THE PROJECTED SHIP CANAL TO CONNECT THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS.*

A single glance at the map of the world will suffice to satisfy even the most unreflecting observer, that the execution of this long contemplated project, of connecting the two great oceans by a ship-canal across the Isthmus that divides the two Americas, would be (in the words of the Edinburgh Review, January, 1809, page 282) "the mightiest event in favor of the peaceful intercourse of nations which the physical circumstances of the globe present to the enterprise of man." It would effect a revolution in the commercial system of the world, surpassing that of the discovery of the passage by sea to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope. To the vast commerce of the United States and Europe with the western coast of South America, it would save the circumnavigation of the latter continent, the total distance of which is about twelve thousand miles, together with the difficulties and dangers of the navigation of Cape Horn. The immense Pacific territory of the United States, now all but inaccessible to the commerce of our Atlantic board, except by overland conveyance, would be brought within easy access to the latter. The commerce of the world with China, Japan, and the Indian Archipelago, would be facilitated by a saving of above four thousand miles in distance; together with a still greater advantage in safety and ease, from the route avoiding both the equatorial and the high latitudes of the present route, and passing through the most favorable latitudes for winds and currents each way. Similar advantages would be afforded to the whale, skin, and fur fisheries of the different nations, and especially the United States, in the Pacific. Incalculable as would be these advantages in the present state of the commerce of the world, their benefit would be multiplied by the effect which such increased facilities of communication and exchange would exert, to stimulate the immense masses of the human race thus acted upon to new efforts of industry, in the developement of the resource of the richest portions of the globe, which would vastly increase the

* Considerations on the subject of a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by means of a Ship Canal across the Isthmus which connects North and South America; and the best means of effecting it and permanently securing its benefits for the world at large, by means of a coöperation between individuals or companies of different nations, under the patronage of their respective governments. By a citizen of New York, formerly United States Consul at Lima, and for the ports of Peru. Georgetown, D. C. 1836.

Report of the Committee on Roads and Canals, &c., with an Appendix. Twenty-fifth Congress, Third Session. House of Representatives. No. 322.

amount of valuable production, and the activity of commercial interchange, above the present degree of either. And, finally, the moral influence upon all that section of the globe, of bringing it into such close and intimate communication with the civilization and institutions of the more favored countries of the North Atlantic, will constitute a motive not inferior, to the eye of the philanthropist, to the aggregate of all the material advantages enumerated above. If the realization of such a project be within the limits of physical possibility, we are well assured that no reader will hesitate to pronounce it an object well worthy of the combined exertions and resources, if necessary, of all the principal commercial nations of the world.

This is a subject upon which, though it has been occasionally slightly noticed in the public prints, very little is popularly known in the United States. We propose, therefore, in the present Article, to present as clear and succinct a view as possible of its history and merits; for which we find ample materials in the publications whose titles are prefixed to this paper.

The first of these is an able and lucid pamphlet, of which the author is generally understood to be Mr. William Radcliff, of New York, a gentleman with whom this has long been a subject of paramount interest, and whose mind is probably more completely filled and possessed with the conception of its grandeur, and with the information in relation to it acquired by the zealous attention to it of many years, than that of any other, individual that could be named. A small edition only of this pamphlet was printed by the author, in 1836, for private distribution.

The second consists of a Report by the Committee of Roads and Canals of the House of Representatives—Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, Chairman-made at the close of the last session of Congress, on a memorial addressed to that body by Aaron Clark, William A. Duer, Herman Leroy, Matthew Carey, William Radcliff, and others, urging upon Con. gress the importance of the object, and the peculiar obligation incumbent on the United States to take the lead in this magnificent enterprise. Annexed to the Report, which was not published till several months after the termination of the session, is an Appendix, embodying a great variety of documents replete with valuable information in relation to its subject.

Humboldt, in his "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain," Book 1, ch. 2, enumerates not less than five routes, probably possible, for the communication between the two oceans, by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

The first is comprised within the limits of Mexico, being across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the (now) State of Oaxaca. The Bay of Tehuantepec, on the Pacific, and the Bay of Campeachy, in the Gulf of Mexico, here approach to within about a hundred and twenty-five miles of each other, by a line inclining slightly to the eastward of due north. It contains the two navigable rivers, of the Chimalapa, emptying into the

former bay, and the Huasacualco, emptying into the latter. The upper waters of these rivers approach each other to within a distance of less than twenty miles, across which portage the two might be readily connected by a canal.

The second is the route by lake Nicaragua and the river San Juan, in the States of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, in the (now) Federal Republic of Central America. The canalling requisite on this route would be only over a distance of about seventeen miles between the Gulf of Papagayo, on the Pacific, and lake Nicaragua. The San Juan connects the lake Nicaragua with the Atlantic, by the Caribbean Sea, and is navigable along its whole length, (about one hundred miles,) with improvements of which it is said to be easily susceptible, for vessels of considerable burden. The distance across the lake, (from three to eight fathoms in depth), from the river to the projected embouchure of the canal, is about fifty miles.

The third is across the Isthmus of Panama, within the dominions of the (now) Republic of New Granada, by the river Chagres, which empties into the Caribbean Sea. This being the narrowest part of the Isthmus that connects the two continents, (or very nearly so,) is the route to which the attention most naturally first directs itself. The shortest distance across, in a straight line, is less than thirty miles. The course of the river Chagres, from its mouth to the town of Cruces, where it ceases to be navigable at all, is about forty-three miles. Thence, the distance across to the Bay of Panama, on the Pacific, is only about fifteen miles. We but allude to these two routes here (the Nicaragua and Chagres routes) in general terms, as we shall have occasion to speak more fully of them below.

