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THE NEW ROUTE OF COMMERCE BY THE 
 ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC. 
 
THE 
 
 NEW ROUTE OF COMMERCE 
 
 BY THE ISTHMUS OF 
 TEHUANTEPEC. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL 
 
 SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, 
 
 NOVEMBER 15, 1870. 
 
 BY SIMON [STEVENS, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE TEHUANTEPEC 
 RAILWAY COMPANY. 
 
 TO WHICH IS APPENDED THE REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSION OF 
 ENGINEERS, APPOINTED TO EXAMINE THE PRINCIPAL ARTIFICIAL 
 WATER-WATS OF EUROPE, WITH REFERENCE TO THE CON- 
 STRUCTION OF THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY AND SHIP 
 CANAL, DEMONSTRATING THEIR PRACTICABILITY, 
 AND INDICATING THE PROBABLE DIMENSIONS 
 OF THE CANAL, ITS LOCATION, MODE 
 OF CONSTRUCTION, AND VALUE 
 TO COMMERCE 
 
 MADE 
 OCTOBER 16, 1871. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CfflSWICK PRESS. 
 1871. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 PAPER READ BY MR. STEVENS BEFORE THE AMERICAN GEO- 
 GRAPHICAL SOCIETY 5 
 
 REPORT OF COMMISSION 35 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE: Appendix 
 
 Letter from Mr. Stevens to the Prefident of the United States, 
 announcing the formation of a Commiffion, and requesting 
 that General Barnard may be detailed to ferve upon it . 49 
 Reply of General Humphreys, Chief of Engineers, by order of 
 
 the Secretary of War, detailing Gen. Barnard, as requefted . 51 
 Captain R. W. Shufeldt's preliminary Report to the Secretary 
 of the Navy on the practicability of a Ship Canal acrofs the 
 
 Ifthmus of Tehuantepec 5 2 
 
 Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, Auguft 8th, 1871 . . 54 
 
 Exilting Harbour on the Pacific 55 
 
 Location of the Tehuantepec Railway and Tributary Lines . . 56 
 
 Interoceanic Movements 61 
 
 Map of the World 6 3 
 
 Map of the Ilthmus of Tehuantepec 69 
 
 M175616 
 
THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 HON. CHARLES P. DALY, PRESIDENT, 
 IN THE CHAIR. 
 
 At the regular monthly meeting of the Society, held at its 
 rooms in the Cooper Institute, New York, on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 
 1870, Mr. SIMON STEVENS, President of the Tehuantepec Railway 
 Company, read the following paper on 
 
 THE NEW ROUTE OF COMMERCE BY THE 
 ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC. 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, 
 
 HE history of the lines of commerce is 
 the history of the world. The paths of 
 trade, radiating from the centres of 
 wealth and civilization, are and always 
 have been the channels through which the mental 
 and moral wealth of nations has been disseminated. 
 
 With the creation, deflection or interruption of 
 main lines of traffic cities, and even nations, have 
 arisen from poverty and weakness to wealth and 
 
6 *TKe ^New Route of Commerce by 
 
 power, or from power and wealth have descended 
 into obscurity and ruin. 
 
 It is to some of these lessons taught us by history 
 that we now ask your attention. 
 
 The East, the old homestead of the human family, 
 the richest and most populous portion of the earth, 
 has ever been considered the fountain of commerce. 
 Its trade has from time immemorial stimulated the 
 West, and enriched those communities which have 
 participated in it. 
 
 Europe is of yesterday, and America of to-day, 
 but who shall count the wrinkles on the brow 
 of Asia, or tell the wealth which her commerce has 
 produced ? 
 
 When we speak of the East, we mean India, China, 
 Japan, and " the Isles of the Sea," with possibly a 
 dreamy notion of Persia and Asia Minor. These 
 indeed are the commercial Asia of to-day, but we 
 have reason to believe that other empires as mighty, 
 as busy with trade, and as brilliant as these, with 
 great cities and productive provinces, have faded 
 from sight. Those in Central and Western Asia 
 were destroyed, not so much by conquering Attilas 
 and Tamerlanes as by the interruption or changes of 
 ancient lines of traffic. Pekin and Yeddo remain in 
 the distant east, but where are Babylon, Nineveh, 
 Tyre, Cairo, Thebes, and the countless cities whose 
 ruins only remain as witnesses of their former ex- 
 istence ? 
 
