descending on the northern side to the river Coatzacoalcos, which at no very extravagant expense of labour and money can be rendered navigable for 100 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, Ships of 1,000 tons can now proceed up the river for 34 miles to above the town of Mina-titlan, where formerly the Spanish government had a depôt for collecting Mahogany and Pine Timber, which went to supply the arsenal at the Havana. This depôt was deserted when the revolution of of Mexico commenced. The whole transit from sea to sea, will be one hundred and seventy miles, of which only fifty miles have to be cut for a canal, and some dykes and locks placed on the river. Mr. Moro has proved the proximity of a mountain range 10,000 feet above the the sea, from which copious streams descend sufficient to supply the summit level of the canal by means of a few miles of conduit. This fact at once determines the feasibility of this project, for it is the want of water at the summit level which renders a ship canal hopeless at Pa

nama.

Don Josè de Garay was for some time in England endeavouring to arouse the attention of capitalists to the importance of this enterprise, but failed to do so, as unfortunately his project came before the public at the disastrous epoch of the bubble railway speculations.

But since the marvellous development of the riches of California has inflamed all nations with the desire of having access to its treasures by the shortest possible route, the advantages of the passage by the Isthmus of Tehuantepec are very obvious-and by it the voyage from England to San Francisco, in California, will be shortened 6,950 miles, that from New York by 10,390 miles, and from New Orleans no less than 11,600 miles.

The determination of the Government of the United States, to be foremost in securing the transits over the great Isthmus at Panama and Nicaragua has been already noticed,

and therefore it is no matter of surprise, that its attention should have been keenly directed to the passage over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Don Josè de Garay, by the apathy and supineness of British capitalists, has been left to engage with our intelligent and enterprising rivals on the other side of the Atlantic; and by making large concessions of his rights to American citizens, contracts have been entered into for the construction of a ship canal to Tehuantepec: and to carry out the same, a macadamized road in the line of the works for the canal, is in the mean time being completed over the Isthmus to the river Coatzacoalcos. The American Government, fully alive to the political and commercial importance of this route, has, on the 23rd of June of this year, entered into treaty stipulations with Mexico, guaranteeing the rights of this contract, and both parties solemnly declare that the territory of this transit shall never be alienated from Mexico, to any power, but shall remain for ever open and neuter, for the benefit of the commerce of all nations. This treaty, which is given in the Appendix, No. 3, is negociated in strict accordance with and upon the same basis, as that concluded in the early part of this year, between the State of Nicaragua, Great Britain, and the United States, in respect to the Ship Canal, the works of which are now commencing in Nicaragua, also, by an American company of adventurers.

But whilst it has been thus endeavoured succinctly to lay before the reader, short accounts of the three projects for opening the highways to California and the Coasts of the Pacific, across the American Isthmus, via Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec, one or all of which will soon be put into execution, it has not formed any part of the present design to discuss or enter into any of the details of their respective plans, or to remark upon the amount of capital their execution may respectively involve; though not any of them would require a sum equal to what has been ex

pended upon either the Great Western or the London and Birmingham railway. For these details, it suffices to refer to very high authority, and known by the title of "Rockwell's Report to the House of Representatives, in the Thirtieth Congress of the United States," where will be found collected every thing that has been advanced upon these important questions.

It is sufficient, at the present time, to show the immense influence they will assuredly have in turning the attention of enlightened men to the countries themselves, which are to be traversed: and so to stimulate their peaceful colonization and development, and bring their infinite resources into play for the benefit of commerce in general.

It has been already shown that a great extent of the surface of the States, lately forming the Republic of Central America, is covered with vast and dense forests abounding in gigantic trees of every description; and, in addition to this, it has now to be noticed that the provinces of Mexico, which border the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, or are drained by the great river Coatzacoalcos and its numerous powerful tributaries, present the same natural features.

Mr. Moro, the engineer, who surveyed Tehuantepec, cites all anterior authorities, and gives his own testimony to the existence on the high grounds, of Pines, Cedars, and Oaks; and lower down the streams the Mahogany, Guayacan, Rosewood, Ebony, and Gateado are particularly abundant with Dyewoods and Gum trees; and in the plains all productions of the tropics grow in the highest perfection. The tributaries of the Coatzacoalcos descend from the northern flank of the Cordillera, and are the means of communication with Oajaca, (rich in mineral productions); and with Chiapas and Tabasco, already spoken of. Several experimental cargoes of Mahogany

D

from the Coatzacoalcos have already been advantageously disposed of in New York, Havre, and Hamburg, and one was sold in Liverpool last year.

There is a native population of 60,000 souls spread over the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, settled in numerous villages, and possessing large herds of cattle, but the grants to Don Josè de Garay give him all the unoccupied lands for thirty miles on either hand of the line of communication from sea to sea, with full liberty of colonisation for 50 leagues more on each side; and no doubt these privileges will soon be availed of by emigrants preferring these beautiful and prolific countries to the bleak barren crags of the wild inhospitable gold regions of California.

Having now brought the account of the States which form the great American Isthmus, as they extend from Panama to Tehuantepec, to a close, there remains but a word or two to say with respect to the harbours in the Gulf of Mexico, before entering upon the more ample details, which the British Settlement of Honduras, with its protected State of Mosquitia, will require.

The Port of the Coatzacoalcos is, as already said, accessible for vessels of 1000 tons burthen, to ascend the river thirty-four miles to Mina-titlan. To the eastward in the State of Tabasco, are the anchorages of the bar of Santa Ana, Rivers Tupilco, and Victoria de Tabasco. This last is in communication with San Juan Bautista, the capital. The bar of San Pedro is at the mouth of the Sumasinta, and the harbour of the Isla del Carmen, commands the Great Lagoon of Terminos. Next follow in the Peninsula of Yucatan, the Ports of Campeche and Sisal,—which last is the anchorage for Merida the capital. But at present, for want of internal communications, this province has no trade in heavy timber on the side of the Gulf of Mexico. But to the eastward, it possesses the

deep Bays of Ascension and Bacalar, with which the Mahogany Cutters of Honduras have had intercourse of late years.

We have now formed the circuit of the coast, and shall proceed, in the next sections, to a description of the British settlement of Honduras, with its dependant protected territory of Mosquitia.

CHAPTER III.

Geographical position-productions-capabilities of the British settlement of Honduras.-The Province of Honduras, one of the States of the late Republic of Central America, and Mosquitia.

The British Settlement of Honduras is situated on the east side of the Peninsula of Yucatan, between the 18o 30' and 15o 50' of north latitude. It has the Mexican Province of Yucatan on its north, its eastern coast extends on the Atlantic from the Rio Hondo to the river Sarstoon, and this last empties itself into the Gulf of Honduras, only 20 miles N.W. of the Gulf of Dulce. The State of Guatemala, of which mention has already been made, bounds it to the west along the line of 90° west longitude; and the Province of Vera Paz, one of the States of the dissolved Republic of Central America, is to the south; and south-east of it is the State of Honduras, reaching to Truxillo, touching upon the Mosquito territory.

It has been in the possession of the British crown for 200 years; the treaties with the Spaniards were broken through, and violated by their governors; and this settlement has been ever successfully defended and held by its inhabitants for Great Britain.

The country for many miles along the sea board is low, and the approach to the coast dangerous, its navigation being intricate amongst the numerous islands and reefs to the east