INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION.
1801-1887.
ANCIENT IDEAS ON THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE—FROM PERU TO
LA PLATA—CAPE HORN DISCOVERED—ARCTIC REGIONS—MCCLURE'S
SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE—CROZIER'S DISCOVERY—FRANKLIN'S
ATTEMPTS—FINDING BY NORDENSKIÖLD OF THE NORTH-EAST
PASSAGE—PROJECTS TO UNITE THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS
ACROSS THE ISTHMUSES—PLANS ABOUT TEHUANTEPEC—EXPLORATIONS
FOR A SHIP-CANAL ROUTE IN NICARAGUA, PANAMÁ, AND DARIEN—THE
NICARAGUA ACCESSORY TRANSIT COMPANY—CONSTRUCTION OF THE
PANAMÁ RAILWAY, AND ITS GREAT BENEFITS—FURTHER EFFORTS FOR
A CANAL—ORGANIZATION OF A FRENCH COMPANY—A SHIP-CANAL UNDER
CONSTRUCTION ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMÁ—DIFFICULTIES
AND EXPECTATIONS—CENTRAL AMERICAN RAILROADS AND
TELEGRAPHS—SUBMARINE CABLES.
No sooner had lands been discovered to the westward of Europe than
the minds of cosmographers became fixed in the idea of short routes to
India in that direction;[XXXIV-1] nor would they abandon it until long
after both shores of the western continent had been explored from the
Arctic sea to Cape Horn.[XXXIV-2]
[Sidenote: EARLY EXPLORATIONS.]
I have elsewhere presented a full account of explorations by land
and sea to establish communications between the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans prior to the opening of the present century.[XXXIV-3] The
most important of the earlier discoveries, since Magalhaes' time, was
that of the open polar sea south of Cape Horn, which was named by the
Dutch navigators Le Maire and Van Schouten.[XXXIV-4] The north-west
passage, so long the object of search, was at last found in 1851 by an
English expedition. The discovery was effected by Robert Le Mesurier
McClure, who, in command of the _Investigator_, sailed, together with
the _Enterprise_ under Richard Collinson, from England in 1850. Before
the close of the year, McClure passed Point Barrow, pushed along the
continent, doubled the south end of Banks Island, and sailed through
Prince of Wales' Strait, where he wintered near Melville Sound. In
1851, the west side of the peninsular part of Wollaston Island to
Prince Albert's Sound was surveyed. By finding the strait connecting
the continental channel with Melville Sound, McClure became the
discoverer of the north-west passage, and was the first navigator to
pass from Bering Strait to Baffin Bay.[XXXIV-5] Yet he gave to Captain
Crozier, second in command of Franklin's expedition, the credit of
prior discovery. McClure with the _Investigator_ was shut in during the
winters of 1851-2, and 1852-3. In the spring of 1853 he resolved to
abandon the ship and seek Mackenzie River and Lancaster Sound in two
parties, a journey which would have been disastrous. At this moment,
April 6th, Lieutenant Pym of the _Resolute_ appeared.[XXXIV-6] The
McClure party were taken to the _Resolute_, and reached England in
1854.
[Sidenote: NORTH-EAST PASSAGE.]
The north-east passage was discovered by Adolf Erick Nordenskiöld in
1879, after 326 years from the first attempt by Hugh Willoughby in
1553.[XXXIV-7]
* * * * *
[Illustration: INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION.]
The necessity of shorter communication between the two oceans becoming
more evident from day to day, with the increase of traffic with the
western coast of America, with China, and with the numerous islands
of the Pacific, various projects were entertained to establish such
communication either by canal or railway. At Tehuantepec, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and the isthmus of Panamá were formed the most favorable
conditions for a forced or artificial transit.[XXXIV-8]
[Sidenote: TEHUANTEPEC ISTHMUS.]
The breadth of the isthmus of Tehuantepec between the bays of
Campeche and Tehuantepec at the narrowest point is 130 miles. It
is drained by the rivers Coatzacoalcos and Tehuantepec, the former
running northward, discharging its waters into the first-named bay,
and extending over three fourths of the width of this isthmus; the
latter flowing into the bay of Tehuantepec. There are several lakes
and lagoons. At one time it was proposed to cut a canal across this
isthmus, and to improve the navigation of the Coatzacoalcos, to which
end surveys were made.[XXXIV-9] But no action having been taken
toward constructing a canal by the parties to whom franchises had
been given, the scheme of a railroad across this section has been also
contemplated,[XXXIV-10] and finally a grant was made to James B. Eads,
to construct a ship railway between the two gulfs, capable of having
transported over it the largest ships with their cargoes.[XXXIV-11]
The scheme has been declared by Eads, and by other engineers of high
repute in Europe and America, to be practicable. His opponents deride
it. He applied, without success, to the United States government for
assistance.[XXXIV-12]
[Sidenote: NICARAGUA ISTHMUS.]
The idea of uniting the two oceans, by means of a canal across the
isthmus of Nicaragua, occupied the attention of the Spanish court from
a very early day after the conquest to the last years of its occupation
of the country.[XXXIV-13] Since the separation of Central America from
the crown, the canal scheme has ever been uppermost in the minds of her
rulers and thinking men, and many scientific engineers and capitalists
of Europe and America have taken a deep interest therein. But for
divers reasons nothing was accomplished toward establishing an adequate
interoceanic communication, in any form, down to 1849.[XXXIV-14] This
year a new arrangement was made with Cornelius Vanderbilt and Joseph
L. White of New York, in which the government of the United States,
through its representative, E. George Squier, became concerned. This
arrangement gave rise to complications with Great Britain, which were
finally settled by the Clayton-Bulwer treaty to perpetually guarantee
the neutrality of the canal to be constructed. The contractors failed
to carry out their agreement as regarded the construction of a canal,
but established the Accessory Transit Company, and by means of steamers
on the two oceans, and on the river San Juan and Lake Nicaragua,
rendered valuable service in the transportation of passengers. The
matter was given in detail, in connection with the relations of that
company with the Nicaraguan government, including its history from the
date of the foundation till 1869, when it ceased to exist. However,
their engineer, O. Childs, made a survey of the route for a canal in
1851, and recommended one from the mouth of Lajas River to Port Brito,
traversing the Rio Grande Valley.[XXXIV-15] Since that time many
schemes have been contemplated, and contracts entered into, but none of
them have given the desired result.[XXXIV-16]
[Sidenote: ACROSS MOSQUITIA.]
I have yet to mention Pim's scheme, advanced in 1853, of building
a railway from Punta Mico on the Atlantic to San Miguelito, on the
eastern shore of the lake, traversing Mosquitia. A company was formed,
but the project was soon found to be impracticable.[XXXIV-17]
No efforts have been spared ever since by Nicaragua and American
citizens to bring about the accomplishment of the long-expected canal,
under the impression that it is the most desirable, feasible, and
least expensive route. The assistance of the United States government
has been solicited, and treaties made to afford facilities, but the
American congress has thus far refused to do anything, except send
commissions to explore the several lines, and their reports seem to
be favorable.[XXXIV-18] The last treaty concluded between the two
governments with reference to a canal was rejected by the United
States senate. The last survey made under the auspices of the American
government was that of Engineer Menocal, of the United States navy,
who, with other officers, visited Nicaragua in January 1885. His report
was presented in November of that year. The plan of this commission had
been at first to convert the river San Juan above its junction with
the Sarapiqui into an extension of the lake by constructing a dam 74
feet high, but it was found impracticable. The proposed route extends
from San Juan del Norte to Brito. The total length is 169.8 miles,
of which 38.98 miles will be excavated canal, and 130.82 navigation
by Lake Nicaragua, the river San Juan, the basin of the river San
Francisco, and seven locks. Lake Nicaragua will be connected with the
Pacific by a canal, and with the Atlantic by slackwater navigation in
the river San Juan, by a short section of canal from the San Juan to
the basin of the San Francisco, by navigation through this basin, and
by a canal thence to the Caribbean Sea. The route has been divided
into three divisions, the western, eastern, and middle.[XXXIV-19] The
cost was carefully estimated, including a contingent of 25 per cent, at
$64,043,697. De Lesseps is of opinion, however, that a canal with locks
would be inadequate to pass the traffic that will frequent it, and
would suffer from uncertainty of sufficient water to supply the lockage
and evaporation.[XXXIV-20]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: PANAMÁ ISTHMUS.]
One of the four routes suggested by Antonio Galvao to the king of
Spain, for cutting a canal to join the two oceans, was the Isthmus of
Panamá.[XXXIV-21] Soon after New Granada threw off the Spanish yoke,
several surveys of Panamá and Darien were made, and canal projects
recommended;[XXXIV-22] two of them, deemed the most important, were
that of Lloyd's to build a railroad from Panamá or La Chorrera to the
Trinidad River, a tributary of the Chagres; and that of a sluiced canal
recommended in 1843 by Garella and Courtines, who studied the Isthmus
under a commission of the French government. And there were other
projects.[XXXIV-23]
The attention of the United States government was directed to the
subject of interoceanic routes as early as 1825. In 1835 the executive
was requested by the senate to enter into negotiations with the
Central American states and New Granada, conducive to treaties for the
protection of Americans who might attempt opening the communication
between the two oceans. A treaty was made by the United States with
New Granada on the 12th of December, 1846, under which the latter
guaranteed to the former "the right of way or transit across the
Isthmus of Panamá, upon any modes of communication that now exist, or
that may be hereafter constructed." The United States government on
its part guaranteed to New Granada the neutrality of the Isthmus, and
the rights of sovereignty and property over its territory.[XXXIV-24] At
last an American company, being stimulated by the great traffic across
the Isthmus, took up the matter of a railway.[XXXIV-25]
[Sidenote: PANAMÁ RAILWAY.]
The termini resolved on were Colon on the Atlantic, and on the Pacific,
a little to the eastward of the city of Panamá, quite clear of the
suburbs. The work was begun in January 1850, and finished on the 28th
of January, 1855. Its total length is 47 miles, 3,020 feet. The line
is a single one, but has four very commodious sidings; namely, Gatun,
7½ miles from Colon; one near Barbacoas, 22 miles; one at Matachin, 30
miles; and one at the summit, 37 miles. There are stations at every
four miles. The undertaking was a bold one, and was successfully
carried out under the able and energetic superintendence of George M.
Totten.[XXXIV-26] The actual cost, as per construction account, was
eight million dollars. The road has been improved from year to year.
Articles of the coarsest and heaviest description, as well as ordinary
merchandise, have been constantly conveyed over it. The road began to
yield some income since 1852, when it had reached Barbacoas. I give
in a note some statistics on receipts and expenditures.[XXXIV-27] The
company from the beginning of its operations had a line of telegraph
between Panamá and Colon. In 1881 the railway was sold to the company
organized to construct a canal for $17,500,000, being at the rate of
$250 per share. Adding other items, and interest on annual instalments,
the share-holders received about twenty million dollars.[XXXIV-28]
A survey made by United States officers in 1866, through Chiriquí,
showed that it was practicable to build a railway through the
cordillera. The harbors of Chiriquí and Sheperd on the Atlantic, and
of Golfito in Golfo Dulce, were favorably reported upon by Commodore F.
Engle.[XXXIV-29]
[Sidenote: VARIOUS SCHEMES.]
But the idea of an interoceanic canal was ever present.[XXXIV-30]
Nothing was practically done, until the whole subject was discussed
in 1875 at the congress of geographical sciences held in Paris, and a
company was organized under General Türr for effecting the requisite
explorations. Lucien N. Bonaparte Wyse, a lieutenant of the French
navy, assisted by other engineers, was sent out to the Isthmus. The
exploring commission effected their work thoroughly, and the section
from Colon to Panamá was given the preference.[XXXIV-31] The Colombian
government granted on the 18th of May, 1878, to the Civil International
Interoceanic Association, residing in Paris, the exclusive privilege
for ninety-nine years of constructing a canal between the two oceans,
at the same time establishing the neutrality of the ports at the
termini, and of the canal itself.[XXXIV-32]
De Lesseps, of Suez Canal fame, undertook in 1879 the task of
constructing the canal, and the first meeting of the company, now
called Compagnie Universal du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, took
place in 1881. It was calculated that six hundred million francs,
or be it $120,000,000, would cover the expense of construction and
completion. One of the company's first acts was to establish in
New York a branch board of directors, and another was to purchase
the Panamá railway.[XXXIV-33] The works were commenced in October
1881.[XXXIV-34] The canal in course of construction follows the route
of the railway, though keeping closer to the bed of the Chagres, which
it is to cross again and again; on the Pacific side it will descend
the Rio Grande Valley, and continue seaward to the island of Perico, a
total length of fifty-four miles.[XXXIV-35]
[Sidenote: DIFFICULTIES TO OVERCOME.]
The works have been prosecuted with more or less vigor, by the use
of powerful dredges, until the capital became exhausted, and their
operations declined for many months, seeming to confirm predictions of
failure.[XXXIV-36] However that may be, De Lesseps and his friends are
confident that the opening of the canal will become an accomplished
fact within eight years from the time of commencement.[XXXIV-37]
There can be no doubt that a large portion of the original capital
was wasted, and if rumor is not at fault much was misappropriated.
But public confidence in De Lesseps remains unshaken in France, and he
has been able to obtain by subscription abundant funds to continue the
work,[XXXIV-38] and it is now being vigorously pushed. His calculation
is that there will be business for the canal to the extent of 7,250,000
tons, yielding 6 or 7 per cent on 2,000 million francs, or 108,000,000
francs, equivalent to $21,600,000.
* * * * *
This is not the place in which to speak of the several northern
railways across the continent. The Central American states—exclusive of
Panamá, which has had that benefit since 1855—have made some progress
in late years toward establishing railway communication between the
two seas. Guatemala has one line from Port San José, on the Pacific,
to the capital,[XXXIV-39] and another from Port Champerico, also on the
Pacific, to Retalhuleu.[XXXIV-40]
[Sidenote: CENTRAL AMERICAN RAILWAYS.]