 If we may credit history, the mighty hand of war 
 was laid upon them again and again, but the day of 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 7 
 
 their final desolation did not come until the caravans 
 of the east had found new depots and new lines of 
 transit. Successive conquerors might lay waste Tyre, 
 Sidon, and Damascus, but so long as the trade be- 
 tween the East and the West required them, they were 
 sure to rise again with startling rapidity. Arbitrary 
 power and the keen political sagacity of Alexander 
 of Macedon, as early as the fourth century before 
 Christ, diverted the trade of his Asiatic dominions 
 through the Red Sea and the Nile to his newly-built 
 city of Alexandrk. The prosperity of that com- 
 mercial emporium was so well established that to 
 this day the dream of the Greek conqueror continues 
 to be fulfilled. 
 
 In fact, it would be difficult to find a more complete 
 illustration of the laws of trade to which we are 
 directing attention than in the fluctuating fortunes 
 of this Egyptian port, which seems now to have 
 received a new impetus from the re-opening of the 
 Suez Canal, which seems likely to restore to it much 
 of its earlier prosperity. 
 
 The peculiar character of the commerce of the 
 ancients and the character of the goods transported, 
 at least for long distances, made it possible to conduct 
 it, for the most part, by overland routes, while the sea 
 was comparatively neglected. It is indeed probable 
 that the canal, between the Eed Sea and the Medi- 
 terranean, as it was originally planned under the 
 Pharaohs, was but an effort to restore artificially a 
 channel which nature herself had provided in an 
 earlier period of the world. Whether or not the 
 
8 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 Phoenicians under Pharaoh Necho, or the later Greeks, 
 effected the circumnavigation of Africa, there was 
 nothing in the ordinary commerce of that day to call 
 for, or employ such a prolonged and perilous route, 
 so, therefore, traffic adhered to its caravans and short 
 voyages. It will be gathered from this how very 
 considerable must have been the commerce of those 
 days between the countries bordering the Mediter- 
 ranean and Eastern Asia, including the isles of the 
 sea, to cause so many vast cities to spring up in the 
 desert and flourish by the tariffs and tolls of a carry- 
 ing trade. 
 
 At the beginning of the Christian era, all that was 
 then known of Europe, Africa, and western Asia was 
 ruled by, or was tributary to the Roman Empire. 
 The subsequent growth of Christianity seemed to be, 
 in a manner, circumscribed by its eastern limits. 
 Centuries later, the Greek Emperors of Byzantium 
 managed to revive and keep open the routes of 
 Asiatic commerce, even after the fall of the western 
 empire, chiefly because of the decadence of the com- 
 mercial cities of Egypt. The successive struggles 
 and rebellions which desolated Asia Minor were but 
 the efforts of mighty robbers to acquire the right and 
 the power to levy tribute on the trade between the 
 East and the West. 
 
 In the seventh century a power began to make it- 
 self felt in the earth, which, in at least its earlier 
 career, was less a robber than a destroyer. Its 
 success operated not so much to transfer the ancient 
 lines of commerce to new hands, as to monopolize 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 9 
 
 them altogether. The followers of Mahomet cared 
 less for trade than power, their aim being to esta- 
 blish the Koran by the sword. One by one the 
 Christian states and cities of western Asia and 
 northern Africa went down before the Moslems, and 
 wherever their authority was extended all traffic 
 with the Christian world to the westward was trans- 
 ferred to their keeping, so that though goods passed 
 with heavy tribute, all news from whence they came 
 was cut off. 
 
