Chapter XXXIV: Interoceanic Communication (23)

[XXXIV-49] This I attribute to the jealousy of the Spaniards,
who were careful to withhold any information that might lead
the English to the discovery of an easy communication between
the two seas. Alcedo, in his _Diccionario Histórico de las
Indias Occidentales_, says that it was interdicted, _on pain
of death, even to propose_ opening the navigation between
the two seas. 'En tiempo de Felipe II. se proyectó cortarlo,
y comunicar los dos mares por medio de un canal, y á este
efecto se enviaron para reconocerlo dos Ingenieros Flamencos,
pero encontraron dificultades insuperables, y el consejo de
Indias representò los perjuicios que de ello se seguirían á
la monarquia, por cuya razon mandò aquel Monarca que nadie
propusièse ó tratase de ello en adelante, _pena de la vida_.'
The navigation of the Atrato also was interdicted, on pain of
death.

[XXXIV-50] In its upper course, as it is navigable for large
vessels nearly to Príncipe.

[XXXIV-51] 'It is ascertained,' says Captain Fitzroy, 'that
there is only a trifling difference between the levels of the
ocean at this Isthmus. A rise of tide not exceeding two feet
is found on the Atlantic side, while in Panama Bay the tide
rises more than eighteen feet; the mean level of the Pacific
in this particular place being two or three feet above that
of the Atlantic. It is high water at the same hour in each
ocean.'

Colonel Lloyd says that the Pacific at high water is thirteen
feet higher than the Atlantic, while the Atlantic is highest
at low water by six feet. Baron Humboldt said, in 1809:
'The difference of level between the Caribbean Sea and the
Pacific Ocean does not, probably, exceed nine feet; and at
different hours in the day, sometimes one sea, sometimes
the other, is the more elevated.' But this difference would
be no hindrance, but, on the contrary, a most important
advantage in a ship-canal, since it would create a current
from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the ebb, and one from
the Pacific to the Atlantic during the flood-tide of the
Pacific, and these alternate currents would enable each of
the fleets to pass through at different times, those bound
from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the ebb-tide of the
latter, and those from the Pacific to the Atlantic during the
flood-tide of the former. This arrangement in the periods of
transit would afford many advantages, such as obviating the
meeting of the vessels, and the necessity of their passing
one another, and preventing their accumulation or crowding
together in the canal, as each fleet could be carried right
through in one tide, if not by the current alone, at least
with the aid of tug steamers. The alternation of the currents
would have the further beneficial effect of washing out the
bed of the canal, and keeping it free from the deposition of
sand or mud, so that dredging would never become necessary;
and would also render the degree of width necessary for the
canal less; though I do not reckon this to be a point of
moment, as the wider and deeper it is cut the better, and
the work once finished will last to the end of the world,
since the natural effect of the alternate currents will be a
gradual process of deepening and widening, which will convert
the canal into a strait.

[XXXIV-52] And subsequent months, in a controversy with Evan
Hopkins, Esq., C. E. & M. E.

[XXXIV-53] _Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala_, by
G. A. Thompson. London, 1829, p. 512.

[XXXIV-54] March 13, 1788.

[XXXIV-55] Masthead angles were taken in Córdova's voyage,
1785-6.

[XXXIV-56] Four hundred.

[XXXIV-57] Five leagues from the shore. _Sp. MS._

[XXXIV-58] The arms of Santa Maria de la Antigua were a
_golden castle_ between a jaguar and a puma.

[XXXIV-59] Squier's Nicaragua, vol. i. p. 195.