Measures had likewise been taken to communicate the capital by
railroads with the northern sea, contemplating at the same time
to build another line from Coban to the Polochic River. However,
these projects, so far as I know, have been, since President
Barrios' death, in abeyance. The Spanish court was repeatedly
urged to open communications between Puerto Caballos and the bay
of Fonseca.[XXXIV-41] Traffic on mule-back was carried on between
both seas in colonial times; but what we know of the isthmus of
Honduras is derived from the surveys made by the British Honduras
Interoceanic Railway Company, and reported by their agent, E. G.
Squier. As a practicable route for a ship canal, Honduras is out of
the question; but the construction of a railroad was begun between
Puerto Caballos or Cortés, on the Caribbean Sea, and Amapala in the bay
of Fonseca,[XXXIV-42] through the valley of the Goascoran and Humuya
rivers—232 miles. The road was graded, and a narrow-gauge track was
built from Port Cortés to San Pedro, of about 37 miles in length. The
work was suspended in 1871, and abandoned in 1873. Civil disturbances
and lack of means have prevented its resumption. Several franchises
have been granted in later years for continuing it; but nothing of a
practical nature has resulted.[XXXIV-43]
Salvador has no territory on the Atlantic slope. She has a railroad
between San Miguel and Port La Union; another line is being built
from Port Acajutla to the heart of the coffee region of Santa Ana.
It is possible that in the future the republic may be placed in
communication, by railway, with the Atlantic, through the territory of
her neighbors.
In Nicaragua the line between Corinto and Chinandega, and hence to
Leon, was in operation in 1881-2. The work steadily progressed. The
western section was opened to public service in 1884, connecting it
with the steam-ship line on the lake. Thus was Managua, the capital,
placed in rapid and cheap communication by steam with Corinto, the
chief port of the republic. The whole line from Momotombo to Corinto
was yielding six and four fifths per cent on the capital invested.
In the eastern section the work was going on rapidly at the end of
1884, and 20 miles to Masaya would soon be finished. The government
contemplated to have a direct railway line from Villa de la Paz to
Managua, thus establishing a continuous communication between Managua
and Granada.[XXXIV-44]
Costa Rica, thus far, has three lines, or rather divisions or sections;
namely, the Central, running between San Jose and the interior
provinces, via Cartago, Heredia, Alajuela, Tres Rios, and San Joaquin;
the Atlantic, from Limon to the interior, which is the route through
which most of the country's foreign trade is carried on; and the
Pacific which runs from Puntarenas to Esparta.[XXXIV-45]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: TELEGRAPH LINES.]
The five Central American republics are intersected by telegraph
lines belonging to their respective governments, and communicating
their chief towns with one another within themselves, and with the
sister republics.[XXXIV-46] The isthmus of Panamá has a communication
by submarine cable with Central America and Mexico at the port of La
Libertad and Acapulco. The cities of Panamá and Colon are in direct
communication by wire. The Isthmus is further connected by cable,
on the Pacific, with Peru, via Buenaventura, which also places it in
telegraphic communication with Bogotá and the rest of Colombia. A cable
to Jamaica affords another connection, via Cuba, with the United States
and Europe.[XXXIV-47]
The question of interoceanic communication by ship-canal across the
isthmuses of Central America occupying, as it does, general attention,
I have concluded to append hereto information on the subject by several
competent authorities; namely, the British explorer, Dr Edward Cullen,
and E. George Squier.
IGNORANCE RESPECTING DARIEN.—It is a very singular
circumstance that the coast of Darien, the first settled in
America (Santa Maria having been founded in 1509, and Acla
in Caledonia Bay in 1514), within eighteen days' steaming
from England, close also to such frequented ports as Chagres,
Carthagena, and Kingston, Jamaica, should be at the present
day as unknown as the coasts of Patagonia or of New Guinea,
and that the vast advantages of this tract of country, for
a canal, should have escaped the penetration of the great
Humboldt, who, after having examined all the maps in the
Depósito Hidrográfico of Madrid, appears to suggest the
Chuquanaqua. He says: 'On the Pacific coast, also, the deep
Golfo de San Miguel, into which falls the Tuyra with its
tributary, the Chuchunque, runs far into the Isthmus; the
river Chuchunque, too, in the upper part of its course, runs
within sixteen geographical miles of the Antillean shore of
the Isthmus, westward of Cape Tiburon.' _Views of Nature_,
Potsdam, June 1849, p. 432 of Bohn's translation.
The Atrato route labors under the disadvantage of a bad
harbor, 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. Falmarc, under a commission from the
Liberator, Simon Bolívar, and subsequently by M. Garella, has
such bad harbors 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,[XXXIV-48] 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 Panamá; 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 the distance of the Port
Escocés, and gulf of San Miguel route; there would be the
mountain of Chacargun or the Sierra de Maly to cross, 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 very advisable, therefore,
at these seasons, to shun it.' Any route, 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 Escocés to the gulf of San Miguel,
which gives power to select any place from the west mouth of
the Atrato to Punta Mosquitos, for the Atlantic entrance of
the canal.
[Sidenote: DISCOVERY OF THE SAVANA RIVER.]
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 Humboldt saw.[XXXIV-49] 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 Escocés 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
Escocés and Caledonia Bay, notching the barks of the trees
as I went along, with a _machete_ or cutlass, always alone
and unaided, and always in the season of the heaviest rains.
I had previously examined, on my way from Panamá, the mouths
of Chepo, Chiman, Congo, and several other rivers, but found
them all obstructed by bars and sand banks, 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 interoceanic communication for ships.
THE DARIEN CANAL ROUTE.—Port Escocés, or Scotch Harbor, 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 harbors
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 Escocés 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 Escocés is the site of the
old Spanish settlement of Fuerte del Príncipe, 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 Escocés 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 Escocés 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 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 harbors 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[XXXIV-50]), 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 ship-canal
communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by this
route, would be to cut from Príncipe or from Lara mouth to
Port Escocés 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 Palmerston. By
such a canal—that is, one entirely without locks—the transit
from sea to sea could be effected in six hours, or one
tide.[XXXIV-51]
For the engineering details, and estimates of the cost
of the work, I beg to refer to the valuable report of Mr.
Lionel Gisborne, C. E., who, with his assistant, Mr. Forde,
was commissioned, last April, by Messrs Fox, Henderson,
and Brassey, to survey this route, which they found to be
perfectly feasible for a ship-canal communication, and fully
as eligible as I had represented it.
[Sidenote: PASSAGE FOR THE PACIFIC TIDE.]
It is needless to say that, under the auspices of Messrs.
Fox, Henderson, and Brassey, who, with that clear discernment
and prompt decision, which have placed them in the elevated
position which they occupy, adopted this route in December
1851, after a careful examination of my statements, the
great work of an interoceanic canal is sure, erelong, to be
accomplished.
I trust that an attentive consideration of the advantages
of this route—viz., its shortness, the excellence of its
harbors, the low elevation of the land, the absence of
bars at the Savana and Tuyra mouths, the depth of water
and great rise of tide in the former, its directness of
course and freedom from obstructions, the healthiness of the
adjacent country, the exemption of the coasts from northers
and hurricanes, the feasibility of cutting a canal without
locks, and the absence of engineering difficulties—will
fully justify me in asserting it to be the shortest, the
most direct, safe, and expeditious, and in every way the most
eligible route for intermarine communication for large ships.
An examination of the physical aspect of the country from
Port Escocés to the Savana—presenting, as it does, but a
single ridge of low elevation, and this broken by gorges,
ravines, and valleys, and grooved by rivers and streams, with
a champaign country extending from its base on each side—will
prove the feasibility of making the canal entirely without
locks, a superiority which this route possesses over others,
which all present insurmountable physical obstacles to the
construction of such a canal.
In fact, a glance at the map ought to convince the most
sceptical that nature has unmistakably marked out this space
for the junction of the two oceans, and the breaking of the
continuity of North and South America; indeed, so narrow is
the line of division, that it would almost appear as if the
two seas did once meet here.
DETAILS OF THE ROUTE PROPOSED.—I shall now enter into a more
detailed description of this route, which I discovered in
1849, and proposed for a ship-canal communication between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the _Panamá Echo_ of
February 8, 1850, in the _Daily News_ and _Mining Journal_
of May 1850;[XXXIV-52] in a paper presented to the Royal
Geographical Society, and read at the Edinburgh meeting of
the British Association in July 1850; and in a report to Lord
Palmerston, of January 15, 1851.
PORT ESCOCÉS.—Of Port Escocés, Caledonia Bay, and the channel
of Sassardi, the _Columbian Navigator_, vol. 3, p. 218, says:
'Port Escocés, or Caledonia, lat. 8° 51´, long. 77° 44´, is
a noble harbor; very safe, and so extensive that a thousand
sail of vessels may enter it.
'Punta Escocés is the S. E. point of Caledonia Bay, the
greater islet of Santa Catalina, or de Oro (gold), being the
N. W. Between point and point the distance is four miles, and
the points lie N. W. and S. E. (N. 40° W., and S. 40° E.),
from each other; and in respect to this line the bay falls
in one mile and two thirds. In the S. E. part of this bay is
Puerto Escocés (or Scottish Harbor), which extends inward two
miles in that direction, and forms good shelter. There are
various shoals in it, which are represented in the particular
plan of the harbor, by which plan any vessel may run in, for
the depths are five, six, seven, and eight fathoms of water
over a bottom of sand.
'Between Piedras Islet to the north, the west point of
Aglatomate River to the south, and that of San Fulgencio to
the S. W., is formed the Ensenada, or bay of Caledonia, and
the channel of Sassardi.
CALEDONIA BAY.—'The Ensenada, or cove of Caledonia, is,
strictly speaking, formed by the points already mentioned,
which lie with each other N. N. W. ¾ W., and S. S. E. ¾ E.
(N. 25° W., and S. 25° E.), one mile distant. This bay is
clean, and has good deep water; the greater part of its coast
is a beach, and near the middle of it disembogues the river
Aglaseniqua. The point of San Fulgencio is salient, scarped,
and clean, and it also forms an indent with little depth of
water, bordered by mangroves and various kays at its western
part.
THE CHANNEL OF SASSARDI.—'Between San Fulgencio point, the
great Oro Island, Piedras Islet, and the Mangrove Kays, which
are to the west of them, the channel of Sassardi is formed;
the S. E. entrance to this channel is off and on, with four
cables' length in extent, from edge to edge, and with from
nine to twelve fathoms depth on oaze; and farther in, from
eight to ten fathoms; as also between the turn of the bank
off Piedras Islet, and the bay of Caledonia, the depth is
from seven to fifteen fathoms; and the piece of sea which
intervenes between this bay and the Puerto Escocés is of a
good depth of water; but at a short mile S. E. by E. ½ E. (S.
55° E.), from Piedras Islet the sea breaks when the breeze
blows fresh.'
From its entrance the channel of Sassardi extends N. W. five
miles.
The engineer has here, then, a wide scope for selecting a
locality for the Atlantic mouth of the canal, which may thus
open anywhere from the S. E. end of Port Escocés to the N.
W. entrance of the Channel of Sassardi, an extent of eleven
nautic. miles.
Along a great extent of Port Escocés and Caledonia Bay,
vessels can lie so close in shore that no boats would be
necessary in the taking in or discharging cargo; the same
great advantage also presents itself at several points in the
channel of Sassardi.
[Sidenote: SOURCES OF FRESH WATER.]
Good fresh water may be obtained in abundance from any of the
numerous streams which fall into these harbors, particularly
from the Aglaseniqua or Aglatomate.
Port Escocés is entirely uninhabited, nor is there any
settlement in and of it; at Caledonia, near the mouth of the
Aglaseniqua, there are five huts, inhabited by a few Indians
of the Tule tribe, and about two leagues up the river is
another small settlement; this, however, is at a considerable
distance westward of the projected line of canal.
From the sea-shore a plain extends for nearly two miles to
the base of a ridge of hills, which runs parallel to the
coast, and whose highest summit is about 350 feet. This
ridge is not quite continuous and unbroken, but is divided
by transverse valleys, through which the Aglaseniqua,
Aglatomate, and other rivers have their course, and whose
highest elevations do not exceed 150 feet.
The base of this ridge is only two miles in width; and from
its south side a level plain extends for thirteen miles to
a point on the river Savana, called Cañasas, which is about
twenty miles above its mouth.
The river Savana, at Cañasas, has a depth of six feet
of water, but is obstructed by ledges of a slate, called
_pizarra_, or _killes_, for four miles, down to the mouth
of La Villa, up to which the tide reaches. At Cañasas,
there is a forest of a species of bamboo, so dense as to be
impenetrable; and above it there is a fall of two feet, when
the river is low, but after rains this entirely disappears.
The first fall, in ascending the river, occurs at Caobano, a
little above La Villa.
From La Villa, where there is a depth of ten or twelve
feet, the river is perfectly free from obstructions down to
Príncipe.
At Fuerte del Príncipe, two miles below La Villa, there is
a single ledge of slate, visible only in a very low state
of the river, which has here a depth of three fathoms, and a
rise of tide of six feet. The banks of the river are elevated
about ten feet above the level of the water, and are quite
free from swamp. The site of the old Spanish settlement is
here indicated by a patch of very dense scrubby bush, without
high trees, on the west bank of the river; but the only
remains to be met with are some fragments of _botijas_, or
water-jars. Príncipe is in lat. 8° 34', and long. 77° 56', by
my observations; it is only two or three hours' journey from
the mouth of the river.
The Savana River, called by the Indians Chaparti, is very
direct in its course, from Príncipe to its mouth, and free
from sinuosities, _playas_, deep elbows, shoals, rocks,
snags, or other obstructions.
