter does not take its name till it reaches the Passo de la Fabrica, after one of its arms, which comes from the mountains de los Mixes, has joined the Rio del Passo.

This isthmus of Tehuantepec is the point which Ferdinand Cortes, in his letters to the Emperor Charles V. calls the secret of the strait, an appellation which sufficiently proves the importance attached to it at the commencement of the sixteenth century.

It has again attracted the attention of navigators since the hostilities carried on by the castle of San Juan d’Uloa have caused the commerce of Vera Cruz to turn to the Barra d’Alvarado and to the coast of Tabasco, near the mouth of the Rio Huasacualco.

The ridge, which forms the division of the water between the two oceans, is interrupted by a valley; but I much doubt whether in the time of the great inundations this valley is filled (as has been lately stated) with a quantity of water sufficient to allow a natural passage for the boats of the natives.

Similar temporary communications exist between the basins of the Missisippi and the river Saint Lawrence, that is to say between Lake Erié and the Wabash, between Lake Michigan and the river of the Illinois.

We shall return in the sequel to the possibility of digging a canal, six or seven leagues long, in the forests of Tarifa.

Since a road was opened in 1798 from the port of Tehuantepec to the Embarcadero de la Cruz (which road was improved in 1800), the river Huasacualco forms a commercial communication between the two oceans.

During the war with the English, the indigo of Guatimala, the most valuable known, came by this isthmus to the port of Vera Cruz, and thence to Europe.

The Spanish Cortes decreed the opening of this canal in 1814.

The execution of the canal was confided to the Consulado de Guadalaxara, who proposed to issue an invitation to the capitalists of Europe.

IV. The great Lake of Nicaragua communicates not only with the Lake of Leon, but also on the east, by the river San Juan, with the sea of the Antilles.

The communication with the Pacific ocean would be effected by digging a canal across the isthmus which separates the lake from the gulph of Papagayo.

On this narrow isthmus are the volcanic and insulated summits of Bombacho (in latitude 11° 7′) of Grenada and Papagayo (in latitude 10° 50′).

Old maps even indicate a communication by water across the isthmus.

Other maps, rather more recent, represent a river, under the name of the Rio Partido, one of the branches of which flows into the Pacific and the other into the lake Nicaragua.

But this bifurcation seems very uncertain.

It is not noticed in the latest maps published by the Spaniards and the English.

In the archives of Madrid are several French and English Memoirs on the possibility of uniting lake Nicaragua with the Pacific ocean.

The commerce, which the English carry on, on the Mosquito shore, has greatly contributed to give celebrity to this project of making a communication between the two seas.

None of these memoirs which have come to my knowledge clear up the principal point, which is the elevation of the ground of the isthmus.

From the kingdom of New Grenada to the environs of the capital of Mexico, there is not a single mountain, plateau, or town, the elevation of which above the surface of the sea is known to us.

Is there an uninterrupted chain of mountains in the provinces of Veragua and Nicaragua?

Has this range, which is supposed to connect the Andes of Peru with the mountains of Mexico, its central chain to the east or the west of the Lake Nicaragua?

Does the isthmus of Papagayo offer a mountainous soil, or only a simple barrier?

These are problems, the solution of which is as interesting to the statesman as to the geographer.

The various works which have been published since the commencement of the wars for the independence of Spanish America confine themselves to the same ideas developed in the first edition of this work; I except some useful information which Mr.

Davis Robinson has given on the bar of the river of San Juan de Nicaragua. He assures us that “this bar has twelve feet of water, and that on one point only it has a narrow pass, twenty-five feet in depth.”

In the Rio de San Juan itself there are from four to six fathoms; in the lake Nicaragua from three to eight fathoms.

According to Mr. Robinson the San Juan is navigable for brigs and schooners.

There is not a spot upon the globe so full of volcanoes as this part of America, from latitude 11° to 13°; but it seems that the trachytic mountains, through which the subterraneous fire makes its way, forms only insulated groups, and that, separated from each other by vallies, they rise from the plain itself.

