Mexico, and the sources of the Rio de Chimalapa. The waters of this last river mix with those of the Pacific Ocean near the Barra de S. Francisco. I consider here the Rio del Passo as the principal. source of the river Huasacualco, although the latter only takes its name at the Passo de la Fabrica, after one of its arms, which comes from the mountains de los Mexes, unites with the Rio del Passo. We shall examine afterwards the possibility of cutting a canal, of from six to seven leagues, in the forests of Tarifa. We shall merely observe here, that since, in 1798, a road has been opened which leads by land from the port of Tehuantepec, to the Embarcadero de Cruz (a road completed in 1800); the Rio Huasacualco forms, in reality, a commercial communication between the two oceans. During the course of the war with the English, the indigo of Guatimala, the most precious of all known indigos, came by the way of this isthmus to the port of Vera Cruz, and from thence to Europe.

4. The great lake of Nicaragua communicates not only with the lake of Leon, but also on the east, by the river of San Juan, with the sea of the Antilles. The communication with the Pacific Ocean would be effected in cutting a canal across the isthmus which separates the lake from the gulf of Papagayo. On this strait isthmus are to be found the volcanic and isolated summits of Bombacho (at 11° 7' of latitude), of Grenada, and of

the Papagayo (at 10° 50′ of latitude). The old maps point out a communication by water as existing across the isthmus from the lake to the Great Ocean. Other maps, somewhat newer, represent a river under the name of Rio Partido, which gives one of its branches to the Pacific Ocean, and the other to the lake of Nicaragua; but this divided stream does not appear on the last maps published by the Spaniards and English.

There are in the archives of Madrid several French and English memoirs*, on the possibility of the junction of the lake of Nicaragua with the Pacific Ocean. The commerce carried on by the English on the coast of Mosquitos has greatly contributed to giv celebrity to this project of communication between the two seas. In none of the memoirs which have come to my knowledge is the principal point, the height of the ground in the isthmus, sufficiently cleared up.

From the kingdom of New Grenada to the environs of the capital of Mexico, there is not a single mountain, a single level, a single city, of which we know the elevation above the level of the sea. Does there exist an uninterrupted chain of mountains in the provinces of Veragua and Nicaragua?

Memoire sur le passage de la mer du Sud a la mer du Nord, par M. la Bastide, en 1791. Voyage de Marchand, vol. i. p. 565. Mapa del Golfo de Mexico por Thomas Lopez y Juan de la Cruz, 1755.

Has this cordillera, which is supposed to unite the Andes of Peru to the mountains of Mexico, its central chain to the west or the east of the lake of Nicaragua? Would not the isthmus of Papagayo rather present a hilly tract than a continued cordillera? These are problems whose solution is 、 equally interesting to the statesman and the geographical naturalist!

There is no spot on the globe so full of volcanos as this part of America, from the 11° or 13° of latitude; but do not these conical summits form groupes which, separately from one another, rise from the plain itself? We ought not to be as tonished that we are ignorant of these very im. portant facts; we shall soon see that even the height of the mountains which traverse the isth mus of Panama is not yet known. Perhaps the communication of the lake of Nicaragua with the Pacific Ocean could be carried on by the lake of Leon, by means of the river Tosta, which, on the road from Leon to Realero, descends from the volcano of Telica. In fact, the ground appears there very little elevated. little elevated. The account of the voyage of Dampier leads us even to suppose that there exists no chain of mountains between the lake of Nicaragua and the South Sea. "The coast of Nicoya," says this great navigator, " is low, and covered at full tide. To arrive from Realexo to Leon, we must go twenty miles across a country flat and covered with mangle trees." The

city of Leon itself is situated in a savanna. There is a small river which, passing near Realexo, might. facilitate the communication between the latter. port and that of Leon*. From the west bank of the lake of Nicaragua there are only four marine leagues to the bottom of the gulf of Papagayo, and seven to that of Nicoya, which navigators call la Caldera. Dampier says expressly that the ground between la Caldera and the lake is a little hilly, but for the greatest part level and like a

savanna.

The coast of Nicaragua is almost inaccessible in the months of August, September and October, on account of the terrible storms and rains; in January and February, on account of the furious north-east and east-north-east winds called Papagayos. This circumstance is exceedingly inconvenient for navigation. The port of Tehuantepec, on the isthmus of Guasacualco, is notmore favoured by nature; it gives its name to the hurricanes which blow from the north-west, and which frighten vessels from landing at the small ports of Sabinas and Ventosa.

5. The isthmus of Panama was crossed for the first time by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, in 1513. Since this memorable epocha in the history of geographical discoveries, the project of a canal has

Collection of Dampier's and Wafer's voyages, vol. i. p. 113, 119, 218..

occupied every mind; and yet at this day, after the lapse of 300 years, there neither exists a survey of the ground, nor an exact determination of the positions of Panama and Portobello. The longitude of the first of these two ports has been found with relation to Carthagena; the longitude of the second has been fixed from Guayaquil. The operations of Fidalgo and Malaspina are undoubtedly deserving of very great confidence; but errors are insensibly multiplied, when by chronometrical operations from the isle of Trinidad to Portobello, and from Lima to Panama, one position becomes dependant on another. It would be important to carry the time directly from Panama to Portobello, and thus to connect the operations in the South Sea with those which the Spanish government has carried on in the Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps MM. Fidalgo, Tiscar, and Noguera, may one day advance with their instruments to the southern coast of the isthmus, while MM. Colmenares, Irasvirivill, and Quartara, shall carry their operations* to the northern coast. To form an idea of the uncertainty which still

* These officers of the Spanish marine were charged with surveying the northern and western coasts of South America. The expedition of Fidalgo was destined for the coast situated between the isle of Trinidad and Portobello, the expedition of Colmenares for the coast of Chili, and the expedition of Moraleda and Quartara for the part between Guayaquil and Realexo.