Its banks, elevated several feet above the level of the
water, are quite free from swamp and malarious miasmata,
consequently the endemic fevers caused by these in Chagres,
Portobello, Limon, and Panama, would not prevail in any
settlements that may be formed in the neighborhood of the
Savana. Indeed, it cannot be inferred that the Isthmus of
Darien is unhealthy, because the towns on the Isthmus of
Panama have all been settled in swampy localities, and in
the most unfavorable positions in a sanatory point of view. A
convincing proof of the freedom from swamp of the whole tract
of country, from Port Escocés to the gulf of San Miguel, is
the total absence of musquitoes, which invariably infest all
swampy grounds in the tropics. The great longevity of the
people of Darien, and the large proportion of very old men,
also attest the healthiness of the climate.
From Príncipe to the mouth of Matumaganti, one mile S. S.
W., the river increases greatly in width and depth; there are
some islands in this reach; and on the west bank a very large
cuipo-tree stands conspicuous, towering above the adjacent
forest.
From Matumaganti to the mouth of Lara, two miles, the river
has a depth of four fathoms, and a rise of tide of ten feet.
From Lara mouth to the islands in the second reach, four
miles, the river is very direct in its course, with a depth
of five or six fathoms. A ridge of hills runs parallel to
each bank, at about two miles' distance. Just below this
mouth, and above a widening of the river, called Revesa
de Piriaki, is Cerro Piriaki, a hill of about 400 feet
elevation, and above this there is no hill near either
bank of the Savana. Above the islands, Estero Corotu, Rio
Corredor, and other streams fall into this, the Calle Larga,
or Long Reach.
From the islands to Areti mouth, S. S. E., three miles, the
river has great width and depth; a ridge of hill here runs
along each bank, at about two miles' distance.
[Sidenote: RELATIVE WATER DEPTHS.]
JUNCTION OF THE SAVANA AND TUYRA.—From Areti mouth to the
junction of the Savana and Tuyra rivers, S., four miles, the
river has a uniform width of two miles, and a depth of from
eight to nine fathoms.
On the west bank of this reach is Punta Machete, with a small
shoal above it, called Bajo Grande, and one below it, Bajo
Chico. Both of these are close in shore, and oysters are
found on them.
THE SAVANA MOUTH.—From the west point of the Savana mouth,
in lat. 8° 21', long. 77° 54', the land rises into a ridge of
hills of about 309 feet elevation, running N. for about four
miles parallel to the river, from which it is separated by a
strip of level land half a mile wide. There is a quebrada, or
rivulet, in the ridge, called Laguadilla, which has plenty of
fresh water in the driest season.
Behind Nisperal, the east point of the Savana mouth, there is
a low ridge of hills; from the north bank of Iglesias, also,
a narrow ridge follows the course of the Savana for about
three miles. This is the Cerro Titichi, which gave its name
to a mission of Indians at the mouth of the Chuquanaqua, the
last survivor of whom is a man named Marcellino, who resides
at Pinogana, on the Tuyra. On the north bank of Iglesias is
Quebrada de Tigre, and on the Savana, above its mouth, is
Quebradita la Monera, where fresh water may be obtained.
At the mouth of the Savana there are nine fathoms, at low
water, and the tide rises from twenty-one to twenty-seven
feet.
Boca Chica and Boca Grande, the mouths of the Tuyra, are
perfectly safe entrances, and have a depth of thirteen to
twenty fathoms of water respectively.
The gulf of San Miguel has good depth of water, and would
hold the shipping of the world. Its mouth, between Cape San
Lorenzo on the north, and Punta Garachiné on the south, is
ten miles across, and opens into the Pacific, quite outside
the bay of Panama. Its direction inward is N. E. fifteen
miles to Boca Chica. Inside the bay of Garachiné, the shores
of the gulf approach each other, and the width diminishes
to four miles, between Punta Brava and Morro Patiño, with a
depth of from nine to twenty fathoms, but again increases,
and then diminishes to Boca Chica.
Close to Cape San Lorenzo is a small shoal, called El Buey,
which may be easily avoided. There are several islands in
the gulf, as Iguana, Cedro, Islas de San Diego, etc., etc.,
which are all safe of approach. On the north side, the
rivers Congo, Buenavista; and on the south the Moguey, Guaca,
Taimita, and Sambú, open into the gulf; while the Tuyra and
Savana fall into its eastern end, the Ensenada del Darien,
called by the Granadians 'Boca de Provincia,' or Mouth of the
Province. _Cullen's Isth. of Darien._
* * * * *
From what has been said, it sufficiently appears that
Nicaragua is a country of great beauty of scenery and
vast natural resources. She has, however, attracted the
attention of the world less on these accounts than because
she is believed to possess within her borders the best
and most feasible route for a ship-canal between the two
great oceans. The project of opening such a canal began to
be entertained as soon as it was found that there existed
no natural communication between the seas, as early as
1527. Since that period it has furnished a subject for
much speculation, but beyond a few partial examinations,
until very lately, nothing of a practical or satisfactory
character had been attempted. In 1851 a careful survey was
made of the river San Juan, Lake Nicaragua, and the isthmus
intervening between this lake and the Pacific, by Colonel O.
W. Childs, previously engineer-in-chief of the state of New
York, under the direction of the now extinct Atlantic and
Pacific Ship-canal Company. Until then, it had always been
assumed that the river San Juan, as well as the lake itself,
could easily be made navigable for ships, and that the only
obstacle to be overcome was the narrow strip of land between
the lake and the ocean. Hence, all the so-called surveys were
limited to an examination of that part of the line. One of
them was made under the orders of the Spanish government, by
Don Manuel Galisteo, in 1781; another, and that best known,
by Mr. John Baily, under the direction of the government of
Central America, in 1838. An intermediate examination, quoted
by Thompson,[XXXIV-53] seems to have been made early in the
present century. The following table will show the results of
these surveys as regards this particular section:
Greatest Greatest
Elevation Elevation
Authorities. Distance from Lake above above
to ocean. Ocean. Lake.
Galisteo, 1781 17 miles, 200 feet. 272 feet. 134 feet.
Quoted by Thompson, 17 miles, 320 feet. 296 feet. 154 feet.
1829
Baily, 1838 16 miles, 730 feet. 615 feet. 487 feet.
Childs, 1851 18 miles, 3,120 feet. 159 feet. 47½ feet.
As the survey of Colonel Childs is the only one which can be
accepted as conforming to modern engineering requirements,
it will be enough to present the detailed results to which
he arrived. The line proposed by him, and on which all his
calculations and estimates were based, commences at the
little port of Brito, on the Pacific, and passes across the
Isthmus, between the ocean and lake, to the mouth of a small
stream called Rio Lajas, flowing into the latter, thence
across Lake Nicaragua to its outlet, and down the valley
of the Rio San Juan to the port of the same name on the
Atlantic. The length of this line was found to be 194⅓ miles,
as follows:
Miles.
WESTERN DIVISION.—Canal from the port of Brito on the
Pacific, through the valley of a small stream called
Rio Grande, falling into the Pacific, into that of the
stream called Rio Lajas, to Lake Nicaragua 18.588
MIDDLE DIVISION.—Though Lake Nicaragua, from mouth of
Rio Lajas to Fort San Carlos, at the head of San Juan
River 56.500
EASTERN DIVISION.—_First Section._—Slack-water navigation
on San Juan River from San Carlos to a point on the
river opposite the mouth of the Serapiqui River 90.800
_Second Section._—Canal from opposite mouth of Serapiqui
to port of San Juan del Norte 28.505
-------
Total, as above 194.393
ORIGIN OF THE CANAL GRANT.—The charter of this company
under which Colonel Childs carried on his investigations
is dated September 22, 1849, and was obtained for a term of
eighty-five years from the completion of the proposed canal.
The surveys were to be commenced within one year, and the
whole to be completed in twelve years. The canal, by the
terms of the charter, was to be of dimensions sufficiently
great to admit and pass vessels of all sizes with speed
and safety. The company was to pay to the state, during the
period assigned for the construction of the work, the annual
sum of $10,000; to give to the state $200,000 of stock in
the canal, on the issue of stock; the state to receive, for
the first twenty years, twenty per cent annually out of the
net profits of the canal, after deducting the interest on the
capital actually invested, at the rate of seven per cent; and
for the remaining sixty-five years, twenty-five per cent of
the profits. The company, on the other hand, were to receive
fifteen per cent annually out of the net profits of the canal
for the first ten years after it should revert to the state,
provided it did not cost over $20,000,000; but if it should
cost more than that sum, the company to receive twenty per
cent for twenty years. During the period of constructing the
canal (twelve years), the company had the exclusive right
of navigating the waters of the state by steam, and also the
privilege of opening a transit route through its territories,
upon the principal condition of paying ten per cent of the
net profits to the state. There were some other provisions as
to lands, tolls, etc., of no special importance.
Under this charter, the company perfected its organization.
It divided its original shares into a considerable number,
called 'canal rights,' which were sold, and their holders
brought into the organization. The first instalment was paid,
and in August 1850, just in time to meet the stipulation
providing that the surveys should be commenced within one
year from the date of the contract, a party of surveyors
was sent out to Nicaragua. They were under the direction (as
already said) of Colonel O. W. Childs as chief engineer. He
arrived in Nicaragua on the 27th of August, 1850, and so far
as his report is concerned, we are left to infer that he at
once commenced the surveys for the canal. His report is dated
March 9, 1852.
[Sidenote: DIVERSIONS OF THE CANAL.]
THE LINE OF SURVEY.—In the various projects for uniting the
two seas, the line of the river San Juan has always been
contemplated as that by which the great lake of Nicaragua is
to be reached. From that lake to the Pacific, various routes
have been suggested:
1. From Lake Nicaragua via the river Sapoa to the bay of
Bolaños, in the gulf of Salinas, on the Pacific.
2. Via the Rio Lajas to the port of San Juan del Sur, or some
point not far from it, on the Pacific.
3. Via the Rio Tipitapa into the superior lake of Managua,
and from this lake to the Pacific at the little port of
Tamarindo, the port of Realejo, or into the magnificent gulf
or bay of Fonseca.
By his instructions, Colonel Childs was limited to a survey
of the direct routes from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific,
provided either of them should prove practicable. As a
consequence, finding a route which, in his opinion, was
practicable, he made no surveys from the superior lake of
Managua to the Pacific. He, however, made some observations
on the line of the connection between the two lakes by the
river Tipitapa—if a channel dry for most, if not all, of the
year can be called a river. This is a source of great regret,
especially in view of the deficiency, on the surveyed routes,
of a good harbor on the Pacific, while both Realejo and the
gulf of Fonseca are all that can be desired as ports.
Lake Nicaragua is estimated by Colonel Childs to be one
hundred and ten miles in extreme length by thirty-five in
(average) width. Its nearest approach to the Atlantic is at
its southern extremity, from which, on a right line, it is
about eighty miles distant. The point of its nearest approach
to the Pacific is near the middle of its length, where, by
the shortest line, the distance is about eleven miles.
The San Juan River was found by Colonel Childs to be,
following its sinuosities, 119 miles in length. It has
a great number of tributaries, generally small, with the
exception of the San Cárlos and Serapiqui, which come in
from the mountains of Costa Rica on the south. The first of
these enters the San Juan at sixty-five miles, and the second
ninety miles below the lake. These streams flow through
valleys transversely to that of the San Juan, which is
further intersected by ranges of hills, coming in both from
the north and the south, at the Rapides del Toro, Castillo,
Machuca, etc.
The lake of Nicaragua lies longitudinally, nearly parallel to
the Pacific Ocean, and is separated from it, for nearly two
thirds of the length of the lake, by hills of comparatively
moderate acclivity and elevation, in most cases capable of
cultivation to their summits. Within this distance, also,
are several transverse valleys, extending nearly (Colonel
Childs says quite) across, with summits varying in height,
and furnishing generally good opportunities for direct
communications by ordinary roads or by canal.
ROUTE VIA RIVER SAPOA.—This line lies chiefly in the
department of Guanacaste, now in dispute between Nicaragua
and Costa Rica, and actually occupied by the latter.
The examination of this line by Colonel Childs only proved
its impracticability for the purpose of a canal. He found
that to pass the summit a cut 119 feet in depth would be
required, and an up-lockage from the lake of 350½ feet, and a
down-lockage to the Pacific of 432 feet. Water to supply the
upper locks, it was ascertained, could only be obtained with
difficulty, and at great cost. Besides, a long rock cut of
three fourths of a mile would be required from low-tide mark
in the bay of Salinas to deep water. In short, the physical
difficulties on this line, if not of a nature to make the
construction of a canal impossible, were nevertheless such as
to make it impracticable.
ROUTE FROM MOUTH OF THE RIO LAJAS TO BRITO.—The line from
Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific, to which public attention has
been most directed, is one starting from the mouth of the Rio
Lajas, a few miles below the town of Rivas, or Nicaragua, to
the port of San Juan del Sur, or Concordia, on the Pacific.
As already stated, not less than three surveys had been made
over this line; one in 1781 by Galisteo, a Spanish engineer,
and the last by Mr. Baily, an Englishman, under the republic
of Central America, published in Stephens' _Incidents of
Travel in Central America_. The line pursued by both Galisteo
and Baily was governed by the circumstance of a measurably
good port on the Pacific—that of San Juan del Sur, the best
on the whole line of coast from the bay of Salinas northward
to Realejo. Baily's line is sixteen miles and 730 feet in
length, and the greatest elevation above the lake 487 feet.
That of Galisteo is seventeen miles 200 feet in length, and
the greatest elevation above the sea 272, and above the lake
134 feet. Baily's line, for half of its distance, involved
209 feet of average vertical cutting; that of Galisteo,
for half of its length, an average vertical cutting of 108
feet. These facts, and others, among which the absolute
impossibility of supplying the summit levels with water, and
the necessity of tunnels, combined to make the construction
of a canal on this line wholly impossible.
[Sidenote: EXPLORING FOR A LINE.]
Colonel Childs seems to have been satisfied of the
impracticability of this line, after a very rapid
examination, and to have devoted himself to the discovery
of one more feasible. In doing this, however, it was
found necessary to abandon San Juan del Sur as the western
terminus.