It must not excite surprise that we were ignorant of facts of this importance, for we shall soon see that even the height of the chain which traverses the isthmus of Panama is as little known now as it was before the invention of the barometer, and the application of that instrument in the measurement of mountains.

Perhaps too a communication between lake Nicaragua and the Pacific ocean might be made by lake Leon, by means of the river Tosta, which descends from the volcano of Telica, on the road from Leon to Realexo.

In fact the ground does not seem very high, and Dampier’s account of his voyage may infer that there is not a real chain of mountains between Lake Nicaragua and the South Sea.

“The coast of Nicoya,” says this great navigator, “is low, and overflowed at the time of high water.

Between Realexo and Leon you traverse a flat country, covered with Mango trees.”

The city of Leon itself is situated in a savannah.

There is a small river, which falling into the sea near Realexo, might facilitate the communication between that port and Leon.

From the western bank of the lake Nicaragua, it is only four leagues to the bottom of the gulph of Papagayo, and seven to that of Nicoya, which navigators call Caldera.

Dampier expressly says that the ground between La Caldera and the lake is not very hilly, and for the most part a level plain.

The isthmus of Nicaragua, by the position of its inland lake, and the communication between this lake and the sea of the Antilles by means of the Rio San Juan, has many features of resemblance with the defile in the Highlands of Scotland, where the river Ness forms a natural communication between the mountain lakes and the gulph of Murray.

At Nicaragua, as in the Highlands, there is to the west merely a barrier to pass; to the east it would perhaps be sufficient to canalize the Rio San Juan, without deviating from the bed of the river, which has no bars except in the dry season.

If it is true that the isthmus to be crossed has a few hills where it is the narrowest, between the western bank of the Nicaragua, and the gulph of Papagayo, it is on the other hand formed of uninterrupted savannahs and plains, affording an excellent road for carriages, between the city of Leon and the coast of Realexo. It is the high road by which merchandise is sent from Guatimala to Leon, landing in the gulph of Fonseca or Amalapa, to the port of Conchagua.

The elevation of Lake Nicaragua above the South Sea is equal to the fall of the Rio San Juan in the course of thirty leagues: accordingly the elevation of this basin is so well known in the country that it was formerly regarded as an insurmountable obstacle to the execution of a canal.

It was apprehended that it might cause either an impetuous overflow towards the west, or a diminution of the water of the San Juan, which, during the dry season, has, above the antient castillo de San Carlos, several rapids, and the banks of which, during their present uncultivated state, are extremely unwholesome. The art of the civil engineer is, however, sufficiently advanced in our days not to fear such dangers.

The lake of Nicaragua may serve as the upper basin, as lake Oich on the Caledonian canal.

Regulating sluices will admit into the canal only sufficient water to feed it.

The small difference of level supposed to exist between the sea of the Antilles and the Pacific ocean, probably arises only from the unequal height of the tides.

A similar difference is observed between the two seas which are united by the great Caledonian canal, and were it even six toises and permanent, as that between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, it would be no less favourable to a junction between the oceans.

The winds blow strong enough on lake Nicaragua to save the necessity of towing by steam-boats the vessels which are to pass from one sea to the other; but the employment of steam would be very useful in voyages from Realexo or from Panama to Guayaquil.

During the months of August, September, and October, calms are alternate in these seas, with a wind blowing in a contrary direction to this voyage.

The coasts of Nicaragua are rather dangerous in the months of August, September, and October, on account of the winds and terrible rain; in January and February, on account of the violent north-east and east north-east winds, which are called by the name of Papagayos.

This circumstance renders navigation very inconvenient.

The port of Tehuantepec, in the isthmus of Huasacualco, is not more favoured by nature; it gives its name to the hurricanes which blow from the north-west, and which make all vessels fly from the little ports of Sabinas and Ventosa. It results from the above considerations that the possibility of the canal of Nicaragua is threefold, namely, from that lake to the gulph Papagayo, from the same to the gulph of Nicoya, or from the lake of Leon or Managua to the mouth of the Rio de Tosta.

