ed as they are, there is no produce of their soil which their
inhabitants can raise that can bear the expense of carriage to enable
it to come into competition in the general markets of the world, with
similar articles raised in other countries, which are all more
accessible and placed nearer markets; and unless the soil of the
western coasts of America and the islands in the Pacific are brought
into cultivation, and peopled by people more civilized and
industrious, it is obvious that these countries and the states and
population at present in them, must remain in the poor, ignorant,
miserable, and uncultivated state and condition in which they are, of
little service to themselves or to the remainder of the world.

The points where the communication between the Atlantic and the
Pacific are most feasible and practicable, is at one point on the
southern boundaries of the Republic of Mexico, and the others within
the territories of the Republics of Guatemala and Venezuela. The neck
of land, or isthmus, which connects North and South America together,
may be taken to extend from 8 deg. N. lat., in the meridian of 77 deg. W.
long., to the parallel of 18 deg. or 19 deg. N. lat. in the meridian of 100 deg.
W. long. Narrow as the continent of America is in all this space, but
more especially in the southern portion of this space, recent surveys
have reduced it still more; and it is not improbable that, when the
late surveys of the west coasts within the tropics are published, that
it will be found to be still narrower, and more contracted than is (p. 086)
supposed, or than the late accurate surveys by Captain Owen, under the
orders also of the British Government, of the shores of the Gulf of
Mexico, have shown it to be; and consequently the communication
between the Atlantic and the Pacific will be found to be still shorter
and more easy than it has been, or is even now considered to be.

The first two points within the limits above mentioned, where
communications are most practicable, are the following:--_First_, in
the territory of Mexico, from the mouth of the river Guazacoalcos, on
the Gulf of Mexico, to the mouth of the Chimalapa, in the Gulf of
Tehuantepec, on the Pacific, between the parallels of 16-1/2 deg. to
18-1/2 deg. N. lat. The distance from sea to sea at this part is 92
geographical miles, in a south-west direction. The sources of the
streams which flow, the one eastward into the Gulf of Mexico, and the
other we