Starting at the point on the lake to the eastward of Rivas,
levelling westward, through a transverse, moderately
undulating plain, he ascended, on a distance of six and
a half miles, 326 feet, to the summit of a broad valley,
passing between the hills (which are here of moderate
height), and connecting with another valley on the west side,
which extends to a place on the Pacific called Brito, where
a stream, named Rio Grande, flows into the sea. The quantity
of water available for this summit being entirely inadequate,
and the cut altogether too formidable, on the plan of
carrying through the level, this route was abandoned. Another
line, not far from this, was attempted, with very nearly the
same result.
Colonel Childs next started from the mouth of the Rio Lajas,
the same point with his predecessors, and carried a line
of levels to the summit of a transverse valley lying about
six and a half miles south of Rivas, and reaching between
the valley of Rio Lajas and that of the Rio Grande, already
mentioned as flowing into the Pacific at Brito. This summit
was found to be only forty-seven and a half feet above the
surface of the lake, as it stood on the 23d day of December,
1850, at which time it was three and a half feet above its
lowest stages, and one and a half feet below the level at
which it ordinarily stands at the height of the rainy season.
The length of this line from lake to sea is about twenty
miles. This is the route, and the only direct one, between
the lake and sea, regarded by Colonel Childs as feasible, and
upon this all his calculations respecting the proposed canal
are based. In his own language: 'The conclusion was arrived
at that the line leading from the lake, at the mouth of the
river Lajas to the Pacific at Brito, presented more favorable
conditions for the construction of the canal than any other;
it was therefore determined to survey and carefully to locate
a line across upon this route.'
This line, then, runs through the valley of the river Lajas,
the waters of a principal branch of which interlock with
those of the Rio Grande, and, through the valley of the
latter, reaches the sea. The stream first named has its
origin about ten miles south-westerly from its entrance into
the lake, on the eastern slope of the dividing ridge, and
after running north-westerly two miles, along the base of
the hills, takes a northerly direction through comparatively
level savannas, a distance of six miles or eight miles, when
it bends to the east, and in a mile and three fourths enters
the lake. The Rio Grande rises on the eastern slope of the
same range of hills, and two or three miles north-west from
the sources of the Lajas, and, after flowing some three or
four miles at the foot of their slope, bends to the west, and
by a narrow and somewhat irregular valley passes through the
ridge, and thence, in a more capacious and uniform valley,
into the Pacific.
WESTERN SECTION OF PROPOSED CANAL BETWEEN LAKE NICARAGUA AND
THE PACIFIC.—The entire line of the canal proposed by Colonel
Childs, and upon which all his calculations and estimates are
based, is therefore through the valley of the river San Juan
into Lake Nicaragua, across Lake Nicaragua to the mouth of
the Rio Lajas, through the valley of that stream, and across
the summit of forty-seven and a half feet which separates it
from that of the Rio Grande, and down the valley of the Rio
Grande to Brito, where that stream enters the Pacific.
Now, in order to understand Colonel Childs' conclusions, and
appreciate the data which he gives, we must know what kind
of a work he proposes. He contemplates a canal but seventeen
feet deep; and as he intends to supply the western section,
from the lake to the sea, by water from the lake, it would
be necessary to commence construction in the lake at a point
where the water is seventeen feet deep at mean stage. This
point is opposite the mouth of the Lajas, and twenty-five
chains from the line of the shore. From this point, for
a mile and a half, partially along the river Lajas, the
excavation will be principally earth; but beyond this, for
a distance of five and a half miles, which carries the line
beyond the summit, three fourths of the excavation will be
in a trap rock. That is to say, the deepest excavation, or
open cut, will be sixty-five feet, and involve the removal of
1,879,000 cubic yards of earth, and 3,378,000 cubic yards of
rock. The excavation and construction in this five and a half
miles alone are estimated at upward of $6,000,000.
The summit passed, and the valley of the Rio Grande reached,
the excavation, as a general rule, will be only the depth of
the canal. Colonel Childs found that the lake, at ordinary
high water, is only 102 feet 10 inches above the Pacific at
high and 111 feet 5 inches above it at low tide, instead
of 128 feet, as calculated by Mr. Baily. This descent he
proposes to accomplish by fourteen locks, of eight feet
lift each, placed at proper points in the valley of the
Rio Grande, thus bringing us to Brito, the terminus on the
Pacific.
The harbor of Brito, as it is called, or the point where
the Rio Grande enters the sea, is at best only a bad
anchorage. There is here a small angular indentation of
the land, partially protected by a low ledge of rock, but
nothing adequate for the terminus of an important work like
the proposed canal, or capable of answering the commonest
requisites of a port. To remedy this deficiency, Colonel
Childs proposed to construct an artificial harbor, of
thirty-four acres area, by means of moles and jetties in
the sea, and by extensive excavations in the land. If, as
he supposes, the excavations here would be in sand, it is
obviously almost impossible to get proper foundations for
the immense sea-walls and piers that would be necessary for
a work of this kind. On the contrary, if these excavations
should be chiefly in a rock, as seems most likely, the cost
and labor would almost surpass computation. Assuming the
excavations for the purpose to be in earth and sand, Colonel
Childs estimates the cost of making a harbor at a little over
$2,600,000.
MIDDLE SECTION OF PROPOSED CANAL—LAKE NICARAGUA.—Proceeding
from seventeen feet depth of water in the lake, opposite to
the river Lajas, in the direction of the outlet of the lake
at Fort San Cárlos, there is ample water for vessels of all
sizes for a distance of about fifty-one miles, to a point
half a mile south of the Boacos Islands. Here the depth of
water diminishes rapidly to fourteen feet. For the remaining
five and a half miles to the fort, the water is variable,
averaging only about nine feet at low and about fourteen
at high water. For this distance of five and a half miles,
therefore, an average under-water excavation of eight feet
would be required to make the channel, at low water, of the
depth of the canal, or seventeen feet. But if the lake were
kept at high level, the under-water excavation would be but
an average of three feet.
Colonel Childs proposed to protect this portion of the
channel by rows of piles driven on each side, along its
whole extent, and thinks, after the excavation were made, a
sufficient current would be established to keep the channel
clear.
[Sidenote: THE RIVER SAN JUAN.]
EASTERN SECTION—THE RIVER SAN JUAN.—We come now to the
section between Lake Nicaragua and the Atlantic, through or
along the river San Juan. Excepting a small settlement at
the Castillo Viejo, at the Castillo Rapids, thirty-seven
miles from the lake, the valley of the San Juan is wholly
uninhabited. This section, hitherto supposed the easiest, is,
nevertheless, by far the most difficult part of the proposed
enterprise.
Colonel Childs carried a line of levels from the lake at San
Cárlos to the port of San Juan, on the northern bank of the
stream. The whole distance from San Carlos to seventeen feet
depth of water in the harbor of San Juan is 119⅓ miles; and
the whole fall, from the surface of high lake to the surface
of highest tide in the harbor, is 107½ feet—to lowest tide,
108¾ feet.
Of the above distance, the first ninety-one miles, or from
San Carlos to half a mile below the Serapiqui River, Colonel
Childs proposed to make the river navigable by excavating
its bed, and by constructing dams, to be passed by means of
locks and short canals; the remaining twenty-eight miles of
the canal to be constructed inland, or independently of the
river. Of the whole fall, sixty-two and a half feet occurs
on that portion which it is proposed to improve by dams,
and on which there were to be eight locks, and the remaining
forty-six and a quarter feet occurs on the inland portion of
the canal, on which were to be six locks—fourteen locks in
all.
Colonel Childs proposed to place the first dam at the head
of the Castillo Rapids, a distance of upward of thirty-seven
miles from the lake, and to pass the rapids by means of a
lateral canal. By means of this dam he proposed to raise the
water, at that point, twenty-one and a half feet, and the
entire level of Lake Nicaragua five feet above its lowest
stages, or in other words, to keep it at high-water mark. The
fall at this dam would be sixteen feet. He proposed also six
other dams, four of eight feet fall, one of fourteen and a
half feet, and one of thirteen and a half feet. Between all
of these there would be more or less excavation in the bed of
the stream, sometimes in earth, and often in rock.
Colonel Childs proposed further to improve the harbor of San
Juan by moles, etc., and to construct an artificial harbor in
connection with it of the capacity of thirteen acres.
In respect of the amount of water in the San Juan, we have
some interesting statistics. This amount, of course, varies
greatly with the different seasons. The quantity of water
that passed from the lake at its lowest stage, on the 4th of
June, 1851, was 11,930 cubic feet per second. The greatest
rise of the lake is about five feet. When it stood at 3.43
feet above its lowest level, the flow of water was 18,059
cubic feet per second, being an increase of about fifty per
cent. Supposing the same ratio of increase, at high lake the
amount of water in the river would be doubled.
The river receives large accessions from its tributaries.
Below these, and above the point of divergence of the
Colorado, flowing direct into the sea from the San Juan,
which falls into the harbor of the same name, the flow of
water was 54,380 cubic feet per second, of which 42,056
passed through the Colorado branch into the ocean, and 12,324
through the San Juan into the port.
DIMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED CANAL.—Where the excavation is
in earth, Colonel Childs proposed (and all his estimates
are founded on these dimensions) that the canal shall have
a depth of 17 feet; that it shall be 50 feet wide at the
bottom, 86 feet wide at 9 feet above the bottom, and 118 feet
wide at the surface of the water. Where the excavation is in
rock, the canal is to be 50 feet wide at bottom, 77 feet at 9
feet above bottom, and 78⅓ feet at the surface of the water.
LENGTH OF PROPOSED CANAL.—The total length of the line
proposed by Colonel Childs, from San Juan del Norte on the
Atlantic, to Brito on the Pacific, is 194⅓ miles, as follows:
Miles.
Canal from port of San Juan to its point of intersection
with the river, near the mouth of the Serapiqui 28.505
Slack-water navigation on the San Juan River, from the
above point to San Cárlos, at the outlet of the lake 90.800
From San Cárlos, across Lake Nicaragua, to the mouth
of the Rio Lajas 56.500
From mouth of Rio Lajas to Brito 18.588
-------
Total, as above 194.393
ESTIMATED COST.—The cost of the work is estimated by Colonel
Childs in detail. The recapitulation, by divisions, is as
follows:
Eastern Division (i. e., from port of San Juan to $12,502,346
lake)
Middle Division (through lake) 1,025,676
Western Division (from lake to Pacific) 13,896,603
-----------
$27,424,625
Add, for contingencies, 15 per cent 4,113,693
-----------
Total estimated cost of canal $31,538,318
The canal company published a pamphlet, in which the
estimates for the canal were made at New York prices, and
in which the total was put down at $13,243,099. 'The prices
adopted in the estimate of $31,500,000,' says Colonel Childs,
'are made up with reference to the completion of the work
within six years from the time of breaking ground, and a
commencement of the settlement of the country in the vicinity
of the line previous to letting the contracts.'
CAPACITY OF THE PROPOSED CANAL.—The charter of the canal
company provided that the capacity of the work should be
sufficiently great 'to admit vessels of all sizes.' And
it is obvious that a work which will not pass freely the
largest vessels can but imperfectly answer the purposes
of its construction, or meet the requirements of commerce.
But Colonel Childs proposed only one 17 feet deep, 50 feet
wide at bottom, and 118 feet wide at top—a capacity wholly
inadequate to pass the larger classes of vessels, and one
which fails to meet the stipulations of the charter. The
larger merchant-ships, such as are generally employed in
the eastern trade, have a draught of from 20 to 25 feet,
and would require, to say nothing of war vessels and large
steamers, a canal of from 25 to 30 feet in depth, which would
involve more than double the amount of excavation proposed,
and probably treble the amount of cost, and carry it up from
$31,500,000 to $100,000,000. Here is the fatal deficiency in
the whole proposition of Colonel Childs.
To make the canal capable of passing vessels drawing 20 feet
of water, Colonel Childs says, would increase to a very great
degree the amount of the excavation on the river section,
and still more the expense. 'Any considerable increase
in the depth proposed (17 feet) would require under-water
excavations between the lake and the Toro Rapids, a distance
of 27 miles, to be almost continuous; it would very much
lengthen the cuts on the other portions of the river, and the
liability of these artificial channels to receive deposits
of earth to such an extent as to obstruct navigation would
be very much greater. On the inland portion of the canal,'
continues Colonel Childs, 'a depth of 22 feet of water would,
with fifty feet bottom-width, give a transverse water-section
about 45 per cent greater than a depth of 17 feet, with the
same bottom-width; and the expense of the inland portions
would also, by reason of the greater depth of excavation, be
increased in a still higher ratio.'
[Sidenote: THE VIEWS OF COLONEL CHILDS.]
Colonel Childs seems sensible of the inadequacy of a canal
of the proposed dimensions, but thinks that by changes in
model, etc., ships of great size could be built to pass a
17-foot canal. That is to say, the world may build ships
for the canal, instead of the canal company a canal for the
ships of the world! He states that most steamers draw less
than 17 feet, and quotes from Murray's _Treatise on Marine
Engines_ to show that of 261 steam-vessels, principally
English, 15 draw over 17 feet, 21 have 17 feet draught,
and 225 less than 17 feet. But he neglects to tell us that
experience and economy point to the construction of larger
steamers than those now in use, and that such as would be
used in the eastern trade, in the event of the construction
of the canal, would be still larger than those of the Collins
line, which draw over 22 feet. Besides, a canal of 17 feet is
only adequate to the passage of vessels of 15 feet draught.
No canal ought to be contemplated with a less depth than 25
feet, and with proportionate top and bottom width.
The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal has a depth of 10 feet.
The Welland Canal is 28 miles long, 9 feet deep, 35 feet wide
at bottom, and 71 feet at top. It passes vessels of 350 tons.
The Caledonian Canal, between the eastern and western shores
of Great Britain, is 59 miles in length, of which 21½ miles
is inland and 37½ through lakes. It is 50 feet wide at
bottom, 110 feet at top, and is 20 feet deep. It is capable
of passing frigates of 32 guns, and merchant-vessels of 1,000
tons.