The distance from the south-eastern extremity of the lake of Nicaragua to the gulph of Nicoya is very differently laid down (from 25 to 48 miles) in Arrowsmith’s map of south America, and the fine map in the Deposito Hidrografico at Madrid, which is called Mar de las Antillas, 1809.

V. The isthmus of Panama was crossed for the first time by Vasco Numez de Balbo, in the year 1513.

Since this memorable epoch in the history of geographical discoveries, the project of a canal has been a very general subject of consideration; yet even now, after the lapse of three centuries, there is no survey of the ground, nor any very correct determination of the exact position of Panama and Portobello.

The longitude of the first of these two ports has been referred from Carthagena; that of the second has been determined from Guayaquil.

The operations of Fidalgo and Malaspina are doubtless entitled to great confidence: but errors multiply insensibly when by chronometrical operations which embrace the whole coast of the Terra Firma, from the isle of Trinidad to Portobello, and from Lima to Panama, one position is made dependent upon another.

To form an idea of the uncertainty which still prevails respecting the shape and breadth of the isthmus (for example at Nata) we need only compare the maps of Lopez with those of Arrowsmith and the most recent ones of the Deposito Hidrografico at Madrid.

The river Chagre, which falls into the sea of the Antilles to the west of Portobello, notwithstanding its sinuosities and rapids, presents many advantages to commerce; it is 120 toises broad at its mouth, and 20 near Cruces, where it begins to be navigable.

At present, ships ascend the Rio Chagre from its mouth to Cruces, in four or five days.

If the water is very high, they must contend against the current for ten or twelve days.

From Cruces to Panama the goods are conveyed on mules for five short leagues.

The barometrical measurements given in Ulloa’s travels induce me to suppose that there is in the Rio Chagre a difference of level of thirty-five to forty toises between the sea of the Antilles and the Embarcadero or Venta de Cruces.

This difference must appear very small to those who have ascended the Rio Chagre; they forget that the strength of the current depends both on the great accumulation of water near the sources, and on the general fall of the river, that is to say above Cruces. On comparing the barometrical level of Ulloa with that which I made in the river Magdalena, we perceive that the elevation of Cruces above the ocean, far from being small, is on the contrary very great.

The fall of the Rio Magdalena from Honda to the dike of Mahates near Barancas is 160 toises, and yet this distance is not, as might be expected, four times, but eight times greater than from Cruces to Fort Chagre.

The engineers who have proposed at the court of Madrid to establish a communication between the two oceans by the Rio Chagre have projected the digging of a canal from the Venta de Cruces to Panama.

This canal would have to pass through a mountainous tract, with the elevation of which we are entirely ignorant . We only know that from Cruces there is first a rapid ascent and then a descent for several hours towards the coasts of the South Sea. It is very surprising that neither La Condamine and Bouguer, nor Don George Juan and Ulloa, had the curiosity, when they crossed the isthmus, to look at their barometers, to inform us what is the elevation of the highest point on the road from Fort Chagre to Panama.

These gentlemen remained three months in this region which is so interesting to the commercial world; but their long stay has hardly added any thing to the observations of Dampier and Wafer.

It seems indubitable that the principal chain, or rather range of hills, which may be considered as a prolongation of the Andes of New Grenada, is, between Cruces and Panama, nearer to the South Sea than to the sea of the Antilles. It is from the summit of this range that persons have pretended to see the two oceans at once, an observation which would not imply an absolute elevation of more than 290 metres.

Lionel Wafer complains that he could not enjoy this spectacle; and he assures us that the hills, which form the central chain, are separated from each other by vallies, which leave a free course for the rivers.

If the last assertion be correct, we may believe in the possibility of a canal from Cruces to Panama, the navigation of which would be interrupted by only very few sluices.

From some slight indications of the temperature of these places, and the geography of the indigenous plants, I should be inclined to believe that the barrier in the road from Panama to Cruces does not attain an elevation of 500 feet.

