that the new route across the isthmus will save an average of $10,000 a voyage, or $605,000 per annum, in our commerce with China, beside the saving of interest on the capital employed in it, by making two voyages a year instead of one. This may be set down at about $150,000 per annum. Those who have been long engaged in the whale fishery say that about one-fourth of the time employed in a whaling voyage is consumed in going to and returning from the fishing ground. The annual product of that branch of commerce is about ten millions of dollars. This shows an actual loss of time equal to about $2,500,000. It is estimated that the new route will save one half of this, or $1,250,000 per annum. The length of the voyage now causes an average loss of 10 per cent. of the oil, or an annual loss of $1,000,000. It is admitted that the new route will prevent this. There will be, therefore, a saving on this item of $1,000,000 annually. As we have no returns of the number of voyages made to the west coast of America, and as the distances by the new route to Chili, Peru, Ecuador, San Blas, and . Mazatlan, are reduced more than between the United States and China, it will not be considered an over-estimate if we assume that there will be a saving of about the same per cent. on our commerce with those ports, as has been stated with respect to the trade with China. This gives a little over $200,000 per annum. It is estimated in this report that, at the end of three years there will probably be 500,000 people in California, and that they will require an equal number of barrels of flour and the same quantity of beef, and pork, and other articles of provision annually. The saving on the freight by the new route will be at least one dollar per barrel, or one million of dollars a year on these agricultural products, to say nothing of the market thus afforded, which would otherwise be unavailable, beside the saving of time in the voyage, and the interest on the capital employed in the trade. It is, of course, impossible to estimate the saving on the freight of manufactured goods. That, however, will necessarily be very large. The amounts expected to be saved by the proposed rail-road are thus recapitulated. In the China trade $800,000 per annum for 20 years, $16,000,000 45,000,000 4,000,000 20,000,000 $85,000,000 It is, perhaps, well for the country that congress has determined to have no premature or hasty legislation in regard to these intermarine communications, inasmuch as the least costly, most feasible, and most expeditious route should be selected. TEHUANTEPEC ROUTE. The route across the isthmus of Tehuantepec is not as circuitous as that by Panama, and its claims to the consideration of the government have also been presented in the shape of a memorial to congress. On the Atlantic side is the port of Coatzacoalcos, at the mouth of the river of the same name. This river is represented to be navigable thirty miles for ships of the largest class, and for lighter craft fifteen miles. Thus the distance from the head of navigation of that river to Tehuantepec, on the Pacific coast, would be only one hundred and fifteen miles for the contemplated line of rail-road. In 1521, Cortes caused a survey to be made of this isthmus for the purpose of uniting the two oceans. Afterwards it became the favourite route by which the Manilla merchants passed from Acapulco to the gulf of Mexico. During the last century, some heavy brass pieces in the castle of San Juan D'Ulloa were observed to have on them the stamp of the Manilla foundry, and an inquiry was instituted to ascertain how they were brought to the gulf. It was discovered from the archives of the city of Tehuantepec that they had been transported across the isthmus; the route from Tehuantepec being up the river Chicapa, across the Mal-paso, thence by land over the Cordilleras to the head waters of the Coatzacoalcos, which empties into the gulf. In 1842, a survey of the route was made by Cayetano Moro, in connexion with a grant from the Mexican government to Don José Garay. This survey is described by the "Sun of Anahuaco," a paper published in the city of Vera Cruz, in an article setting forth the advantages of the route. The paper is of the date of July 4th, 1847. We have only room for some extracts. The editor thus opens the subject: "We have heard that it was the intention of Commodore Perry, before the U. S. Marine corps were detached from the navy to be joined to the army of the interior, not only with the approbation of his government to hold Tabasco, and if necessary to take possession of the state of Chiapas, by ascending the river to Teapa, and marching thence over land to San Christoval, but to prosecute the most minute inquiry with reference to the isthmus of Tehuantepec, the navigation of the rivers which at that point empty into the Pacific and the gulf, and the exact character of the country which intervenes between their sources. "Those were projects worthy of the navy and its enterprising commodore, but since the government has chosen to deprive that arm of our service of its power to garrison the places which it may capture, their noble enterprise must, as a matter of course, be deferred. "This scheme to open a direct and speedy communication_between the two oceans, has attracted the attention of the world. It is unVOL. II. MARCH, 1849. 12 doubtedly feasible-and what nation should achieve it but the United States of America? There never has been, there never will be, a period so suitable for a commencement as the present moment-and who so well qualified for the task as the enterprising commander of the home squadron?" The survey made by Moro is thus described:-"On the 28th of May, 1842, Don Cayetano Moro arrived at Tehuantepec to commence his observations as chief engineer, assisted by Don Manuel Robles, captain of engineers, and professor of astronomy in the military college of Mexico. Other engineers of inferior note assisted in the survey. They found eighteen feet of water on the Boca Barra of Tehuantepec, but a shoal of sand obstructed it within, the whole way across. The engineers subsequently crossed from Tehuantepec to Coatzacoalcos, by the Chicapa, la Chirela, Guchiovi, Boca de Morete, and Mal Paso. At Mal Paso, the Coatzacoalcos surprised them by the slowness of its current, and the limpidity of its waters. It seemed already a canal. Its banks of a tenacious clay, seemed to undergo little change. The Sierra Madre appeared to intercept its course entirely, between the Santa Maria Petapa and San Miguel Chimalapa. The highlands on the route of the proposed canal, like the low, is of the greatest possible fertility, abounding in noble trees of the most valuable kinds, among others the vanilla and wild cocoa. "From Tarifa, the waters descend naturally towards the Coatzacoalcos. On the shores of the river, noble pines abound, which formerly were taken to Wasana, to mast the ships built there for the Spanish navy; also jaricanes, huyacanes, macayes, and paques. These last were used for the timbers of large ships. The abundance of excellent ship timber on the banks of the