The canal from Amsterdam to New Dieppe, in Holland, is 50
miles long, 36 feet wide at bottom and 124 at top, and is 20
feet 9 inches deep.
In respect of navigating the canal, according to Colonel
Childs' suggestions, steamers will propel themselves, and
sail-vessels will be moved by tugs constructed for the
purpose, except on the portion west of the lake, and between
the river and port of San Juan, where the delay of the
driving steamers in passing the locks would make the use of
animal-power advisable. Calculating 24 minutes as the time
required for a vessel to pass each lock, 60 vessels, it is
calculated, could be passed in a day. The average rate of
speed with which steamers might safely move in the inland
portions of the canal is calculated at 2½ miles per hour, on
the river portions 7 miles an hour, and on the lake, 11 miles
an hour. Sailing vessels propelled by horse-power might move
on the canal at the rate of two miles an hour, and on the
river and lake with an average speed of 4 miles per hour. For
steamers, therefore, the passage from sea to sea is estimated
at 46½ hours, or about two days; for sailing vessels, 77
hours, or 3¼ days.
FACILITIES FOR CONSTRUCTING THE CANAL.—There are many
considerations connected with an enterprise of this kind
besides its feasibility in a mere engineering point of view,
such as labor, materials, etc., etc. To all of these Colonel
Childs seems to have devoted some attention.
_Timber._—As compared with those of the United States,
the original forests of Nicaragua are inferior in size,
and the kind and quantity of timber proper for use less
in proportion. The tree called the 'cedro,' or cedar, is
produced in considerable abundance, and can be usefully
applied. It grows to a great height, and will produce timber
36 to 40 feet long, and 12 to 18 inches square. The 'roble,'
a species of oak, is also a tall tree, and furnishes timber
equal to the cedar in size. The 'níspero,' 'laurel,' 'madera
negra,' and others, answer a very good purpose. The 'níspero'
is 29 per cent stronger than white oak, and may be procured
in sufficient quantities, in the opinion of Colonel Childs,
to be relied on as a substitute for all the purposes in
which oak is required. He thinks that, in the aggregate, the
forests of Nicaragua, in the sections traversed by the canal,
will probably produce all the lumber required.
_Stone._—Along the river San Juan, the rock is chiefly trap,
graywacke, and shale; in many localities too friable for
use, but in others, Colonel Childs thinks, it may be found
fit for the purposes required. On the west side of the lake
limestone quarries were found, capable of producing good
lime in abundance. The stone, generally, between the lake
and Pacific, on the proposed canal line, is not good, but it
was thought that in case of need it might be obtained from
Granada, sixty miles to the north-west, and from a lower
point on the Isthmus. Very good and abundant clays were
found, and a stone from which water-lime of a fair quality
may be obtained.
_Labor._—Colonel Childs concedes that the prosecution of the
works of the canal would be attended with vast difficulties,
resulting from a lack of all the essential requisites in the
shape of mills, roads, carriages, etc., etc. He thinks the
oxen of the country may be obtained in sufficient numbers to
do all the necessary hauling of materials. But there is yet a
consideration of vastly more importance, viz., labor. Colonel
Childs apprehends that it would be necessary to rely chiefly
on foreigners. He says that, although the laboring population
of the country, when under compulsory circumstances, are
capable of great activity and of enduring much fatigue, in
their ordinary avocations they are tardy and irregular in
their labor. An exception is, however, made in favor of a
class of boatmen employed on the river, some 400 in number,
in whom we have an example of physical labor and exposure
to the elements scarcely equalled in any country, endured
by them with no perceptible prejudice, but apparently with
advantage to their health. These men sleep on a narrow plank
across their boats, with no other protection than a single
blanket; yet there is probably in the world no class of men
of more athletic forms, and notwithstanding their indifferent
attention to the conditions of health, more capable of hard
service. So far as can be gathered from Colonel Childs'
observations, it seems that he would rely chiefly on foreign
labor for the construction of the proposed work.
[Sidenote: CLIMATIC TRIALS.]
He seems to think it is not unlikely that foreigners,
already accustomed to hard labor, may, when thoroughly
acclimated, and under no unnecessary exposure, be capable
of a fair amount of labor in this country, although not as
great an amount as in higher latitudes. He states that of
the party engaged in the survey west of the lake, nine were
unaccustomed to the climate. After a few months, a slight
fever, followed by ague, prevented some of the number from
continued daily exercise; but being in all cases under the
control of medicine, it was of short duration. During seven
months in this part of the state, illness in the party
at no time interrupted a daily prosecution of the survey.
Upon the San Juan River, the surveying party consisted of
twelve persons, exclusive of native citizens. The survey
occupied six and a half months, from March to September. 'The
party generally enjoyed good health, and no individual was
prevented by indisposition, beyond a day or two, from full
service. Of those engaged as axemen in clearing the line,
two were northern men, whose daily exercise exceeded that
usual to men in canal-work, without detriment to health or
constitution.'
_Soil._—From San Juan Harbor to where the proposed canal
would strike the river, the soil is vegetable mould, coarse
sand, and sandy loam. Along the river it is of a more mixed
character, clay and loam predominating in the valleys, and a
gravelly clay, with detached stones, on the hills. West of
the lake, the central portion of the summit is principally
clay; the remainder, together with the soil through the
valley to Brito, has a very nearly uniform and equal
intermixture of clay, sand, and gravel. The surface soil is
generally fine, and contains enough of vegetable mould to
render it capable of great production.
_Food._—Among the staple articles of food that would,
during the construction of the canal, be most required for
consumption, may be named maize, plantains, and beans. Of
the former and latter two crops are annually raised on the
same ground, and the supply of plantains is constant. Besides
these are bananas, oranges, lemons, pineapples, cocoanuts,
squashes, melons, tomatoes, and other garden vegetables.
Colonel Childs, while considering these sources of supply in
food, is nevertheless of opinion that salt meat and flour
would have to be brought in large quantities from abroad.
Fresh beef, pork, and poultry are abundant in the country.
OPINION OF COLONEL ABERT AND LIEUTENANT-COLONEL
TURNBULL.—Although a different impression has been sought
to be produced in the public mind, yet the government of the
United States had no direct interest in the proposed canal,
nor manifested any other than might naturally attach to
any enterprise of supposed general importance. The surveys
of Colonel Childs seem, nevertheless, to have been sent
to the secretary of war, with a request for the opinion of
the government engineers. Mr Conrad politely referred it to
Colonel Abert and Lieutenant-colonel Turnbull, of the bureau
of topographical engineers, who give their opinion in a brief
letter, dated March 20, 1852. Proceeding upon Colonel Childs'
data, they think his plan practicable, that his estimates
for a canal of seventeen feet are liberal, and that some
reductions might possibly be made. They think that a shorter
line might be traced between the port of San Juan and the
point of intersection with the river, and recommend another
survey of that portion.
OPINION OF ENGLISH ENGINEERS.—The American minister
in England, at the request of the company, appears to
have transmitted Colonel Childs' surveys to the earl of
Malmesbury, with a wish that he would submit it to competent
English engineers for their opinion. James Walker, Esq.,
civil engineer, and Edward Aldrich, captain of the royal
engineers, were named for this service. They seem not only to
have examined Colonel Childs' survey, but to have subjected
that gentleman, who was then in England, to a very close
personal examination. Taking his plans, measurement, and
statements to be correct, their opinion is, on the whole,
favorable. They think that his estimates for work are ample,
but regard the amount set down for 'contingencies' (fifteen
per cent) too small by at least ten per cent, that is to
say, that it should have been twenty-five instead of fifteen
per cent. Of all the works of the proposed navigation, they
regard the Brito or Pacific harbor as least satisfactory.
To use their own language: 'Presuming Colonel Childs'
statements and conclusions to be correct, the Brito harbor
is in shape and size unworthy of this great ship navigation,
even supposing the Pacific, to which it is quite open, to
be a much quieter ocean than any we have seen or have any
information of.'
They also object to the proposed size, and suggest a canal
twenty feet deep instead of seventeen, sixty feet wide at the
bottom instead of fifty, and the locks 300 feet instead of
250, as being one 'more efficient for the general purposes of
trade, by steam or sailing vessels.' This would, of course,
be attended with great additional cost; but, as they truly
observe, 'if the junction of the Pacific with the Atlantic be
worth doing at all, it is worth doing well.' They conclude
that, judging from the data, without presuming to vouch for
their accuracy, the work is practicable, 'and would not be
attended with engineering difficulties beyond what might
naturally be expected in a work of this magnitude;' that
the surveys have every appearance of accuracy, and they are
satisfied of the perfect fairness and candor of Colonel
Childs; that the works are generally sufficient for the
purpose they are intended to answer; and 'that the estimates
upon the present value of money are adequate, in a general
way, so far as judgments can be formed from the documents
produced and the explanations of Colonel Childs.'
OPINION OF BRITISH CAPITALISTS.—We come now to a point not
indicated in the report of Colonel Childs, viz., the refusal
of the leading capitalists of England to engage in the
projected work.
It is well known that at least two expeditions or missions to
England were undertaken by agents of the canal company. At
their first visit in 1851, they were unable to present any
specific data upon which to solicit the aid of capitalists;
they, however, made out a hypothetical case, which they
submitted, and received for answer, 'Substantiate your
statements by facts, and no difficulty will be experienced in
securing the financial aid which you desire; until then, we
can return you no definite answer.' This reply was not made
public in terms, but the agents, on their return, proclaimed
that the 'great European capitalists had engaged to furnish
half the capital for the enterprise.' A few, and it is
believed only a few, persons, considering the precise source
whence this vaunt came, attached the slightest importance to
it.
[Sidenote: REASONS FOR DECLINING.]
The second expedition was made in 1852, and this time
the agents took out with them both Colonel Childs and his
surveys. The opinion of certain British engineers (as we have
seen) was procured, and the whole matter resubmitted to the
great capitalists, who now, for the first time, thought it
sufficiently advanced to merit their serious attention. The
result of their examination was communicated to the company
in a letter from Mr Bates, head of the house of Baring
Brothers, in August 1852, and consisted in a declension to
embark in the enterprise, for a variety of reasons, chiefly,
of course, financial.
1. The dimensions of the canal were not such as, in their
opinion, to meet the requirements of commerce, and the work
could not be used except by medium-sized steamers and small
vessels.
2. That the proposed dimensions were not in conformity with
those required by the charter of the company, and that
it could not be built of the proposed dimensions without
securing a modification of the charter, which, in the
existing state of feeling in Nicaragua, it was not likely
could be effected.
3. That, supposing the work not to exceed the estimated
cost of $31,000,000, the returns, to meet the simple
interest of the investment at six per cent, must be at least
$1,860,000 over and above its current expenses; or, to meet
this interest, and the percentage to be paid to Nicaragua,
it must reach, over and above its expenses, $2,269,200.
Estimating the expenses of repairs, superintendence, cost of
transportation, etc., at $400,000 a year (a sum regarded as
too small), then the gross returns to make the work pay must
be $2,670,000.
4. But it is found, by inquiry and calculation, that little,
if any, of the European trade with the Orient would pass
through the canal, inasmuch as the passage by the way of Cape
Good Hope is, on an average, 1,500 miles nearer than by way
of the proposed work.
5. That even if the distance were in favor of the proposed
canal, its small size would prevent nearly, if not quite,
two thirds of the vessels engaged in the Indian trade from
passing it; and this objection would equally lie against most
of the vessels employed in the trade with western America,
the only trade in which the canal would prove serviceable to
Europe.
6. That the heavy toll of $3 a ton on ships would prevent
such vessels as could pass the canal from doing so, inasmuch
as on a vessel of 1,000 tons the toll would be $3,000, or
more than the average earnings of such vessels on their
voyages.
7. That a canal of the proposed size could only be used by
small passenger-steamers, the returns from which would not be
adequate to pay the current expenses of the enterprise.
While unhesitatingly conceding the immense local advantages
of a canal to the United States, these capitalists confessed
themselves utterly unable to discover how it could prove
of compensating value to the men who should invest their
money in the enterprise. They therefore, for these and other
reasons, declined to meet the views of the projectors and
their agents.
GUARANTEE OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC.—By the convention of
1850 between the United States and Great Britain, a qualified
guaranty was extended to this enterprise, in common with
several others. There was also a clause inserted with
direct reference to this company, which provided that it
should 'have a priority of claim over every other company
to the protection of the United States and Great Britain,'
on condition that it should, within 'one year from the
date of the ratification' of the convention, 'conclude its
arrangements and present evidence of sufficient capital
subscribed to accomplish the undertaking.' The treaty was
ratified, and the ratifications exchanged July 5, 1850. No
subscription of stock having taken place, and no evidence
of capital having been presented in the time specified, or
indeed at any other time, the company forfeited this special
protection in July 1851; and as the twelve years within which
the work was to be constructed will expire in 1861, it may be
assumed that its prosecution will depend upon new conditions
and combinations. Indeed, it may be questioned if the opening
of railways between the oceans may not indefinitely postpone
the project of a canal; for, however desirable such a work
may be, its realization will depend upon precisely those
practical considerations which apply to the simplest works
of public utility. It will not do to foot up the commerce
between Europe and Asia, and assume, as has generally been
the case, that the totals will pass through the canal, if
constructed. Now, the simple truth is, that, so far as Europe
is concerned, that part of her trade which goes to ports on
the Pacific coast of America, to the Sandwich Islands, Japan,
the northern ports of China, to New Zealand and Australia, is
all that will be materially benefited by the construction of
a canal. As regards Australia, the principal advantage would
be in having a safer, easier, and consequently quicker and
surer means of communication than is afforded by the Cape of
Good Hope; for the Pacific Ocean is preëminently the sea of
steamers, and where steam navigation, in respect of speed at
least, is destined to achieve its most brilliant success. So
far as the United States is concerned, the advantages of such
a work would naturally be greater than to Europe.
