nty-two miles from
Chagre harbour; but owing to the sinuosities of the river, the distance to
be performed along it is nearly double. To stem the current requires from
three to eight days, according to the season, whereas the descent does not
take more than from eight to twelve hours.

From Cruces to Panama the distance is five leagues, over a broken and
hilly country. The town is situated at the head of the gulf, on a neck of
land washed by the waters of the Pacific; but the port is only accessible
to flat-bottomed boats, owing to which it is called _Las Piraguas_. The
harbour, or rather the roadstead, is formed by a cluster of small islands
lying about six miles from the shore, under the shelter of which vessels
find safe anchorage. The tides rise high, and, falling in the same
proportion, the sloping coast is left dry to a considerable distance
out--a circumstance which precludes the possibility of forming an outlet
in front of Panama. The obstacles above enumerated at once convinced the
writer that a ship canal in this direction was impracticable. The Spanish
plan was to make the Chagre navigable a considerable distance up, by
removing the shallows and deepening the channel; but owing to the great
inclination in the descent, and the immense volumes of water rushing down
in winter, the task would be a most herculean one; and, even if
accomplished, this part of the route could only serve for small craft. A
canal over five leagues of hilly ground would still remain to be cut.

Although the plan, so long and so fondly cherished in Europe, and now
revived in France, must, for the reasons here assigned, be abandoned, on
this account we ought not to be deterred from availing ourselves of such
facilities as the locality affords. The geographical position of the
isthmus of Panama is too interesting to be any longer disregarded. "When
the Spanish discoverers first overcame the range of mountains which divide
the western from the Atlantic shores of South America," said a
distinguished statesman,[23] "they stood fixed in silent admiration, gazing
on the vast expanse of the Southern ocean which lay stretched before them
in boundless prospect. They adored--even those hardened and sanguinary
adventurers adored--the gracious providence of Heaven, which, after lapse
of so many centuries had opened to mankind so wonderful a field of untried
and unimagined enterprize." The very same point of land where, in 1515,
the Spaniards first be