Mr. Robinson supposes it to be 400 feet at the most; besides, we find in almost all mountainous countries, when carefully examined, instances of natural openings across the barriers.

The hills between the basins of the Saone and the Loire, which the canal of the Centre would have had to pass, were 800 to 900 feet high, but a defile or interruption at the pond of Long Pendu presented a ledge which is 350 feet lower.

There exist other points in which, according to memoirs drawn up in 1528, it has been proposed to cut through the isthmus, namely, by joining the sources of the rivers called Caimito and Rio Grande, with the Rio Trinidad.

The eastern part of the isthmus is narrower, but the ground seems to be much more elevated.

At least this is what we observe in the horrible road taken by the mail from Portobello to Panama.

This road is two days’ journey, passes by the village of Pequeni, and presents very great difficulties.

In all ages and in all climates, people have believed that of two neighbouring seas, one was higher than the other.

Traces of this vulgar opinion are found in the antient writers.

Strabo says that it was supposed that the level of the gulph of Corinth near Lechœa was above that of the waters of the gulph of Cenchræa.

He imagined that it would be very dangerous to cut through the isthmus, where the Corinthians, by the aid of particular machines, had established a portage.

In the isthmus of Panama it is commonly supposed that the South Sea is more elevated than the Sea of the Antilles.

This opinion is founded on a bare appearance.

After having contended several-days against the current of the Rio Chagre, we think we have ascended, much more than we afterwards descend, the hills from Cruces to Panama.

In fact, nothing is more deceitful than the opinion which we form, of a difference of level upon a long slope, which consequently is very gentle.

In Peru I could hardly believe my eyes when I found by my barometer that the city of Lima is 91 toises above the port of Callao.

The rock of the Isle of San Lorenzo must be entirely covered with water, in consequence of an earthquake, before the ocean could reach the capital of Peru.

Don George Juan has already combatted the opinion of a difference of level between the two seas; he found the height of the mercury to be the same at the mouth of the Chagre and at Panama.

The imperfection of the meteorological instruments used at that time, may leave some doubts which even appear to have acquired more weight since the French engineers attached to the expedition in Egypt found the level of the Red Sea to be six toises above the Mediterranean.

Till a geometrical survey shall have been made of the level of the isthmus of Panama, we must have recourse to barometrical admeasurements.

Those which I made at the mouth of the Rio Sinu in the Sea of the Antilles and on the Peruvian coasts of the South Sea, prove, after every correction has been made for the temperature, that if there exists a difference of level between the two oceans, it cannot be above six or seven metres.

The navigation of the Rio Chagre is difficult, not so much on account of the number of its sinuosities as of the celerity of its current, which is often one or two metres per second.

The sinuosities however afford the advantage of a counter-current, which is formed by eddies towards the banks, and by means of which, small vessels, called Bongos and Chatas, ascend, either by means of oars and poles, or by towing.

If these sinuosities were cut through, the advantage would cease, and it would be very difficult to go from the Sea of the Antilles to Cruces.

The minimum of the breadth of the isthmus of Panama is not fifteen miles, as marked by the first maps of the Deposito Hidrografico at Madrid, but 25¼ miles, that is to say, 8½ sea leagues, or 24,580 toises; for the dimensions of the gulph of San Blas, called also Ensenada de Mandinga, on account of the small river which falls into it, have given rise to serious errors.

This gulph enters seventeen miles less into the continent than was supposed in 1805, in the survey of the Mulatto Islands.

Whatever confidence the last astronomical observations seem to merit, on which the map of the isthmus, published by the Deposito Hidrografico in 1817 is founded, it must not be forgotten that these operations comprehend only the Northern Coast, and that they have not yet been connected either by a series of triangles or chronometrically with the southern coasts.

Now the problem of the breadth of the isthmus does not depend on the determination of the latitudes alone.

From the whole of the information which I was able to procure during my stay at Carthagena and Guayaquil; it seems that we must give up all hopes of a canal seven metres in depth, and from 22 to 28 in breadth, which should traverse the isthmus of Panama from sea to sea, and receive the same vessels that trade between Europe and the East-Indies.