Assuming a canal to be built across the Isthmus of Nicaragua,
the following table will illustrate the relations of
Liverpool and New York with the principal ports of the east,
in respect of distance:
Via Cape of Via Proposed Net Net
Good Hope. Canal. Loss. Gain.
From Liverpool—
To Canton 12,900 13,800 900
Calcutta 11,440 15,480 4,040
Singapore 11,880 15,120 4,240
Sydney 14,980 12,550 2,320
From New York—
To Canton 14,100 11,820 3,280
Calcutta 12,360 13,680 1,320
Singapore 12,700 11,420 280
Sydney 15,720 9,480 5,240
[The distances to Sydney are calculated via Torres Straits.]
[Sidenote: THE COURSE OF TRAFFIC.]
The following table will illustrate the relations of
Liverpool and New York in respect to the principal western
ports of America:
Via Via Gain.
Cape Horn. Proposed Canal.
From Liverpool—
To Valparaiso 8,700 7,500 1,200
Callao 10,020 6,800 3,220
Sandwich Islands 13,500 8,640 4,860
From New York—
To Valparaiso 8,580 4,860 3,720
Callao 9,900 3,540 5,360
Sandwich Islands 13,200 6,300 6,900
But it is not to be assumed that all the trade, much less
all the travel, treasure, and mails to the points which I
have indicated, will, under any circumstances, pass through
a canal. The passengers between New York and San Francisco,
amounting annually to nearly 100,000, would never consent
to make a voyage of from 1,000 to 2,000 miles out of their
way, to Nicaragua, Panamá, Darien, or Atrato, for the sake
of passing through a canal, however grand, when by a simple
transshipment at Honduras, for instance, and a transit of
209 miles by railway, they would be able to avoid this long
detour, and effect a saving of from 5 to 8 days of time;
for even if steamers were to run to any canal which might
be opened, and supposing no detention on account of locks
or other causes (calculated by Colonel Childs at 2 days),
even then it would be necessary for them to stop, for coals
and other supplies, more than quadruple the time that would
be occupied by the passengers over the railway in effecting
their reëmbarkation. And what is true of passengers is
equally true of treasure, the mails, and light freight of
small bulk and large value.
I do not wish to be understood as arguing against a canal;
what I mean to illustrate is this: that, open a canal
wherever we may, it will always stand in the same relation to
a railway as does the baggage-train to the express. A canal
would be chiefly, if not wholly, used by ships and vessels
carrying heavy and bulky freights; but as most articles of
this kind are kept in stock in all the principal ports of
the world, it is not of so much consequence to have rapidity
as constancy of supply, and hence, unless the canal shall be
constructed so economically as to admit of a moderate tonnage
rate, it is not improbable that ships of this kind would find
it more economical to follow the routes now open. _Squier's
States of Cent. America._
* * * * *
In tracing, or attempting to trace, the routes of recent
travellers in Darien, there is extraordinary difficulty,
although the locality in question does not exceed a space
of 40 miles by 30. Strange to say, the routes of the old
buccaneers, of Dampier, Ringrose, Sharp, Wafer, and Davis,
the inland journey of that remarkable man Paterson, and of
the Spanish officer Don Manuel Milla de Santa Ella,[XXXIV-54]
can be followed on the old Spanish maps, but not in our
modern ones, even the best; while there are no data hitherto
published that afford more than a guess at the tracks of
modern explorers after leaving the sea-coast. Mr Gisborne
has compiled, or rather copied, the principal part of the
map, on which he has shown, _in red_, those portions which
he himself saw and was enabled to lay down. No surveyor
who reads his _Journal_ and _Report_ can doubt that he has
given eye-sketches, aided by compass bearings and estimated
distances; but the estimation of a practised eye is not to be
undervalued. Dr Cullen can be traced up the Tuyra to Yavisa,
and up the Paya; also up the Savana, but no farther inland.
The state of our geographical knowledge of that exceedingly
interesting region is the following:
All examinations, all surveys, of the Great Isthmus were made
by Spain alone, while she held the country (till the years
1821-31). Very good maps of much of the Spanish territory
existed at that time; but they have been copied and recopied
by all manner of hands; scales and bearings have been
altered, not intentionally, but by mistake; names omitted
or misspelled; and absolute longitudes applied erroneously.
Thus good original work came to be so deteriorated by its
transmutations as to be almost useless.
No surveys need be better than some of the Spanish works
undertaken toward the end of the last and during the
beginning of this century. Methods and instruments were
used by Tofiño, Malaspina, Espinosa, Bauza, Córdova, and
others, that were not adopted, if known, by French or
English surveyors until afterward. Triangulation without
the compass, bases obtained by angular measurements of known
objects,[XXXIV-55] and the most perfect style of plan-drawing
on true principles, were practised by Spaniards before this
century commenced.
The south coast of the Great Isthmus and the interior of
Darien were not explored and mapped sufficiently, because of
the hostile Indians, and political reasons connected with
the gold mines in that district. There was also another
source of error in that particular vicinity which has only
recently been eliminated; namely, the great difference of
longitudes, according to the maps, between places on opposite
sides of the Isthmus which are really in the same meridian.
This amounted to more than 30 miles along all the coast from
Chiriquí to Darien with respect to the corresponding southern
coast-line.
Thanks to the far-seeing and indefatigable hydrographer to
the admiralty, Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, the British
surveys have included much of the coasts of Central America,
and they are now placed in relatively correct positions
on our latest maps. Having therefore exact coast-lines,
or boundaries, we can avail ourselves more readily of much
Spanish interior detail; but it is exceedingly difficult to
get at the _original_ works.
A very neatly engraved and _apparently_ complete map of
the Isthmus has been lately published at New Orleans by
Dr Autenreith, but in reality it is only a copy of Spanish
documents and recent surveys made by England; it is not an
original work. There are in this country at present more
materials for a map of Darien than exist elsewhere. Bauza
brought copies of all the Spanish-American documents to this
country, with many original maps; but there is still a great
extent, nearly all the interior of the Isthmus of Darien,
unexamined by the eye of a surveyor.
In the last century (1780), a Spanish party of five
engineers and surveyors, under Donoso, escorted by a large
body of troops,[XXXIV-56] was stopped by the Indians in the
Chucunaque River, and obliged to return without executing
their orders to survey the region near Caledonian harbor;
and _this_ was the _last_ attempt by Spain, or by _any one_,
to make a regular survey of the interior of that part of the
Isthmus.
In the valuable collection of Mr Arrowsmith are many Spanish
documents, among which one plan, dated 1774, shows all the
Spanish establishments, military and religious, as well as
mining, at that date, in Darien. Others show details of a
previous century, and a few give the earliest settlements of
the 16th century.
[Sidenote: INJURY TO TRUTHFUL GEOGRAPHY.]
And here allow one word to be said of the injury to
_truthful_ geography, caused by copying all materials without
acknowledgment, or by adding imaginary topography without
explanation. The map by Dr Autenreith has much the appearance
of an exact survey; there is no distinction made between
those parts for which there is authority and those which are
partly the results of imagination (the interior hill-work).
The public in general being unaware of the _authorities_ for
a map, the mere copyist is often supposed to be the _author_
of the work. Maps or charts that are not original ought
always to show from what data they have been compiled.
In order to assist in now forming a correct opinion of
Darien, a retrospective historical glance at a few points is
necessary.
The first settlement in all America was founded in 1509 at
the mouth of the Atrato. It was called Santa Maria de la
Antigua. The next settlement on the Isthmus was at Acla, or
Agla, in 1514, a few miles inland[XXXIV-57] from that port
or bay now famed in history and romance, called by Paterson
Caledonian Harbor. It was from Agla that Balboa crossed to
the South Sea, and that the earliest expeditions to Peru were
despatched.
In 1532 these two settlements were abandoned, and their
population transferred to Nombre de Dios and Panamá. This is
said to have been done on account of the unhealthy site of
Santa Maria de la Antigua, surrounded by marshes and mangrove
jungles; but why Agla was abandoned does not appear, except
by Paterson's narrative, whence it may be inferred that the
settlers there were harassed by the Indians, and were too far
from the sea-shore. Besides which, as intercourse increased
with places on the Pacific coasts it became, no doubt, more
convenient to have a principal rendezvous on the southern
shore more accessible from the Pacific.
In those early days so famed was Darien for gold, that the
province was called 'Golden Castile'[XXXIV-58] (Castilla del
Oro). It was the principal portion of that 'tierra firme,' so
famed afterward as the 'Spanish Main,' the real 'El Dorado'
to which Sir Walter Raleigh went in 1517-18, Sir Francis
Drake in 1557, troops of buccaneers in the 17th century, and
the Scotch colony in 1698.
Repeated aggressions on this auriferous district, where
abundance of gold was procured by black slave labor, after
the aborigines had been diminished in numbers by oppressive
cruelties, induced Spain to close and abandon the mines for
a time (early in the 18th century)—even those famous ones
in the mountains of Espíritu Santo near Cana, from which
alone more gold went through Panamá in a year than from all
the other mines of America taken together. These Cana mines
were sacked in 1702 and 1712 by English, in 1724 by French,
and by the Indians in 1727. Nevertheless, in 1774 the mining
operations were again going on, having been reëstablished a
few years previously.
When Cana was taken by the expedition (as narrated by
Davis) sent from Jamaica by Colonel Beckford in 1702, there
were about '900 houses' (probably most of them mere huts);
therefore, the population could hardly have been less than
3,000 at that time. From 1719 to 1727 there was a great and
general resistance of the Indians, who attacked the Spaniards
in all directions, and drove them out of all the detached
settlements. Some years afterward peace was made (in 1740),
missions of the Jesuits advanced among the natives, and by
their aid not only much topographical knowledge was acquired,
but Spanish settlements in the interior were renewed and
mines worked. But the Indians again rebelled; therefore,
small forts were reëstablished at Yavisa, Molineca, and Santa
Maria Real, with a new post (in 1780) at _El Príncipe_, or
Ocubti, from which a road was cut by Arisa, leading toward
Caledonian Harbor. The fort El Príncipe does not appear in
the Spanish MS. map of 1774; it was built about 1785, when
the Spaniards had again advanced into the interior Indian
territory.
In 1788 Milla de Santa Ella, an officer of Spain, went from
Caledonian Harbor to El Príncipe direct by the road then
recently opened by the Spaniards; but as he did not think it
advisable to return the same way, he went down the Savana,
and up the Chucunaque to the Tubuganti and Chueti rivers,
whence he crossed to his station at Caledonian Harbor by the
same route, undoubtedly, that Paterson traversed on his visit
to the Indian great chief at Ponca in 1698.
The examination of no traveller, except Humboldt, previous
to 1850, induced a belief that a canal might be cut directly
through Darien. Dr Cullen's personal inspection of Caledonian
Harbor, and of the Savana River, with their neighborhood,
added to the information he obtained orally and by reading,
led him to the conclusion that the lowest summit level
between those places did not exceed 300 or 400 feet, while it
might be very much less. Feeling so confident that a lower
level existed, he went there again to explore; but while
collecting further information and arranging preliminaries,
at Bogotá, the seat of government in New Granada, Mr Gisborne
(an engineer employed by Messrs Fox and Henderson) made short
excursions from each side of the Isthmus, which satisfied him
that the lowest summit level does not exceed 160 feet above
the sea.
According to the most authentic map of this district, Mr
Arrowsmith's last printed, not yet published, the distance
across in a direct line—between deep water on each side—is
about 33 miles. The windings of a canal may require nearly
a third more, and if so, the whole distance to be canalized
is about 40 miles—_a shorter distance than can be found
elsewhere_.
Mr Gisborne's examination of the principal features of this
line across Darien, however incomplete, is a material advance
toward certainty. We have his two bases of operations,
at Caledonian Harbor and San Miguel (entrance), nearly
determined by recent government surveys, and we have his
character as a guaranty for the value of those details which
he has given in his _Report_. There may be a few miles
of distance to settle, and there may be doubts whether
the river near his watershed, or summit level, called by
him _Caledonia_, may not be another river, perhaps the
Chucunaque, or one of its tributaries; and moreover, that the
range of heights supposed by him to separate those rivers is
not truly placed, while his river Caledonia (otherwise the
Golden River, or Aglatomate) winds through a more northerly
area. But these are trifles compared with his barometric
measurement of the summit level, and his own overlapping
eye-views of the country which he did not traverse.
If indeed the mouth of the Savana be not accurately laid
down, or assumed by him, if it be much farther west than he
supposed, his surveys may not have overlapped; and he may
have looked across two different plains; in which case there
may be yet another ridge or watershed beneath the rivers
which he actually touched. The expedition employed by our
government to survey this coast did not examine the mouths
of rivers running into San Miguel. Only the western part of
that gulf was examined in continuing the coast line. Hence
the position of the Savana may be less accurately known than
is generally supposed.
[Sidenote: A HASTY SCRAMBLE.]
It is hardly necessary to remark here that to make
independent observations for latitude, longitude, distance,
and accurate triangulation requires more time and instruments
than can be carried in a hasty scramble through a wild
country.
Mr Gisborne's examination of the geology and mineralogy is
valuable. Far from discovering any remarkable impediments
to cutting a canal, he states that there are _no_ particular
engineering difficulties with respect to the _ground_; that
there is much stratified shale-rock, easy to quarry, and fit
to line a canal. There is abundance of fine timber. Mangrove
forests, rather than jungles, surround the waters of the
gulf. Densely matted underwood follows on drier ground;
and then, on the elevated country, there are magnificent
timber-trees very little encumbered by underwood.
Having thus endeavored to take a general view of this
question, we may perhaps ask ourselves what are the greatest
impediments to the excavation of a canal—impediments
exceeding those that would attend any corresponding work in
Europe.