 A description of the position of the commercial 
 world about the time of the culmination of the 
 Moslem power on its western borders, less than four 
 hundred years ago, has been clearly stated by a 
 recent writer substantially in the following words : 
 
 According to Ptolemy, the best recognized autho- 
 rity, whose geography had stood the test of 1300 
 years, the then known world was a strip of some 
 seventy degrees wide, mostly north of the equator, 
 with Cadiz on the west and farthest India, or Cathay, 
 on the east, lying between the frozen and the burning 
 zones, both supposed to be impassable by man. The 
 inhabitants, so far as known in Europe, were Chris- 
 tians and Mohammedans, the one sect about half the 
 age of the other. Christendom, the elder that once 
 held considerable portions of Asia and Africa, had 
 been driven back inch by inch, in spite of the Cru- 
 sades, even from the Holy Land, the place of its 
 birth, up into the north-west corner of Europe ; and, 
 both in lands and people, was outnumbered six to one 
 by the followers of Mahomet. For seven hundred 
 
10 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 years the fairest provinces of Spain acknowledged 
 the sway of the Moors ; and the Mediterranean, from 
 Jaffa to the Gates of Hercules, was under their 
 control. The Crescent was constantly encroaching 
 on the Cross, while Christendom, schismatic, dismayed, 
 demoralized, and disheartened, seemed almost inca- 
 pable of further resistance. 
 
 The several routes of commerce to Asia beyond 
 the Ganges, via Venice and Genoa, by the Red, 
 Black, and Caspian seas, through Persia and Tartary, 
 were one by one closed to Christians. 
 
 The profits of the overland carrying trade, what 
 there was left of it, were mostly in the hands of the 
 Arabians ; but Memphis, Thebes, and Cairo, which had 
 once flourished by that trade, had declined as it fell 
 off in amount, and yielded its poor remains to Alex- 
 andria, nearer the sea. Finally, in 1453, Constanti- 
 nople, the Christian city of Constantine, fell into the 
 hands of the Turks, and with it the commerce of the 
 Black Sea and the Bosphorus, the last of the old 
 trading routes from the East to the West. 
 
 So far as Europe was concerned, Asia had almost 
 disappeared from the commercial world. From that 
 time forward the almost incessant wars between the 
 followers of the Crescent and the wearers of the 
 Cross rendered anything like commerce to the last 
 degree precarious and unsatisfactory, while the nar- 
 row and blinded policy of the Mohammedan poten- 
 tates almost prevented them from employing, even 
 for their own benefit, the splendid prizes which they 
 had won. Comparatively small as was the trade thus 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 11 
 
 permitted, and hampered as it was by perils, losses, 
 and enormous cost, it was still sufficient to maintain 
 for ages the splendours of Stamboul, and to continue 
 for years the prosperity of Venice, Genoa, and other 
 Italian trading towns. This trade, though Asiatic, 
 was but to a small extent Oriental, in the true sense 
 of the word. Though the silk and rich manu- 
 factures of China and Japan, and the "spices" of 
 the Moluccas found their way to the remotest parts of 
 the West, even to fab 1 Albion, yet the consumers cared 
 little to inquire whence they came beyond Venice or 
 Genoa ; for all beyond was shrouded in mystery. 
 
 Through all the darkness of the middle ages there 
 were left some studious enquirers into the history of 
 the past, and some sagacious prophets of the future, 
 who were by no means ignorant of the great com- 
 mercial causes which had from time to time built up 
 and destroyed the old trading stations. Hence, the 
 fall of Constantinople to the Christians of the West, 
 especially those of Portugal and Spain, was but the 
 signal of renewed energy to re-open the old paths of 
 trade, or seek out new ones in order to secure direct 
 participation in the fabled riches of the East. 
 
 The Spanish queen, whose steady heroism and 
 religious enthusiasm sustained Spain in her long 
 struggle against the Moors, was the same Isabella 
 who, as soon as she could take breath after the fall 
 of Grenada in 1492, sent for Columbus, her old 
 suitor, almost as exhausted as were her own royal 
 coffers, and said to him, u Xow, sir, we will attend to 
 YOU," offering to pledge her private jewels for his outfit. 
 
