ne just mentioned, the
parish priest of Novita dug a small canal in 1778, which was navigable
during the rainy season, and by which canoes, laden with coffee and
other produce, passed from one sea to another, a distance of 250
miles; as they found it requisite and convenient.

The next point, and more to the north beyond Cape St. Francisco de
Solano, in about 7 deg.30' N. lat. is, from the mouth of the Cupica, or
Tupica, as it is denominated in some maps, along that stream, which
descends from the eastward into the Pacific, through a break in the
mountains to the head of the river Naipi, a distance of from 15 to 20
miles only. The latter river is deep and navigable, and flows through
a lake of considerable magnitude, nearly due east, into the River
Atrato, a little below the village of Zitara, about 60 miles from the
mouth of the latter stream, in the Gulf of Darien. The distance from
the Pacific to the Atrato, through the channels mentioned, is only 60
geographical miles. The Atrato springs (its farthest branch the Rio
Chame) in the rising ground, in 5 deg.40' N. lat. and 75 deg. 15' W. long.,
and runs almost due north, a distance of 200 miles, into the Gulf of
Darien. At this point, the western and secondary chain of the (p. 088)
Andes is broken and interrupted, and there is good reason to believe
that they continue to be so in several places more to the northward:
in fact, that they cease, and are succeeded through all the Isthmus of
Darien and Panama, by a low range, broken into fragments in different
places. At the point under consideration, namely, by the Cupica and
the Naipi, the Spanish Government had it in contemplation, about forty
years ago, to open a communication from sea to sea, by means of a
canal; but the events in Europe, and the decay of their power,
prevented the important enterprise from being undertaken. The Gulf of
Darien, and the course of the Atrato, were rigidly guarded and
concealed by the Spanish Government, so much so, that by special
decrees the punishment of death was denounced against every one who
should either permit or attempt the exploration of the country in
these parts. This showed clearly that their practical knowledge gave
them to know, that a communication between the Atlantic and the
Pacific was easy and practicable in more places than one in this
quarter of their dominions.

The next point where the communication is practicable, either by water
or a short distance by land