Supposing that political arrangements are satisfactorily
completed, the claims of other parties compromised or
barred, and adequate funds disposable, the only peculiar
and important impediments will be two—the natives and the
climate. The native or Indian question, as connected with
the independence and rights of the aborigines, should be
considered deliberately. That the Indians may be overawed
and conciliated by proper management, there is no doubt;
but their reasonable claims must be satisfied, irrespective
of all jurisdiction assumed over them by New Granada—a
jurisdiction which the natives of Darien repudiate. Fair
dealing, while an overpowering force is in sight, will
prevent any attempt to have recourse to arms, or to molest
the parties employed about a canal, and would therefore
obviate any irritating and probably prolonged guerrilla
hostilities.
It is estimated that there are about 5,000 independent
Indians on the Isthmus east of Costa Rica. Of these, it may
be presumed that there are not 2,000 capable of bearing arms;
a small number when dispersed in the highlands between Costa
Rica and Chocó, but quite enough to molest small parties of
workmen very seriously.
For defensive purposes, as well as for the general order
and discipline of very large bodies of laborers, in a
wild country, some degree of military organization and
an acquiescence in military discipline would seem to be
indispensable.
Whether convicts might be employed advantageously may be a
subject for grave consideration. In clearing the wood of a
tropical forest, and exposing ground to the sun's rays for
the first time, much pestilential sickness may be caused,
as has been repeatedly proved (at Pulo Penang, Fernando Po,
and many other places). It cannot be doubted that convicts
would be peculiarly liable to the influence of such diseases,
and therefore it might be unwise to make such an experiment.
Natives of tropical climates, or Chinese, would probably be
able to stand the malaria of newly cleared ground far better
than Europeans.
The most formidable, because permanent and irremediable,
obstacle is unquestionably the climate. There is no doubt
that rain prevails about two thirds of the year, even on the
higher grounds of Darien; while it is no less certain that
in the gulf of San Miguel (where mangrove jungles bound low,
muddy shores, and the great fall of tide exposes extensive
mud-banks) there is a continued succession of rains, more
or less heavy, except during short intervals. Examine any
travellers' accounts, read their narratives—they themselves
bear witness to the undeniable fact, although in _general_
terms they may say there is not _so much_ rain, and it is not
_so_ unhealthy, as has been supposed.
Many Europeans state they did not suffer, although much
and continuously exposed to the rains and heat. Active and
temperate men have not found the climate very detrimental.
Persons who have had many years' experience there assert
that care and regularity will ward off such attacks of
fever or dysentery as are common among thoughtless Europeans
unaccustomed to tropical regions.
It is possible that the great rise of tide on the south side
of the Isthmus may tend to purify the air on its shores, and
this effect, in such a place as San Miguel Gulf, may be very
beneficial.
On the Atrato, at Chagres, at Portobello, and other
notoriously unhealthy places, there is little or no rise
of tide; and the air among the mangrove jungles becomes at
times pestilential. Seemann, in his _Voyage of the Herald_,
recently published, gives so correct a description of such
places that it deserves attention. He says (vol. i. p. 249):
'The sea-coast, and those parts influenced by the tides
and the immediate evaporation of the sea, produce a quite
peculiar vegetation, which is generally characterized by a
leathery, glossy foliage, and leaves with entire margins.
In all muddy places, down to the verge of the ocean, are
impenetrable thickets formed of mangroves, which exhale
putrid miasmata, and spread sickness over the adjacent
districts. Occasionally, extensive tracts are covered with
the "Guagara de puerco," its fronds being as much as 10 feet
high. Myriads of mosquitoes and sand-flies fill the air.
Huge alligators sun themselves on the slimy banks, lying
motionless, blinking with their great eyes, and jumping
into the water directly any one approaches. To destroy these
dreaded swamps is almost impossible.'
Again (pp. 251, 252), he says: 'Forests cover at least two
thirds of the whole territory. The high trees, the dense
foliage, and the numerous climbing plants, almost shut
out the rays of the sun, causing a gloom which is the more
insupportable as all other objects are hidden from view. Rain
is so frequent, and the moisture so great, that the burning
of these forests is impossible.' 'From reading the highly
colored accounts with which many travellers have endeavored
to embellish their narratives, the European has drawn, in
imagination, a picture of equinoctial countries which a
comparison with nature at once demolishes.'
Speaking of the 'vegetable ivory,' and referring to the
climate, Mr. Seemann says (p. 222): 'It grows in low, damp
localities, and is diffused over the southern parts of Darien
and the vicinity of Portobello, districts which are almost
throughout the year deluged by torrents of rain, or enveloped
in the thick vapor that constantly arises from the humidity
of the soil and the rankness of the vegetation.'
Describing the appearance of one of these mangrove forests,
as they may be called, the same author observes (p. 73):
'The trees were actually in the water. The tall mangroves,
with roots exposed for 12 or 14 feet, formed a huge tangled
trellis-work, from which the tall stems rose to a height
of 60 or 70 feet.' _Fitzroy's Further Considerations on the
Great Isthmus of Cent. Am._ March 1853, in _Jour. Roy. Geog.
Soc._, xxiii. 176-87.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: THE LONG-SOUGHT WAY.]
The project of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a
canal large enough to permit the passage of sea vessels has
attracted the attention and enlisted the earnest sympathies
and efforts of the Old and New World, from the discovery of
the Isthmus of Panamá down to the present time. The great
historian Prescott says: 'The discovery of a strait into
the Indian Ocean was the burden of every order from the
government. The discovery of an Indian passage is the true
key to the maritime movements of the fifteenth and the first
half of the sixteenth centuries.' The desire to discover
this passage, which was confidently believed to exist, and
thus give to Spain the dominion of the seas, and pour into
her treasury all the wealth of that marvellous land of
exaggeration, the Spice Islands, sent Columbus, Pizarro,
Cortés, Balboa, Gil Gonzalez, and the other Spanish mariners
and adventurers, upon their long, arduous, and eventful
voyages, and resulted in the discovery, conquest, and
settlement of the American continent.
However long the voyage; however great the discovery; however
boundless and rich the new countries that were subjected
to the Spanish crown; however brilliant the prowess of a
chivalrous soldiery—the emperor always asked, 'Have you
discovered the way to the Spice Islands?' If not, he was
unsatisfied, and the discovery and conquest were robbed of
half their value. He was constantly reminding his brave and
adventurous mariners that he desired above all things to
discover the way to the Spice Islands, and promised great
honors and rewards to the fortunate adventurer who should
make the discovery. In 1523 the Emperor Charles the Fifth
wrote to Cortés, earnestly urging him to search for a shorter
way to the 'Indian Land of Spice,' and for a shorter and
more direct passage between the eastern and western coasts
of Central America. In answer to the emperor, Cortés wrote:
'It would render the king of Spain master of so many kingdoms
that he might consider himself lord of the world.' In 1524,
in obedience to the emperor's wishes, he fitted out an
expedition to discover it. Columbus wrote to the emperor:
'Your Majesty may be assured that as I know how much you
have at heart the discovery of the great secret of a strait,
I shall postpone all interests and projects of my own for
the fulfilment of this great object.' It was for the purpose
of making this discovery that Gil Gonzalez fitted out the
expedition that resulted in the discovery of Nicaragua.
The interest in the interoceanic communication was not
confined to the Spanish emperor, or his adventurous mariners.
It extended to the learned men of Spain, and seriously
engaged their attention. Francisco Lopez de Gomara, one
of the earliest writers on America, in his chapter on 'the
possibility of a shorter passage to the Moluccas,' in his
work on the _Two Indies_, published in 1551, says: 'The
passage would have to be opened across the mainland from
one sea to the other, by whichever might prove the most
profitable of these four lines; viz., either by the river
Lagartos (Chagres), which, rising in Chagres, at a distance
of four leagues from Panamá, over which space of territory
they proceed in carts, flows to the sea-coast of Nombre de
Dios; or by the channel through which the lake of Nicaragua
empties into the sea; up and down which (the Rio San Juan)
large vessels sail; and the lake is distant only three or
four leagues from the sea; by either of these two rivers the
passage is already traced and half made. There is likewise
another river which flows from Vera Cruz to Tecoantepec,
along which the inhabitants of New Spain (Mexico) tow and
drag barks from one sea to the other. The distance from
Nombre de Dios to Panamá is seventeen leagues, and from
the gulf of Urabá to the gulf of San Miguel twenty-five,
which are the two most difficult lines.' Cortés was in favor
of the first of these routes, Gil Gonzalez of the second,
and Pizarro of the third. Herrera, royal historiographer
of Spain, writing of the events of 1527, refers to the
routes via Nicaragua and Panamá, and the possibility of
other connections between the two oceans. Martin Behaim, a
geographer of Nuremberg, Germany, was probably the first who
suggested the possibility of a natural communication between
the Atlantic and Pacific. So Magellan stated in his memorial
of November 28, 1520, to the court of Valladolid, asking
permission to search for such a channel. It was granted, an
expedition was fitted out, and he discovered the Straits of
Magellan, bearing his name.
Soon after the discovery of Nicaragua by Gil Gonzalez, it was
declared and believed by many that there existed a navigable
channel, connecting Lake Nicaragua with the Pacific, and
that vessels would be enabled to pass from one ocean to the
other. But no systematic attempt was made to ascertain the
truth of this conjecture until 1529, when Pedrarias de Ávila,
then governor of Nicaragua, sent an expedition of soldiers
and Indians, under Martin Este, to explore lakes Nicaragua
and Managua; when they had penetrated into a province called
Voto, a little north of Lake Managua, they were attacked
by a large body of Indians, and compelled to return. They
reported that they saw from a mountain top a large body of
water (doubtless the gulf of Fonseca), which they supposed to
be another lake. Don Diego Machuca soon afterward fitted out
another expedition in the same year, which he accompanied and
commanded. It resulted in the discovery of the river San Juan
as the true outlet of the lakes. He sailed down that river to
the Atlantic. Machuca Rapids take their name from him.
[Sidenote: OVIEDO'S ACCOUNT.]
Oviedo says that in 1540, at St Domingo, he met Pedro Cora, a
pilot who had been attached to the expedition of Martin Este,
and subsequently to that of Captain Diego Machuca. He gives
a long and interesting account of the second expedition, as
narrated to him by Cora. Cora said that at the port of Nombre
de Dios he met with some old friends who had built a felucca
and brigantine on the shores of Lake Nicaragua at an expense
of several thousand dollars. Among them was Diego Machuca,
who had been commandant of the country of the Tenderí, and
of the district about Lake Masaya. They embarked on these
vessels on Lake Nicaragua for the purpose of exploring it.
Captain Machuca, with two hundred men, advanced along the
shore, keeping in sight of the boats, which were accompanied
by several canoes. After some days they entered the San Juan
River, and passed down to where its waters appeared to flow
into the sea. Being ignorant of their locality, they followed
the sea-coast in an easterly direction, and finally arrived
at Nombre de Dios, where the pilot Cora met them. They were
arrested at this place by Doctor Robles, who desired to
found a colony at the mouth of the San Juan River, and thus
reap the benefit of their labor and discoveries, 'as is the
custom,' says Oviedo, 'with these men of letters; for the use
they do make of their wisdom is rather to rob than to render
justice.' For this outrage he was deprived of his office.
The pilot, though strongly importuned, refused to tell Oviedo
where the river emptied into the ocean.
Oviedo says: 'I do not regard the lakes as separate, because
they connect, the one with the other. They are separated from
the South Sea by a very narrow strip of land.... This lake
(Nicaragua) is filled with excellent fish. But what proves
that they are both one lake is the fact that they equally
abound in sea fish and turtles. Another proof is, that in
1529 there was found in the province of Nicaragua, on the
banks of this lake, a fish never seen except in the sea, and
called the sword-fish. I have seen some of these fish of so
great size that two oxen attached to a cart could hardly draw
them.... The one found on the shores of this lake was small,
being only about twelve feet in length.... The water of the
lake is very good and healthful, and a large number of small
rivers and brooks empty into it. In some places the great
lake is fifteen or twenty fathoms deep, and in other places
it is scarce a foot in depth; so that it is not navigable in
all parts, but only in the middle, and with barks specially
constructed for that purpose.... It has a large number of
islands of some extent, covered with flocks and precious
woods. The largest is eight leagues in circumference, and
is inhabited by Indians. It is very fertile, filled with
deer and rabbits, and named Ometepec, which signifies _two
mountains_. It formerly contained a population much more
numerous than now, divided into eight or ten villages. The
mountain in this island toward the east (Madeira) is lowest;
the other (Ometepec) is so high that its summit is seldom
seen. I passed a night at a farm belonging to a gentleman
called Diego Mora, situated on the mainland'—probably near
the site of Virgin Bay. 'The keeper told me that during the
two years he had been in that place he had seen the summit
but once, because it was covered with clouds.'[XXXIV-59]
There are many evidences that the channel of the San
Juan River was once much deeper and freer from rapids
and obstructions than it is at present. At one time, sea
vessels passed regularly up and down the river. It would be
impossible for them to do so now. The river is too shallow,
and the rapids are too many and difficult. In 1648 a Spanish
brig from Carthagena (de la Indias) arrived at Granada, and
discharged her cargo, reloaded, and started on her return.
On her voyage back, the river was found unnavigable at
one point, and the vessel returned to Granada; the cargo
was taken out, and the ship laid up, and finally broken to
pieces. Thomas Gage, an English monk, who visited Nicaragua
in 1665, says that vessels often arrived at Granada, from
South America, Spain, and Cuba, and reloaded and returned
to those countries by way of the San Juan River and Lake
Nicaragua.
In 1781 Manuel Galisteo, by order of the Spanish government,
examined the country, and carefully surveyed a route for a
canal between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific. He estimated
the level of the lake above the Pacific to be one hundred
and thirty-four feet. The route selected by him was from the
mouth of the Rio Lajas in the lake to San Juan del Sur. Early
in the present century, a survey was made by an engineer name
Thompson, of which we have no details, further than that he
adopted the report made by Galisteo.
In 1837 Mr Baily was employed by the federal government of
Central America, and made a careful survey of a route for
the canal. He spent much time and a considerable sum of money
in making the surveys, but was never paid for his services.