12 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 Columbus was more than successful, and thus the 
 same memorable year that gave to Mohamedanism 
 its first check in Europe gave to Christendom a new 
 world. There were many men at the battle of 
 Lepanto who afterwards distinguished themselves as 
 American discoverers and explorers. 
 
 The blind wrath of Moslem bigotry, and the 
 oppressive exactions of Moorish avarice, operating as 
 we have seen to close the old gateways of the East, 
 were destined thus indirectly to promote the accom- 
 plishment of results whose magnitude it is difficult to 
 comprehend. Truly the ways of God are past finding 
 out. How often He rewards earnest discoverers with 
 inventions they sought not ! The Almighty who 
 permitted the False Prophet to scourge a corrupt 
 and debased Christendom, also permitted the nations 
 who had fled before the Crescent, to find a new 
 world while searching for the fabled East of the old. 
 
 The van of the new era of discovery seems to have 
 been led by Portugal, whose peculiar position in the 
 south-west corner of Europe, with the boldly pro- 
 jecting coast of Africa trending away south-westerly 
 below her, must naturally have suggested the direc- 
 tion which her exploration should take. As early as 
 1454, the captains of Prince Henry of Portugal, sur- 
 named " the Navigator," began this work in earnest, 
 and by 1463 they had pushed their discoveries as 
 far as Sierra Leone. That year, Gibraltar was cap- 
 tured by the Spaniards, and Prince Henry died. 
 King Alphonso and King John pressed forward the 
 work, so that by the year 1487, after nearly seventy 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 13 
 
 years blindly groping down the coast of Africa, 
 Bartholomew Diaz had pushed southward through 
 the tropics so far as the Cape of Good Hope, thus 
 bursting for ever the barrier of ignorance and fear 
 which had sealed the southern gateway of the Indian 
 Ocean. Still it was another ten years before Yasco 
 de Gama rounded that stormy cape and found his 
 way to Calicut. The fact that this glorious event 
 occurred just five years after Columbus had success- 
 fully balanced his egg, it must be confessed some- 
 what dimmed the splendour of its novelty. 
 
 A triumph truly these two routes to the East, and 
 the beginning of a new era in commercial history; 
 but Christians were only a short step in advance of 
 their Moslem foes. The policy of Portugal and 
 Spain was narrow and restrictive. What each dis- 
 covered she strove jealously to guard for herself. 
 The new Portuguese route to Asia was meant to be 
 as confirmed a monopoly as were the old paths in 
 the iron gripe of the Commanders of the Faithful. 
 Spain was not more liberal. 
 
 But a new order of things was rapidly approach- 
 ing. In 1453, when the Moslems captured Constan- 
 tinople, and finally closed the trade of Asia to the 
 merchants of Christendom, Columbus was a lad 
 of six years at Genoa, Vespucci of two years at 
 Florence, and John Cabot a youth at Genoa; but 
 to these three Italian boys the world was yet to owe 
 an immeasurable debt. While they were growing 
 up in years and wisdom, the nations which were to 
 employ them were also growing. While Columbus 
 
14 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 was slowly developing his convictions of the true 
 shape of the earth and the true route to the Indias, 
 Spain was grappling with the Moors in the closing 
 scenes of that war of centuries, from which she 
 emerged so gloriously. As victory enhanced the 
 pride and ambition of the rising nation, the achieve- 
 ments of the neighbouring kingdom were looked 
 upon with more and more of envious emulation, 
 until at last, after long and wearisome waiting, 
 Columbus obtained the scanty means wherewith to 
 promote this rivalry of Portugal. The Pope, a 
 native of Spain, wishing to reward his former sove- 
 reigns for their persistent struggle against the Moors, 
 forgetting the promises of his predecessors to the 
 kings of Portugal, and not remembering that there 
 were other Christians outside the Peninsula endued 
 with Christian greed and enterprise, divided the 
 world between them, after the manner of a more 
 ancient potentate, and fortified this monopoly by 
 the boldest of papal Bulls. 
 
 You and I, standing where we do to-day, on the 
 land which Columbus discovered, have by no means 
 yet comprehended the full measure of his success, 
 nor can we ever approximate to such a comprehension 
 unless we place ourselves in the mental position of 
 Columbus, and adopt as our own his dreams. 
 