The elevation of the ground would oblige the engineer to have recourse to subterraneous galleries, or to sluices; consequently, the merchandize intended to pass the isthmus of Panama, must be conveyed in flat-bottomed boats, incapable of keeping the sea.

Depôts would be necessary at Panama and Portobello.

All nations which should desire to carry on trade by this way, would become dependent on the nation who should be mistress of the isthmus and the canal.

This inconvenience would be very great, particularly for vessels dispatched from Europe.

Even in case the canal should be dug, it is probable that the greater number of ships, fearing the delays caused by the numerous sluices, would still prefer the route by the Cape of Good Hope.

We see that the passage of the Sound is much frequented, notwithstanding the existence of the canal of the Eyder, which unites the ocean with the Baltic.

It would not be the same with the productions of Western America, or the merchandize which Europe sends to the coasts of Quito and Peru or the Pacific Ocean: these would cross the isthmus with less expense; and in time of war especially, with less danger, than by doubling the southern extremity of the new continent.

In the present state of the roads, the conveyance of three hundred weight on mules from Panama to Portobello, costs three or four piastres.

But the rude state in which the government has left the isthmus is such, that the number of beasts of burden from Panama to Cruces is much too small for the copper of Chili, the bark of Peru, and above all, the 70,000 fanegas of cocoa, which are annually exported from Guayaquil, to cross this slip of land; consequently, the slow, dangerous, and expensive navigation round Cape Horn is preferred.

In 1802 and 1803, when the English privateers everywhere hindered the commerce of Spain, a great part of the cocoa of Guayaquil was sent across the kingdom of New Spain, and shipped at Vera Cruz for Cadiz.

The voyage from Guayaquil to Acapulco, and a land journey of a hundred and thirty-five leagues from Acapulco to Vera Cruz, was preferred to the danger of a long passage by Cape Horn, and the difficulty of struggling against the currents along the coasts of Peru and Chili.

This example proves, that if the construction of a canal, either across the isthmus of Panama, or that of Huasacualco, should be accompanied with too many difficulties, on account of the multiplicity of the sluices, the commerce of Western America would gain prodigiously by good roads from Tehuantepec to the Embarcadero de la Cruz, and from Panama to Portobello. It is true that in the Isthmus the pasturages are at present not favourable to the support and increase of cattle, but in so fertile a country, it would be easy to make savannahs by cutting down the forests, or to cultivate the Paspalum purpureum, the Milium nigricans, and particularly the Luzerne (Medicago sativa), which grows abundantly in Peru in the hottest parts.

The introduction of camels would be a means still more calculated to diminish the expenses of conveyance.

These land ships, as the Orientals call them, are at present to be found only in the province of Caracas, where the Marquis of Toro introduced them from the Canaries.

No political consideration ought to oppose the progress of population, agriculture, commerce, and civilization in the isthmus of Panama.

The more cultivated this tongue of land becomes, the more resistance it will oppose to a foreign enemy.

If some enterprising nation wished to make itself master of the isthmus, it could more easily do so in its present state.

There are numerous fine fortifications destitute of arms to defend them.

The insalubrity of the climate, though already diminished at Portobello, renders a military enterprize in the Isthmus difficult.

It is from Saint Charles de Chiloe, and not from Panama, that Peru can be attacked.

It would take three or four months to advance against the currents from Panama to Lima, whereas the navigation from Chili to Peru is easy and always rapid.

Notwithstanding the disadvantages presented by the Isthmus, the possession of it is still of great importance to an enterprising nation.

The whale fishery, which so far back as 1803, employed sixty English vessels in the South Sea, the facility of the trade with China, and the furs of Nootka Sound, are very seducing temptations; they suffice, sooner or later, to attract the masters of the ocean towards a point of the globe, which nature seems to have destined to effect a change in the commercial system of nations.