Dr Andreas Örsted, of Copenhagen, made a survey in 1848,
and published a map of the country. He selected the bay of
Bolaños, thirteen and a half miles from Lake Nicaragua, as
the Pacific terminus of the canal. In 1851 Colonel Childs, an
Englishman, made a thorough survey and estimate of the whole
work. He selected Brito as the Pacific terminus. According
to his estimates, the actual length of water navigation,
including the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, would be one
hundred and ninety-four and one half miles. He submitted his
plan and surveys to the British government, by which it was
referred to James Walker and Edward Aldrich, royal engineers,
who reported unfavorably. The plan and reports were then laid
before a committee of English capitalists, with the purpose
of raising the necessary capital for the work. But after a
careful investigation, the committee declined to recommend
the enterprise, believing it would be unprofitable, and more
for the benefit of the United States than of Great Britain.
This survey, and the action of the British government upon
it, furnish strong confirmation of the general opinion, as
to the purpose of that government, in seizing Greytown and
the bay of Fonseca. A survey was made in 1850 by the Central
American Transit Company.
After the independence of the Central American states had
been established, Manuel Antonio de la Cerda, afterward
governor of Nicaragua, represented to the federal congress,
in July 1823, the urgent necessity for opening the canal
without delay. But no action was then taken in the matter.
During the next year several propositions relative to
the construction of the canal were made to the federal
government by parties in Europe. Barclay & Co., of London,
made a proposition, on the 18th of September, 1824, to open
a canal, between the Atlantic and Pacific, by way of the
San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, at their own cost, if
the government would assist them in certain particulars.
On the 2d of February, 1825, Charles Bourke and Matthew
Llanos addressed a communication to the government, stating
that in the preceding December they had sent an armed brig
with a party of engineers to Greytown, to survey the route,
and praying that they might be granted: 1. An exclusive
proprietorship and control of the canal; 2. An exclusive
right to navigate the lakes and dependent waters by steam;
3. Free permission to use all natural products of the country
necessary for the work; 4. Exemption from duty for the goods
and materials introduced by the company during the pendency
of the work. They offered to pay the government twenty per
cent on the tolls received, and to surrender the work at the
end of a certain number of years.
[Sidenote: MR. CLAY'S ASSURANCE.]
On the 8th of February, 1825, Don Antonio José Cañas, then
minister from the federal government to the United States,
addressed a communication to Henry Clay, then secretary
of state, upon the subject of the canal, soliciting the
coöperation of our government in the work, upon the ground
that 'its noble example had been a model and protection to
all the Americas,' and entitled it to a preference over any
other nation in the 'merits and advantages of the proposed
undertaking.' He proposed by means of a treaty to effectually
secure its advantages to the two nations. Mr Clay instructed
Colonel John Williams, U. S. chargé d'affaires in Central
America, to assure that government of the great interest
taken by the United States in an undertaking 'so highly
calculated to diffuse a favorable influence on the affairs
of mankind,' and to carefully investigate the facilities
afforded by the route, and transmit the intelligence acquired
to our government. Colonel Williams never made any report of
his action under these instructions.
During the year 1825, many other propositions for the
construction of the canal were received by the federal
government from Europe. The attention of the government was
thus strongly attracted to the importance and value of the
proposed canal, both as affording a considerable revenue to
the government, and aiding in the settlement of the country,
and development of its resources. In June 1825, the federal
congress passed a decree defining the terms and conditions
upon which the canal might be constructed. Another decree,
published at the same time, fixed the period of six months
for receiving proposals for the work. The time was much
too short, and but few offers were received. Among them was
one from Mr Baily, the surveyor, as agent for the English
house of Barclay, Herring, Richardson, & Co., which was
conditional, and one from Charles Beninske for Aaron H.
Palmer, of New York, which was accepted. The contractors,
under the name of 'The Central American and United States
Atlantic and Pacific Canal Company,' agreed to open a canal
through Nicaragua, which should be navigable for large ships,
and to deposit two hundred thousand dollars in the city of
Granada, within six months, for the preliminary expenses of
the work; to erect fortifications for its protection; and
to commence work within one year. The contractors were to
receive two thirds of the tolls from the canal until they had
been reimbursed for the full cost of the work, with ten per
cent interest; afterwards to have one half of the proceeds
for seven years, with the right to introduce steam-vessels.
The government agreed to place at their disposal all the
documents in its possession relating to the canal; to furnish
laborers at certain wages; and to permit the cutting and use
of the timber in the country. If the canal was not completed,
all the work done was to be forfeited to the government.
This contract was dated June 14, 1826. The contractors had
not sufficient capital for the construction of the canal,
and failing to obtain it in New York, addressed a memorial
to the United States congress, praying the assistance of
the government in their work, which they represented to
be of national importance. The memorial was referred to a
committee, but never reported on. The enterprise excited
considerable attention in New York, and the grant obtained
from the federal government of Central America was believed
to be valuable. Mr Palmer executed a deed of trust to De
Witt Clinton, Stephen Van Renssalaer, C. D. Clinton, Phillip
Hone, and Lynde Catlin, constituting them directors of the
company which was being organized for the construction
of the canal. Mr Palmer went to England in 1827, and
endeavored, but without success, to obtain the coöperation of
English capitalists. All his efforts were ineffectual, the
necessary capital could not be raised, and the enterprise
was abandoned. Mr Clay, then secretary of state, earnestly
advocated the construction of the canal, believing it would
be of great advantage to this country.
In 1828 an association of capitalists in the Netherlands,
under the patronage of the king of Holland, undertook the
construction of the canal. In 1829 the king sent General
Verveer, as plenipotentiary to Guatemala, with special
instructions relative to the canal. In October of the same
year, commissioners were appointed by the federal government
to confer with General Verveer, and on the 24th of July,
1830, they agreed upon a plan, which was to be laid before
the federal congress for its approval. The conditions
were much the same as in the contract with Mr Palmer.
The revolution in Belgium, and the separation of Holland,
terminated this enterprise. The federal congress had been
stimulated to greater anxiety for the construction of the
canal by these various proposals and contracts, and believing
that there was more likelihood of its being made by the Dutch
company than any other, in 1832 made ineffectual efforts to
renew negotiations with Holland for reviving that company,
and enabling it to complete its contract.
In the mean time, the efforts and representations of Mr Clay,
De Witt Clinton, and other distinguished men had awakened
public interest in the people and government of the United
States in the proposed canal, and convinced them that it was
important that our government should, if possible, control
the work, and reap the benefits and advantages which it was
believed would result to our commerce from it. On the 3d of
March, 1835, the United States senate adopted a resolution,
requesting the president to consider the expediency of
opening negotiations with the Central American states and
New Granada for protecting by treaty stipulations companies
undertaking to open a canal across the Isthmus, connecting
the two oceans, and of securing its free and equal navigation
to all nations. By virtue of this resolution, President
Jackson appointed Charles Biddle, and directed him to go
to San Juan del Norte, and thence across the Isthmus to the
Pacific, by the proposed route; to proceed to Guatemala, the
capital, and with the aid of Mr De Witt Clinton, U. S. chargé
d'affaires, obtain all public papers, and copies of the laws
passed, and all papers and information relating to the canal.
He was also to go to Panamá, and ascertain all about that
route. Mr Biddle did not go to Nicaragua, and died soon after
his return to the United States. His mission was a failure.
[Sidenote: ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT.]
The government of Central America now determined to survey
the route for the canal, and thus demonstrate to the world
its practicability. In 1837 President Morazan employed Mr
John Baily to survey the route, which he did, as already
stated. In 1838 a convention between Nicaragua and Honduras
authorized Peter Bouchard to make an agreement in France
for the organization of a company to construct the canal. He
did not succeed in accomplishing anything. Don Jorge Viteri,
bishop of San Salvador, was sent as ambassador to Rome, and
make like efforts, but without success. In the same year,
a company of Americans in New York and New Orleans sent Mr
George Holdship to Central America. He made a contract with
Nicaragua, which had seceded from the federal republic, for
the construction of a canal, the establishment of a bank, and
the introduction of colonists. This scheme was extensive, but
amounted to nothing, as the enterprise was soon abandoned.
In 1838, Aaron Clark, Herman Leroy, William A. Duer, Matthew
Carey, and William Radcliff, citizens of New York and
Philadelphia, addressed a memorial to congress, representing
the necessity for the opening of the interoceanic canal. It
was referred to a committee, of which Hon. Charles F. Mercer
was chairman, who, upon the 2d of March, 1839, reported upon
it, recommending the following resolution, which was adopted:
'_Resolved_, That the president of the United States be
requested to consider the expediency of opening or continuing
negotiations with the governments of other nations; and
particularly with those the territorial jurisdiction of
which comprehends the Isthmus of Panamá, and to which the
United States have accredited ministers or agents, for the
purpose of ascertaining or effecting a communication between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by the construction of
a ship-canal; and of securing forever, by suitable treaty
stipulations, the free and equal rights of navigating such
canal to all nations, on the payment of reasonable tolls.'
The president and senate, acting under this resolution,
negotiated and made a treaty between the United States
and New Granada, by which our government guaranteed the
neutrality of the Isthmus, and New Granada conceded a free
transit across it. The Panamá Railroad Company was organized
by virtue of this treaty; and, as we all know, the existing
railroad across the Isthmus was built by them; with what
labor, and cost in money and human life, it is foreign to our
purpose to inquire.
Between the years 1838 and 1844, Central America was
distracted by civil wars, and all action relative to the
canal was suspended. In 1844, Don Francisco Castellon,
minister from the republic of Nicaragua to France, made a
contract with a Belgian company, acting under the patronage
of the king of Belgium, for the construction of the canal.
But this contract was as unsuccessful as its predecessors. In
1846, Mr Marcoleta, Nicaraguan chargé d'affaires to Belgium,
made a contract with Louis Napoleon (the present French
emperor), then a prisoner at Ham, for its construction. With
his characteristic vanity, he stipulated that it should be
called 'Canal Napoleon de Nicaragua.' Napoleon wrote and
published a pamphlet in London, upon the subject, and made
a feeble attempt to awaken the attention of capitalists, but
without success. His pamphlet had only a limited circulation,
but was afterward republished by M. Belly. On the 16th of
February, 1849, William Wheelright made a proposition in
behalf of an English company for the construction of the
canal, but it was not acted upon.
On the 14th of March, 1849, Mr D. T. Brown, in behalf of
certain citizens of New York, and General Muñoz, commissioner
for Nicaragua, entered into a contract for the construction
of a canal, but it was neither ratified by the executive of
that republic nor by the company in New York, within the
stipulated time. The seizure of Greytown by the English,
in 1848, and the pretext of a Mosquito protectorate, were
rightly regarded by the Nicaraguan government and our own,
as directed to obtaining command and permanent control and
dominion over the only possible route for an interoceanic
canal.
On the 21st of June, 1849, Mr Hise, U. S. chargé d'affaires
to Nicaragua, concluded a convention with commissioners
appointed by that republic, giving the United States a
perpetual right of way through that republic, of erecting
forts, and protecting the transit. This convention was not
approved by our own government, or by that of Nicaragua.
On the 4th of March, 1850, General Taylor was inaugurated
president of the United States, and soon after sent Mr E. G.
Squier to Central America to supersede Mr Hise, as chargé
d'affaires to Guatemala, with special commissions to the
other states of Central America, "with full power to treat
with them separately on all matters affecting their relations
with this republic." Upon his arrival in Nicaragua, Mr
Squier found an agent of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and others of
New York, who was endeavoring to obtain a grant from that
government for the construction of a canal. The government
was at first indisposed to listen to his overtures, until
assured by Mr Squier that the United States government would
guarantee any charter, not inconsistent with our public
policy, that might be granted by Nicaragua.
On the 27th of August, 1850, a contract was signed between
the government of Nicaragua and the agent of the New York
company, and afterward ratified on the 23d of September
following, containing the following provisions, viz.:
1. That the American Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company
may construct a ship-canal, at its own expense, from San
Juan to Realejo, or any other point within the territory of
Nicaragua, on the Pacific, and make use of all lands, waters,
or natural materials of the country for the enterprise.
2. The canal shall be large enough to admit vessels of all
sizes.
3. The grant is for eighty-five years from the completion
of the work; the surveys to be commenced within twelve
months; the work to be completed within twelve years, unless
interrupted by unforeseen events. If not completed within the
stipulated time, the charter will be forfeited, and all work
done shall revert to the state. At the end of eighty-five
years the canal shall revert to the state; the company,
nevertheless, shall receive fifteen per cent annually of the
net profits for ten years thereafter, if the entire cost of
the canal does not exceed twenty million dollars; but if it
does, then it shall receive the same percentage for twenty
years thereafter.
4. The company to pay the state ten thousand dollars per
annum, during the progress of the work, and to give it two
hundred thousand dollars of the capital stock, and to pay
twenty per cent of the net profits for twenty years, and
twenty-five per cent thereafter.
[Sidenote: FURTHER CONTRACT PROVISIONS.]
5. The company to have the exclusive right to navigate the
interior waters of Nicaragua by steam, and within twelve
years to open any land or other route, by means of transit
or conveyance across the state, and pay ten per cent of the
net profits of such transit to the state, and transport on
such transit, and the canal, when finished, the officers and
employés of the republic free of charge.
6. The canal to be open to the vessels of all nations.
7. The contract and the rights and privileges conceded by
it to be held inalienably by the individuals composing the
company.
8. All disputes shall be settled by commissioners appointed
in a specified manner.
9. All machinery and other articles introduced by the company
into the state, for its own use, to enter free of duty; and
all persons in its employ to enjoy all the privileges of
citizenship, without being subject to taxation or military
service.
10. The state concedes to the company, for purposes of
colonization, eight sections of land, on the line of the
canal, in the valley of the river San Juan, each six miles
square, and at least three miles apart, with the right of
alienating the same under certain reservations. All settlers
on these lands to be subject to the laws of the republic,
being, however, for ten years exempt from all taxes and from
all public service so soon as each colony shall contain fifty
settlers.