 From first to last Columbus never so much as 
 thought of discovering a New World. He did but 
 plan a new route, whereby Europe might once more 
 enjoy the wealth-giving commerce of Asia beyond 
 the Ganges, and he died in the belief that he had 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 15 
 
 indeed accomplished his purpose. For more than 
 twenty years after his first triumphant voyage the 
 Christian world shared in the belief of the great 
 navigator. Henry VII. granted a license to the 
 Cabots to open a north-west passage, and when they 
 discovered Newfoundland and other islands, they 
 took possession of them as outlying islands of China 
 or Japan. The Anglo-Saxon race has not ceased 
 to hunt for that north-west passage. 
 
 When in 1498, Columbus touched the shores of 
 Venezuela he understood that the natives called the 
 land " Paria," and he reasoned himself into the belief 
 that this was the Paradise from which our first 
 parents were driven. He and everybody else believed 
 that these new lands and islands were in eastern Asia. 
 
 So thoroughly had the one idea taken possession 
 of the minds of men that, for a century more, the 
 coast of the Western Continent was explored by the 
 adventurers of all nations, less for the riches itself 
 might contain, than for that invaluable strait which 
 should penetrate the mighty barrier and allow the 
 trade of Europe to sail on westward to the golden 
 land of commerce. We who assume the same con- 
 trolling conception, as our peculiar legacy from our 
 adventurous ancestors, will not be long in finding 
 that it is of greater significance and brighter promise 
 to us than it could be to the merchants of any 
 European metropolis. 
 
 In 1513, Balboa first looked out from the moun- 
 tains of Panama upon the waters of the Pacific, and 
 in 1519 Magellan sailed through the perilous straits 
 
16 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 which still bear his name, but it was a century later 
 (1619) before they rounded Cape Horn, in their pas- 
 sage onward to the true Spice Islands and the real 
 Orient. Meanwhile the persistent and daring pursuit 
 of this geographical ignis fatuus of a natural strait led 
 to a more thorough and practical acquaintance with 
 North and South America than would otherwise, 
 probably, have been obtained. Every bay and inlet 
 was explored. The St. Lawrence, the Hudson, De- 
 laware, Chesapeake, Mississippi, Goatzacoalcos, Atrato, 
 Amazon, Eio de la Plata, and other rivers were 
 ascended with varied experience of suffering and 
 adventure. Science profited greatly and the maps 
 grew and multiplied, but each consecutive effort to 
 penetrate the American Continent resulted in failure. 
 It is true that Cortez conceived the idea of a ship 
 canal from sea to sea at Tehuantepec, but the world 
 was not yet ripe for it. 
 
 For three centuries and a half the commerce of 
 Europe with Asia beyond the Ganges has toiled 
 around the Cape of Good Hope. The well- won 
 prestige of Portugal was wrested from her by the 
 Dutch, French, and English, who became involved 
 in a protracted and varying struggle which eventuated 
 in the all but undisputed predominance of Great 
 Britain in the commerce of the East. Lisbon rose 
 to commercial importance only to sink again, while 
 Antwerp, Amsterdam, Liverpool, and London attained 
 their wealth by the management of a trade which at 
 once reminds us of Tyre and the cities of Western 
 Asia and Egypt. 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 17 
 
 From the very first Spain assumed no share in the 
 use of the African route ; for in 1493, within three 
 months from the return of Columbus, Alexander VI. 
 a Spaniard, a pope of not a year's standing, wishing 
 to reward Ferdinand and Isabella for their struggles 
 in expelling the Moors, divided our globe into two 
 parts, by an imaginary line of demarcation passing 
 from pole to pole, one hundred leagues west of the 
 Azores and Cape Verd Islands, giving to Spain all 
 she could discover within 180 to the west of it, 
 leaving to Portugal all her African discoveries and 
 the Indies for 180 east of it. After much dispute 
 it was finally settled that the line should stand at 
 three hundred and seventy leagues west of the 
 Azores. Hence it will be seen how Portugal came 
 to possess and settle the eastern part of Brazil, and 
 why Spain confined her operations to countries west 
 of the Line, and made no attempt to interfere with 
 Portugal's African route or possessions. 
 