VI. To the south-east of Panama, following the coasts of the Pacific, from Cape St. Michael to Cape Corrientes, we come to the small port of Cupica.

The name of this bay has become celebrated in the kingdom of New Grenada, on account of a new plan for a communication between the two seas.

From Cupica, we cross, for a distance of five or six sea leagues, a level tract very well adapted for a canal, which would end at the Embarcadero of the Rio Naipi, or Naipipi.

This latter river is navigable, and falls below the village of Zitara, into the Rio Atrato, which empties itself into the sea of the Antilles. Mr. Gogueneche, a very intelligent Biscayan pilot, has the merit of having first drawn the attention of the government to this bay of Cupica; he attempted to prove that it might become to the new world what Suez had antiently been to Asia. Mr. Gogueneche proposed to send all the cocoa of Guayaquil by the Naipi to Carthagena.

The same channel offers the advantage of a very speedy communication between Cadiz and Lima.

Instead of sending the mails by Carthagena, Santa-Fé, or Quito, or by Buenos Ayres, and Mendoça, the dispatches should be sent by the mouths of the Atrato to Cupica, and forwarded by little swift sailing packet-boats from Cupica to Peru.

If this route had been opened, the viceroy of Lima would not sometimes have remained six months without receiving orders from his court.

Besides, the environs of the bay of Cupica furnish fine timber, which might be sent to Lima.

The tract lying between Cupica and the mouth of the Atrato, is perhaps the only place in the whole of America in which the chain of the Andes is wholly interrupted.

To form an idea of this extraordinary depression of the western Cordillera of New Grenada, we must recollect that in the second degree of latitude, in the assemblage of mountains which contains the sources of the Rio Magdalena, the Andes divide into three chains.

The most easterly extends, deviating towards the north-east, by Timana, Bogota, and Pemplona, to the snowy mountains of Merida: between lake Maracaybo and the city of Valencia, it joins the Cordillera, of the coast of Venezuela.

The intermediate chain, that of Panama, Guanacas, and Quindiù, separates the longitudinal valley of the Rio Cauca from that of the Rio Magdalena.

In the province of Antioquia, it joins the most westerly chain of New Grenada, which gradually disappears in the district of Choco, in latitude 7°, a little to the west of Zitara, between the left bank of the Atrato, and the shores of the Pacific.

It would be interesting to know the configuration of the ground between Cape Garachine, or the Gulph of Saint Michael, and Cape Tiburon, especially towards the sources of the Rio Tuyra and Chucunaque, or Chuchunque, that we might determine with precision where the mountains of the isthmus of Panama commence, the line of whose summits appears to be not above a hundred toises in height.

The interior of Darfour is not more unknown to geographers than the damp, unwholesome, and woody tract which extends to the north-west of Betoi, and of the junction of the Bevara with the Atrato, towards the isthmus of Panama.

All that we positively know at present is that between Cupica and the left bank of the Atrato, there is either a land strait (detroite terrestre), or a total absence of any chain.

The mountains of the isthmus of Panama, on account of their direction and geographical position, may be considered as a continuation of the mountains of the Antioquia and Choco; but in the plains to the west of the lower Atrato there is scarcely a ledge, or a slight barrier.

Between the isthmus and the Cordillera of Antioquia, there is not a group of the mountains, interposed like that which indubitably connects (between Barquesimeto, Nirgua, and Valencia), the eastern chain of New Grenada, (La Sierra de la Suma Paz, and the Sierra Nevada de Merida), to the Cordillera of the coast of Venezuela.

This information was communicated to me in 1803, by an inhabitant of Carthagena: but the geographical position of Cupica is as uncertain as that of the junction of the Naipi with the Atrato. I cannot find on any Spanish map the port of Cupica; but Puerto Quemado, or Tupica, in 7° 15′ latitude.

It would be very important to know whether schooners can ascend from the mouth of the Atrato to the junction of the Naipi.

It is to be hoped that all these points will be soon cleared up by observations made on the spot.

VII.