Coatzacoalcos, the convenience and security of its port, and the natural facilities for defending it, combine to make it the most suitable place for a naval arsenal in the Gulf of Mexico. The Spanish government seriously entertain the project of establishing an arsenal there. "From the confluence of the Malatengo to the sea, the Coatzacoalcos has only a fall of forty metres, or one hundred and thirty-two feet. The accounts of the depth of water on the bar varies from fourteen to twenty-two feet. Commodore Perry found it only twelve feet at the commencement of the rainy season. It will be an easy task to open the Boca Barra of San Francisco on the Pacific side, and to deepen a channel through the lakes, whose bottom is sand and shells." The advantages in point of distance by this route are very considerable. The distance from the mouth of the Mississippi to San Francisco by the isthmus of Tehuantepec, is three thousand, two hundred and ninety-four miles; by the isthmus of Panama, five thousand miles, thus showing a difference of one thousand, seven hundred and six miles. From New York, by the Tehuantepec route, the distance to San Francisco is, four thousand, seven hundred and forty-four miles, by the Panama, five thousand, eight hundred and fifty-eight miles, making one thousand, one hundred and fourteen miles in favour of the former. During the war, Commodore Perry paid much attention to the collection of information in regard to this route and the country about it, and obtained a manuscript copy of the original survey made by Moro. So impressed was he with the importance of this line of communication to our government, that he projected an expedition to take possession of the commanding points, and recommended that they should be held until the war was ended, and that then an exclusive right of way should be stipulated for in the treaty. As we have stated, a memorial has been presented to congress on the subject of this route. The memorialist, P. A. Hargous, of New York, in behalf of himself and associates represented, that he was invested with full powers from the Mexican government, to open the communication across the isthmus of Tehuantepec; that the grant secured to them the privilege for fifty years without contributions or taxes. For the purpose of presenting the projects of the contending claimants to the public with equal advantage to both, we insert among our documents, their respective memorials at length. We hope to add, also, the able and valuable letter of Hon. Geo. M. Dallas, on the junction of the two oceans, either in this, or in a future number. 2. GREAT INLAND COMMUNICATION ACROSS THE CONTINENT. We come now to the second grand division of the subject, namely: a national rail-road within our own territory. Several different routes have been proposed. Whitney's memorial, presented to congress on the 24th February, 1846, to obtain a grant of land for a rail-road from lake Michigan to the Pacific ocean, was the first proposition that attracted the public attention; it was planned upon a magnificent scale, making the road two thousand, four hundred miles long-and to cost sixty-five million dollars-asking a grant of land sixty-four miles wide along the whole line, which would amount to ninety-two millions, one hundred and sixty thousand acres-and engaging, on the completion of the road, to convey passengers from the Atlantic and Pacific cities in eight days; to China in twenty, and to the extremes of the globe in thirty days! Since the acquisition of California this proposition, which was objected to as being a private enterprise, seems to have found less favour, while other routes, taking a more southerly direction, and terminating at San Francisco or Monterey, have accorded better with the increased information and spirit of the times. Col. Benton's plan is to make a central national road from St. Louis to San Francisco, with a branch from some suitable point west of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, by which arrangement the whole western territory will be accommodated. He insists that nothing but the authority of the nation is equal to the opening of a road through some 1600 miles of country occupied by savages with a right of domain over it which it requires national authority to extinguish-that no private means would be equal to the construction of such a road, or fit to be intrusted with it. On asking leave to introduce a bill embracing his plan, the speech of Col. Benton to the senate was forcible and eloquent. The ample results which must follow the completion of this mighty work, are glowingly portrayed: "Since the discovery of the new world by Columbus there has not been such an unsettling of the foundations of society. Not merely individuals and companies, but communities and nations are in commotion, all bound to the setting sun-to the gilded horizon of western America. For want of an American road, they seek foreign routes, far round by sea and land. Until we can get a road of our own, we must use and support a foreign route; but that is a temporary resource, demanded by the exigency of the times, and until we can get our own ready. "Never did so great an object present itself to the acceptance of a nation. We own the country from sea to sea-from the Atlantic to the Pacific-and upon a breadth equal to the length of the Mississippi-and embracing the whole temperate zone. Three thousand miles across, and half that breadth, is the magnificent parallelogram of our domain. We can run a national central road, through and through, the whole distance, under our flag and our laws. Military reasons require us to make it: for troops and munitions must go there. Political reasons require us to make it: it will be a chain of union between the Atlantic and Pacific states. Commercial reasons demand it from us: and here I touch a boundless field, dazzling and bewildering the imagination from its vastness and importance. The trade of the Pacific ocean, of the western coast of North America, and of Eastern Asia will all take its track; and not only for ourselves, but for posterity. That trade of India which has been shifting its channels from the time of the Phoenicians to the present, is destined to shift once more, and to realize the grand idea of Columbus. The American road to India. will also become the European track to that region. The European merchant, as well as the American, will fly across our continent on a straight line to China. And "The rich commerce of Asia will flow through our centre. where has that commerce ever flowed without carrying wealth and dominion with it? Look at its ancient channels, and the cities which it raised into kingdoms, and the populations which upon its treasures became resplendent in science, learning, and the arts. "In no instance has it failed to carry the nation, or the people which possessed it, to the highest pinnacle of wealth and power, and with it the highest attainments of letters, arts, and sciences. And so will it continue to be. An American road to India, through the heart of our country, will revive upon its line all the wonders of which we have |