The fourth is by the river Atrato, emptying into the Gulf of Darien (by which name we sometimes hear it called), by its tributary, the river Napipi, which is navigable, though not for vessels of large burden, to within about sixteen or eighteen miles of the small bay of Cupica, on the Pacific.

The fifth is by the same river, the Atrato, by a small branch emptying into it higher up (of course more southwardly, the course of the Atrato being nearly north) called the Quito, which empties into the main stream four hundred and ten miles from the mouths of the latter, the town of Quibdò being situated at or near their junction. The Quito approaches very near to the waters of a small river emptying into the Pacific, named the San Juan; between the sources of which and the Quito is a small ravine, called De la Raspadura, through which, it will not be an uninteresting fact in the future history of this subject, a canal communication between the two oceans has already been made. A monk of great activity," says Humboldt, "curé of the village of Novita, employed his parishioners to dig a small canal in the ravine De la Raspadura, by means of which, when the rains are abundant, canoes loaded with cocao pass from sea to sea. This interior communication has existed since 1788,

66

unknown in Europe. The small canal of Raspadura unites, on the coasts of the two oceans, two points seventy-five leagues distant from one another."

The two last mentioned, which are scarcely, perhaps, to be properly spoken of as separate routes, both consisting mainly of the river Atrato, are manifestly, as remarked by Mr. Radcliff in a letter contained in the Appendix to the Report of the Committee, entirely unsuitable to the project of a ship-canal; and much inferior to the other routes for any sort of communication, by reason of the great distance between the two oceans, the want of depth in both rivers, and want of good harbours at both ends. They lie entirely within the Continent of South America, in the province of Choco. Similar objections, so far, at least, as regards the project of a ship-canal, apply to the first-named route, that of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. And, in fact, there can be no doubt, that it is between the two remaining routes, the Guatemalian by lake Nicaragua, and the New Granadian by the river Chagres, that the alternatives of selection alone lie.

Several abortive efforts have been set on foot, at different times, to realize this long cherished dream of magnificent enterprise. These appear to have proceeded, for the most part, either from mere irresponsible and scheming adventurers, attracted by the obvious advantages and comparative facilities of the undertaking, or from parties destitute of the proper degree of energy, fixedness of purpose, and power of combination, to bring together the vast accumulation of resources on which alone so gigantic an enterprise can be founded. In some instances, too, an unfortunate fatality has intervened to frustrate plans apparently begun under happier auspices, and with fair prospects of success. We propose, in the present paper, to present a general historical outline of these successive attempts, as necessary to the complete view of the subject we are desirous of exhibiting, and as preparatory to such future action, either national or on a large scale of private combination, as we hope to see hereafter grow out of its present agitation and discussion.

During the ascendency of the Spanish dominion in these countries, little or nothing was done, or was to have been expected, towards the accomplishment of an object demanding a bold and large grasp of enterprise, and an enlightened liberality of views, political and commercial, entirely foreign to the ideas and habits of the narrow, restrictive, and exclusive system, which weighed like a paralysing incubus upon the native energies, both of the mother country and of the magnificent colonial empire bequeathed to her by the genius of Columbus;—although its future execution, at some period or other, has always been contemplated, and looked forward to with a profound interest by many enlightened minds, as "a necessary result of the form and position of this continent." Even in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, projects began to be discussed for the intersection of the Isthmus. We are not, however, aware of any surveys made with such a view by the Spanish

Government, till the year 1781, to which allusion is made in the following extracts of letters from Jefferson, when Minister at Paris, to Mr. William Carmichael, at Madrid:

"PARIS, December 11, 1787.

"I have been told that cutting through the Isthmus of Panama, which the world has so often wished and supposed practicable, has at times been thought of by the Government of Spain, and that they once proceeded so far as to have a survey and examination made of the ground; but that the result was either impracticability or too great difficulty."

"PARIS, May 27, 1788.

"With respect to the Isthmus of Panama, I am assured by Burgoin, (who would not choose to be named, however,) that a survey was made; that a canal was practicable; and that the idea was suppressed for political reasons altogether. He has seen and minutely examined the report. This report is to me a vast desideratum, for reasons political and philosophical."

It is doubtless to this survey that the Edinburgh Review alludes in the Article already referred to, in 1809, when it says: "the ground has been surveyed, and not the practicability only, but the facility of the work completely ascertained."

It is well known that the Spanish Government looked with an eye of most suspicious jealousy upon this the most interesting spot, from its remarkable natural capabilities, on the face of the globe. Well understanding that this was the weakest side, and as it were the key, of its American possessions, it trembled that the idea should go abroad, among the other powerful and commercial nations of the world, whose attention and interest would then be strongly attracted towards the Isthmus, of the possibility of a ship communication between the two oceans at this point; and it directed, therefore, unremitted efforts to the object of preserving it entirely isolated from and unknown to Europe. For this purpose it neglected the conquest of the Indians along the northern coast of the Isthmus, leaving it uninhabited and difficult of access, and planting all its population on its Pacific side. And we are told, in the "Description of the Spanish Islands and settlements on the coast of the West Indies," by Thomas Jeffry, Geographer to His Majesty in 1762, (quoted by the Edinburgh Review-we have not been able to procure the work,) that it was the instruction of the King of Spain to the Governor of St. John's Castle, not to permit any British subject to pass up or down the lake; for "if ever the English came to a knowledge of its importance and value, they would soon make themselves masters of this part of the country.'

The narrow-minded stupidity of such a policy is, however, sufficiently apparent from the following remarks in which Humboldt (writing in 1808, and dedicating his work to Charles IV.,) attempts to impress upon the Spanish Government more enlarged and liberal views in relation to this portion of its dominions:

"Moreover, no political consideration should oppose the progress of population, agriculture, commerce, and civilization, in the Isthmus of Panama. The more this