In the interior of the province of Choco, the little ravine (Quebrada) of the Raspadura unites the Rio de Noanama, vulgarly called the Rio San Juan, to the small river of Quibdo.

This latter, augmented by the waters of the Andagueda and the Rio Zitara, forms the Rio Atrato, which falls into the sea of the Antilles, while the Rio San Juan empties itself into the Pacific.

A very active monk, priest of the village of Novita, caused his parishioners to dig a little canal in the ravine of the Raspadura.

By means of this canal, which is navigable during the rainy season, boats loaded with cocoa have passed from one sea to the other.

Here then is an inland communication which has existed since 1788, and is unknown in Europe.

The small canal of the Raspadura connects the coasts of the two oceans in two points above ninety-five leagues distant from each other.

It will never be any thing more than a canal for boats; but it might be easily enlarged by joining to it the streams known by the name of Caño de las Animas, del Caliche, and Aguaclaras.

Reservoirs and tributary channels are easily made in a country like Choco, where it rains all the year, and thunders every day.

According to the information I obtained at Honda and Vilela, near Cali, from persons employed in the trade of the gold dust from Choco, the Rio Quibdo, which communicates with the canal of Mina de Raspadura, unites, near the village of Quibdo, (vulgarly called Zitara) with the Rio Zitara and the Rio Andagueda; but, according to a manuscript map which I have just received from Choco, on which the canal of the Raspadura likewise joins (in latitude 5° 20′) the Rio San Juan and the Rio Quibdo, a little above the mine of Animas, the village of Quibdo is placed at the confluence of the small river of this name with the Rio Atrato which has received the Rio Andagueda, three leagues higher up near Lloro.

From its mouth (lat. 4° 6′) to the south of the point of the Charambira, the great Rio San Juan receives successively, in ascending towards the N. N. E. the Rio Calima, the Rio del No, (above the village of Noanama) the Rio Tamana, which flows near Novita, the Rio Iro, the Quebrada de San Pablo, and lastly, near the village of Tado, the Rio de la Platina.

The province of Choco is inhabited only on the banks of these rivers; it has commercial communications towards the north with Carthagena, by the Atrato, the banks of which are entirely deserted from latitude 60° 45′; towards the south with Guayaquil, and (before 1786) with Valparairo, by the Rio San Juan; to the east with the province of Popayan, by the Tambo de Calima and by Cali.

The ravine of the Raspadura, which serves as a canal, and which I believe I was the first to make known in Europe, is often confounded on maps with the portage of Calima and of San Pablo.

The Arastradero de San Pablo also leads to the Rio Quibdo, but several leagues above the mouth of the Raspadura. It is by the road from this Arastradero of San Pablo that goods are generally sent from Popayan by way of Cali, Tambo de Calima, and Novita to Choco del Norte, that is to say to Quibdo. It cannot be doubted that on any point of equinoctial America, whether in the isthmus of Choco, or those of Panama, Nicaragua, and Huasacualco, the union of two neighbouring ports by a canal, from four to six feet deep, (Canal en petite section) or by a river converted into a canal, would give rise to a very active commerce.

This canal would act as a railway, and, however small, would animate and abridge the communications between the western American coasts and the United States, and Europe: but however advisable enterprizes of this kind may be, they never can have that powerful influence on the commerce of the two hemispheres that a real oceanic canal would have.

VIII.

In ten degrees south latitude, two or three days’ journey from Lima, you come to the banks of the river Guallaga (or Huallaga) by which, without doubling Cape Horn, you may go to the coasts of the Grand Para in Brazil.

The sources of the Rio Huanuco, which falls into the Guallaga, are distant, near Chinche, four or five leagues from the sources of the Huaura, which empties itself into the Pacific.

Even the Rio Xauxa, which falls into the Apurimac or Ucayale, rises near Jauli, a short distance from the sources of the Rio Rimac, which traverses the city of Lima.

The height of the Cordillera of Peru, and the nature of the ground, render the execution of a canal impossible; but the construction of a convenient road from the capital of Peru to the Rio Huanuco, would facilitate the conveyance of merchandize to Europe.

