A privilege for cutting a canal by this route was granted, some years ago, by my friend, General Santa Anna, to Don José de Garay, who made a very accurate survey, but was unable to form a company, and transferred his grant to an American Company in New Orleans, whose engineers were ordered out of Mexico by the Mexican government, on the ground that the privilege had become null and void; and the matter now forms a subject of dispute between the United States and Mexico. This route offers great facilities for a road, and for steam navigation on the Coatzacoalcos river. NICARAGUA ROUTE.-I shall here submit the following Comparative Table of the engineering features of the Nicaragua and the Darien proposed ship-canal routes, compiled from the " Map and Profile of the Route for the Construction of a Ship Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean across the Isthmus in the State of Nicaragua, Central America, surveyed for the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company, by O. W. Childs, chief engineer; J. D. Fay, principal assistant; F. F. Curry, G. Fitzgerald, and J. E. Cropsey, assistants, 1850-51, J. and D. Majors, Lith, 177, Broadway, New York;" from "Darien Ship Navigation, Engineer's Report to Messrs. Fox, Henderson, and Brassey," London, 1852, Saunders and Stanford, 6, Charing-cross; and the first edition of this “further, that irrespective of climate and political considerations, there is one chief requisite, one main point to be insisted on, in connection with any route, or line, intended to be available for general utility, without which permanent success will be impossible. This indispensable adjunct is a good port. Without such a place of resort at each end of any canal or railroad, easy of access, and sheltered at all times, shipping could not effect their objects securely, and in definite times. Delay, expense, and risk, must be the consequences of using a route unprovided with adequate harbourage.” Earthquakes in neighbour hood. Disputed territorial boundaries concession in litigation attempt to form a company failed - Promoters have forfeited their claim to the protection of Great Britain and the United States, the term of one year, allowed by the Bulwer and Clayton treaty, within which to commence operations, having expired. Charter of incorporation from State of New York infringed, by incapacity to comply with the principal clause, viz., that the canal should be navigable for vessels of the greatest draught of water. None have ever been known to have occurred. Concession from New Granada recognised by all Governments-term of one year, within which the Company is required by the concession, and by the Bulwer and Clayton treaty, to commence operations, unexpired company formed. Company provisionally registered, and will receive a royal charter of incorporation. The ATRATO route labours under the disadvantage of a bad harbour, on the Pacific side, Cupica being of very small extent, and open to the S.W.; and the Atrato has a bar with only five feet of water on it, while the rise of tide in the Gulf of Darien is only two feet. The CHAGRES, or Limon Bay and Panama route, surveyed in 1829 by Col. Lloyd and M. Falmare, under a commission from the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, and subse suffer from such disturbance. That district appears to be one of those limited tracts sometimes found in volcanic regions, on each side of which earthquakes and eruptions occur without affecting the central district. It does not appear, however, that there have been eruptions or violent earthquakes during the last few centuries in any part of the Isthmus usually called Darien." quently by M. Garella, has such bad harbours, that the idea of a canal by that line has been totally abandoned. The route from Chepo mouth to Mandinga Bay, proposed by Mr. Evan Hopkins," who attempted to survey it in 1847, for the New Granada Government, although the narrowest line across the Isthmus, being only twenty-seven miles across, from Chepo to Carti, has the disadvantages of bad coasts, a very high Cordillera, of from 2,000 to 6,000 feet elevation, and a large population of Indians. The bar at the mouth of Chepo River is quite dry at low water, as is also a sand-bank which extends several miles out into the Bay of Panama; the part of the Atlantic coast on the other side is beset with reefs, shoals and kays, and is dangerous of approach. Capt. Fitzroy, R.N., in his "Considerations upon the Great Isthmus of Central America," suggests a line from the upper course of the Tuyra to the Atrato, or the coast of Darien above its mouth, as an improvement of the route proposed by me; but this would be nearly twice 5 Mr. Hopkins," says Capt. Fitzroy, p. 23, "was lately prevented by the Indians from ascending the Chepo River towards Mandinga or San Blas Bay; Mr. Wheelwright was also stopped there in 1837; and Dr. Cullen was likewise stopped by the aborigines while endeavouring to ascend the Paya river, that runs from near the mouths of the Atrato to the Tuyra, which falls into the Gulf of San Miguel." I learned in Darien that Mr. Hopkins and Don Pepe Hurtado, a Granadian engineer, made a present of a scarlet military coat to an Indian on the Chepo, and that as soon as the Indian chief of the district learned it, he flogged the Indian who accepted the present, and summoned his people to arms, and Mr H. and Don Pepe had to fly for their lives. Most probably the chief looked upon the acceptance of gaudy trappings as an acknowledgement of submission to foreigners. I have mentioned elsewhere my having learned subsequently that the reason of the Indians having stopped me was the fear of small-pox being introduced amongst them rather any dislike to foreigners. C very advi the distance of the Port Escoscés, and Gulf of San Miguel route; there would be the mountain of Chacargun or the Sierra de Maly to cross (see page 58), and, should the canal open into the Atrato, there would be the very formidable obstacle of the bar to remove, while of the coast above the Atrato mouth, the "Columbian navigator" says, "all this coast from Tarena Kays to Cape Tiburon is high and precipitous, with deep water off it; and it is very wild in the season of the breezes. It is sable, therefore, at these seasons, to shun it." however, in this direction, would be included in the privilege granted, on the 1st of June, 1852, by the New Granada Government, to Edward Cullen, Charles Fox, John Henderson, and Thomas Brassey, for cutting a canal from Port Escoscés to the Gulf of San Miguel, which gives power to select any place from the west mouth of the Atrato to Punta Musquitos, for the Atlantic entrance of the canal. Any route DISCOVERY OF THE SAVANA RIVER AND THE ROUTE FOR THE SHIP CANAL.-I imagine that the river Savana was not delineated in the maps which Hum 6 Mr. Thomas Jefferys has marked out the Rio San Miguel, the next river to the west of the Savana, but has omitted the latter altogether. His West India Atlas (1762) was compiled from the draughts and surveys found on board the Galleons captured from the Spaniards. The Chuquanaqua is marked in the map of the Darien Scotch settlement and circumjacent county, prefixed to "A Letter, giving a description of the Isthmus of Darien," 4to., Edinburgh, 1699. It is remarkable, that some of the passages in this "Letter" are identical with Basil Ringrose's account of the Buccaneer's passage across the Isthmus, which I have quoted in page 46, and which I have taken from a MS. in the Ayscough collection (British Museum), by Basil Ringrose himself, illuminated with coloured portraits of Captain Andreas, "the Emperor of the Isthmus," King Golden Cap," "the Darien Chief," and sketches of the houses, weapons, and ornaments of the natives. |