boldt saw. Such, indeed, was the case with the map which I had on my first journey into Darien in 1849, so that I was totally ignorant of its existence, until I actually saw it, after entering Boca Chica, when finding the great depth of water at its mouth, and that it flowed almost directly from the north, I became convinced that I had at last found the object of my search, viz., a feasible route to the Atlantic, and thereupon immediately ascended it, and crossed from Cañasas to the sea-shore at Port Escoscés and back, and subsequently, in 1850 and also in 1851, crossed and recrossed, at several times and by several tracks, the route from the Savana to Port Escoscés and Caledonia Bay, notching the barks of the trees as I went along, with a macheta or cutlass, always alone and unaided, and always in the season of the heaviest rains. I had previously examined, on my way from Panama, the mouths of Chepo, Chiman, Congo, and several other rivers, but found them all obstructed by bars and sandbanks, and impracticable for a ship passage, so that upon seeing the Savana, I had not the least hesitation in deciding that that must be the future route for inter-oceanic communication for ships. 66 7 This I attribute to the jealousy of the Spaniards, who were careful to withhold any information that might lead the English to the discovery of an easy communication between the two seas. Alcedo, in his Diccionario Historico de las Indias Occidentales," says that it was interdicted, on pain of death, even to propose opening the navigation between the two seas. En tiempo de Felipe II. se projectò cortarlo, y comunicar los dos mares por medio de un canal, y a este efecto se enviaron para reconocerlo dos Injiniéros Flamencos, pero encontraron dificultades insuperables, y el consejo de Indiàs representò los perjuicios que de ello se seguirian a la monarquia, por cuya razon mandò aquel Monarca que nadie propusièse ó tratase de ello en adelante, pena de la vida." The navigation of the Atrato, also, was interdicted, on pain of death. THE DARIEN CANAL ROUTE.-Port Escoscés or Scotch Harbour, and the Bay of Caledonia, on the Atlantic coast of the Isthmus of Darien, present an extent of six nautical miles, from S. E. to N.W., of safe anchorage in all winds. These harbours are situated between Carreto Bay and the channel of Sassardi, and are 140 miles E. S. E. of Limon Bay, and twenty-one miles W.N.W. of Cape Tiburon, the N.W. boundary of the Gulf of Darien. Port Escoscés extends to the S.E. to lat. 8° 50′ and long. 77° 41'; and Golden Island, or Isla de Oro, or Santa Catalina, which forms the N.W. boundary of Caledonia Bay, is in lat. 8° 54′ 40′′, and long. 77° 45′ 30′′. The channel of Sassardi, also, extending from Caledonia Bay N.W. five miles, to the Fronton, or point of Sassardi, is sheltered from the winds and seas of both seasons, and has good depth of water. Twenty-two miles S.W. of Port Escoscés is the site of the old Spanish settlement of Fuerte del Principe, on the river Savana, established in 1785, and abandoned in 1790. From thence the river Savana has nearly a S. by E. course for fourteen miles to its mouth, which opens into the river Tuyra, Santa Maria, or Rio Grande del Darien, three miles above Boca Chica and Boca Grande, the two mouths by which the latter discharges itself into the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific. Thus the distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, by the route from Port Escoscés or Caledonia Bay, to the Gulf of San Miguel, by way of the river Savana, would be thirty-nine miles. In a direct line, from Port Escoscés to the Gulf, the distance is thirty-three miles. In "Considerations on the great Isthmus of Central America, read before the Royal Geographical Society of 66 London, on the 11th and 25th Nov., 1850," Captain Fitzroy, R.N., says, Any route that could be made available between San Miguel Gulf and Caledonia Bay, or the Gulf of Darien or Choco, would have the advantage of excellent harbours at each end, and a great rise of tide in one of them (San Miguel). The river Savana is recommended by Dr. Cullen, from personal examination, as being more navigable (for canoes 8) and approaching nearer the North Coast than the Chuquanaqua does; though this does not appear in the Spanish maps. From the head of the Savana, a ravine, about three leagues in length, extends to Caledonia Bay, and there (Dr. Cullen says, having passed through it) he thinks a canal might be cut with less difficulty than elsewhere, if it were not for the opposition of the natives. He also speaks of the Indians transporting their canoes across at this ravine, and of the comparative healthiness of this part of the Isthmus." The whole work to be done, in order to make a ShipCanal communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by this route, would be to cut from Principe or from Lara Mouth to Port Escoscés or Caledonia Bay, a distance of from twenty-two to twenty-five miles, of which there would be but three or four miles of deep cutting. The Canal, to be on a scale of grandeur commensurate with its important uses, should be cut sufficiently deep to allow the tide of the Pacific to flow right through it, across to the Atlantic; so that ships bound from the Pacific to the Atlantic would pass with the flood, and those from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the ebb tide of the latter. Such was the plan recommended in my Report to Lord 8 In its upper course, as it is navigable for large vessels nearly to Principe. |