The great rivers Ucayale and Guallaga, in five or six weeks, would bring the productions of Peru to the mouth of the Amazons, and to the coasts nearest to Europe, whereas a voyage of four months is required to carry the same goods to the same point, if they double Cape Horn.

The cultivation of the beautiful regions on the eastern slope of the Andes, and the prosperity and riches of their inhabitants depend on a free navigation of the river of the Amazons.

This liberty, which the court of Portugal denied to the Spaniards, might have been acquired in consequence of the events preceding the peace of 1801.

IX. Before the coast of Patagonia was sufficiently explored, it was supposed that the gulph of Saint George, situated between 45° and 47° of south latitude, penetrated so far into the land as to communicate with the arms of the sea, which interrupt the continuity of the western coasts, that is to say the coast opposite to the Archipelago of Chayamapu.

If this supposition were founded on a solid basis, vessels bound for the South Sea might cross South America, 175 leagues to the north of the straits of Magellan, and shorten their route above 700 leagues.

Navigators would by this means avoid the dangers which, notwithstanding the improvements in the science of navigation, still attend the voyage round the Cape of Good Hope, and along the western coasts of Patagonia, from Cape Pilares to the parallel of the Chonos islands.

In 1790 these ideas had attracted the attention of the court of Madrid.

Gil Lemos, viceroy of Peru, an upright and zealous governor, sent a small expedition under Don Jose de Moraleda, to examine the southern coast of Chili. I have seen, in the instructions which he received at Lima, that he was enjoined to preserve the strictest secrecy, if he should be so fortunate as to discover a communication between the two seas.

Don Moraleda found in 1793 that the Estero of Aysen, which had been visited in 1763 by the Jesuits, Fathers Jose Garcia and Juan Vicuña, is of all the arms of the sea, that, by which the Pacific Ocean stretches the farthest to the east.

This Estero however is not more than eight leagues long, and terminates abruptly near the isle of la Cruz, where it receives, near a hot spring, a river of small depth.

This Estero de Aysen, situated in 45° 28′ of Latitude, is therefore eighty-eight leagues distant from the gulph of Saint George.

This last gulph was accurately surveyed by the expedition of Malaspina.

In 1746 another communication had been suspected in Europe between the bay of St. Julien (latitude 50° 53′) and the Pacific Ocean.

I have drawn upon one plate the nine points which seem to offer means of communication between the two seas, by uniting neighbouring rivers either by canals or by roads which could facilitate the conveyance of goods to places where the rivers become navigable.

It is for the government, which possesses the most beautiful and fertile part of the globe, to perfect what I have only been able to hint at in this essay.

Two Spanish engineers, Messrs. Le Maur have laid down with much care the plan of the canal of Los Guines, which was intended to cross the whole isle of Cuba, from the Batabano to the Havannah.

A similar survey made in the isthmus of Guasacualco, at lake Nicaragua, between Cruces and Panama, and between Cupica and the Rio Naipi would direct the statesman in his choice: he would learn whether it is in Mexico, in Nicaragua, or in Darien, that this grand enterprise should be executed, which would immortalize a government which should turn its attention to the true interests of humanity.

The information which Major Alvarez lately communicated to Captain Cochrane, is not favourable to the utility of a canal between the Rio Naixo or Naipi, (which flows into the Atrato) and the bay of Cupica or Tupica.

This traveller assures us that the Naipipi is full of bars, and that the isthmus between the river and the coasts of the Pacific, is traversed by three ranges of hills.

(Vide, Captain Cochrane’s travels in Columbia.)

The long voyage round South America would then become less frequent; a road would be opened, if not for ships, at least for merchandize, which might go from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

When a canal shall unite the two oceans, the productions of Nootka Sound and China, will be brought above two thousand leagues nearer to Europe and the United States.

Then, and not before, great changes will be effected in the political state of Eastern Asia; for this tongue of land, against which the waves of the Atlantic break, has been for ages the bulwark of the independence of China and Japan.