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breadth, which, like a passage or strait, should go from sea to sea and admit the vessels which sail from Europe to the Indies, ought to be completely abandoned. The elevation of the ground would force the engineer to have recourse either to subterraneous galleries, or to the system of sluices; and the merchandises destined to pass the Isthmus of Panama could only thereafter be transported in flat-bottomed boats unable to keep the sea. . . . Supposing, then, that this canal were cut, the greatest number of these vessels would probably continue their voyage round Cape Horn. . . . It would be otherwise with the products of Western America, or with the goods sent from Europe to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. These would cross the Isthmus at less expense and with less danger." But he urged as most desirable good roads for camel traffic at Tehuantepec and at Panama.

Humboldt's sixth route for a canal was that from Cupica, on the Pacific, by way of the Napipi and Atrato rivers to the Gulf of Darien. "We might almost say," he wrote, "that the ground between Cupica and the mouth of the Atrato is the only part of all America in which the chain of the Andes is entirely broken"-in which he was much in error. It will be observed that he ignored the Caledonian and Mandingo routes, although on one of his maps the Bay of Mandingo is so enormously exaggerated in size as to make the Isthmus at that point scarcely more than one-third its width at Panama. His seventh route revived the old legend of the "Secret of the Strait," in the form already cited in the records quoted by Mr. Scruggs. This route was through the Ravine of Raspadura, uniting the sources of the Noanama or San Juan, and the Quito, Andagega, Zitara, and Atrato rivers. "A monk, curé of the village of Novita," wrote Humboldt, "employed his parishioners to dig a small canal in the Ravine de la Raspadura, by means of which, when rains are abundant, canoes loaded with cacao can pass from sea to sea. This interior communication has existed since 1788, unknown in Europe." The eighth route was by way of the Rio Callaga, in Peru, across the Andes to the headwaters of the Amazon.

The ninth was from the Gulf of St. George across Patagonia. Five of these routes, the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, were seriously considered and commended by him, as worthy of practical and immediate investigation. To him they all seemed about equally desirable. "They are," he wrote in his "Personal Narrative,” “at the centre of the New Continent, at an equal distance from Cape Horn and the Northwest Coast. . . Opposed to each, on the same parallel, are the seas of China and India, an important circumstance in latitudes where the trade winds prevail. All are easily entered by vessels coming from Europe and the United States."

The observations and conclusions of Humboldt gave inspiration upon the same theme to another great genius, John Wolfgang Goethe. In the record of his "Conversations with Eckermann and Soret," under date of February 21, 1827, it is related:

"He spoke much, and with admiration, of Alexander von Humboldt, whose work on Cuba and Colombia he had begun to read, and whose views as to the project for making a passage through the Isthmus of Panama appeared to have a particular interest for him. 'Humboldt,' said Goethe, 'has, with a great knowledge of his subject, given other points where, by making use of some streams which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, the end may perhaps be better attained than at Panama. All this is reserved for the future and for an enterprising spirit. So much,.however, is certain, that if they succeed in cutting such a canal that ships of any burden and size can be navigated through it from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean, innumerable benefits will result to the whole human race, civilised and uncivilised. But I should wonder if the United States were to let an opportunity escape of getting such a work into their own hands. It may be foreseen that this young State, with its decided predilection to the West, will, in thirty or forty years, have occupied and peopled the large tract of land beyond the Rocky Mountains. It may, furthermore, be foreseen that along the whole coast of the Pacific Ocean, where nature has already formed the most capacious and secure harbours, important commercial towns will gradually arise, for the furtherance of a

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great intercourse between China and the East Indies, and the United States. In such a case it would be not only desirable but almost necessary that a more rapid communication should be maintained between the Eastern and Western shores of North America, both by merchant ships and men-ofwar, than has hitherto been possible with the tedious, disagreeable, and expensive voyage around Cape Horn. I therefore repeat that it is absolutely indispensable for the United States to effect a passage from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean: and I am certain that they will do it. . . . I should like to see another thing,-a junction of the Danube and the Rhine, but this undertaking is so gigantic that I have grave doubts of its completion, particularly when I consider our German resources. And, thirdly and lastly, I should wish to see England in possession of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. Would I could live to see these three great works! It would well be worth the trouble to last some fifty years more for the very purpose!"

Both of these illustrious men erred as prophets: Humboldt in saying that only by cutting the Isthmus could the political status of Eastern Asia be changed, and Goethe in thinking the Danube-Rhine canal more remote and doubtful than the Isthmian: though we must regard with admiration the latter's forecast of the American occupation of the Pacific Coast and the demand for an Isthmian canal as a connecting link between our east and west coast lines, as well as his suggestion of British possession of the Suez Canal.

At a date between the exploration of Humboldt and the prophecies of Goethe, however, statesmen and engineers began to busy themselves with practical schemes for canal construction. In 1814 the Spanish Government, feeling its need of doing something to restore the waning prestige of Spain and to renew its failing hold upon its American colonies, decreed the construction of an Isthmian canal. Before any steps could be taken to make the decree effective, however, the Central and South American provinces declared and established their independence. The first to do so was the Colombian confederation, which comprised Venezuela (the present republic of that name), Quito (the present republic

of Ecuador), and New Granada (the present republic of Colombia). These provinces, under the lead of Miranda and Bolivar, began their struggle for independence in 1811, and in 1821 their efforts were crowned with success. A year later, in 1822, the Isthmian provinces of Panama and Veraguas (the present republic of Panama) followed the example, asserted their independence, and allied themselves with New Granada. The Central American provinces came next. In 1821 the independence of Guatemala was proclaimed and the other provinces joined the movement the next year. For a time Mexico, under the Emperor Iturbide, tried to annex them, but upon Iturbide's defeat by Santa Anna in 1823 the five republics-Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica-became independent and formed a short-lived federal union.

Very soon thereafter the governments of those countries began in their turn to urge the construction of a canal. The first Central American envoy to the United States, Antonio José Canaz, in 1825, immediately upon his arrival at Washington, addressed a written communication to the American Government, inviting it to participate with Central America in the enterprise and in the advantages which its execution would produce, and to that end to enter into a treaty which would perpetually secure the possession of the canal to the two nations. Our Secretary of State, Henry Clay, was doubtless in sympathy with this proposal, but could scarcely commit the Government to it offhand. He therefore assured Señor Canaz "of the deep interest taken by the Government of the United States in an undertaking so highly calculated to diffuse an extensive influence on the affairs of mankind," and instructed Mr. Williams, the United States envoy to Central America, to investigate the matter and to report all possible data concerning the practicability of constructing a canal at Nicaragua. At the same time commissioners from New Granada were in Washington, asking the United States to participate in the first Pan-American Congress, at Panama, in June, 1826. Fearing that Congress would discuss