 It is now over three centuries and a half since the 
 way around the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, 
 and during all that time the trade of Europe with 
 Central and Eastern Asia has steadily increased in 
 volume and value. Every effort has been made to 
 shorten the long voyages and add to their security : 
 but until these later years the domains of the Sultan 
 have presented the same impassable barriers that 
 they did when Yasco de Gama made his voyage 
 round Africa to India, while behind them lies what 
 we may call the " dead lands " of Arabia, Persia, 
 
 B 
 
18 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Turkestan, now re- 
 ceiving the fostering attention of Russia. 
 
 Not only was the trade increasing but vital 
 changes were slowly taking place, especially within 
 the present century, and the Asiatic question is 
 not now what it was three hundred years ago. 
 
 English enterprise has secured to itself a vast 
 eastern empire including the richest provinces of 
 central and peninsular India. In Australia and the 
 adjacent islands, a new Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth, 
 more easterly than Cathay itself, is a new commerce 
 springing up of vast extent. The lines of commerce 
 are straight lines, seeking the shortest, quickest, and 
 cheapest transits possible; hence San Francisco and 
 Tehuantepec must eventually become the Tyre and 
 the Alexandria of our age. America has indeed 
 broken down the ancient barriers of the oldest em- 
 pires of the world, and our future commerce with 
 India, China and Japan bids fair to become extensive. 
 
 The great minds which direct the mercantile 
 interests of Europe have never for a moment been 
 blind to the dazzling future. The great com- 
 mercial powers have been steadily aiming to grasp 
 the prize. Russia has been pushing her conquests 
 in the East up to the Chinese frontier, building long 
 lines of railway stretching eastward, while year by 
 year her trading fleets are increasing upon the Black 
 Sea and the Caspian. England has increased her ocean 
 steam services, shortened her lines of transit, built 
 swifter vessels, and multiplied her Indian railways ; 
 while France, with a bolder and deeper insight into 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 19 
 
 the future needs of trade, has been negotiating 
 and toiling for the resurrection of one of the most 
 ancient routes of commerce, the canal, (once per- 
 haps a natural strait,) across the narrow neck of 
 land which connects Asia with Africa, and separates 
 the Red Sea from the Mediterranean. Diminished 
 as is the value of the Suez route by the difficult 
 navigation of the Red Sea, the drifting sands of the 
 desert, and the gentle and variable winds of the 
 Mediterranean, there can be little doubt that so far 
 as Europe is concerned, her trade with the East has 
 entered upon a new era, which will probably ere 
 long work considerable change in the relative 
 positions of the commercial powers. One at least of 
 the paths which were shut by the Moslem conquerors 
 has been re-opened to the trade of the world, and it 
 is morally certain that others will follow in due 
 time. 
 
 The toiling caravans are to be replaced by the 
 rail and the steam-engine, while swift propellors will 
 penetrate the African Isthmus instead of the clumsy 
 barges of the Egyptians, or the triremes of the 
 Ptolemies, the Romans and the Caliphs, but only the 
 methods of transit will be changed, for there will in 
 all this be nothing new under the sun. Even if the 
 railway and the telegraph call into life new empires 
 and fresh marts of trade on the sites of the old 
 Babylons, Ninevehs, and Palmyras, all will but go 
 to confirm the primeval law of human commerce, 
 that "the trade of Asia is the wealth of nations." 
 
 We in America, heirs of the dream of Columbus, 
 
20 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 have not only our peculiar interest in all this ; we 
 have a plain but most important lesson to learn, 
 and we shall do well by ourselves if we learn it 
 promptly. 
 
 When the failure of all efforts to penetrate the 
 American Continent seemed to forever compel the 
 commerce of Europe to reach Eastern Asia by the 
 African route, the peculiar relations of the American 
 continent to the commercial geography of the world 
 seemed to have been altogether lost sight of. Not 
 a hundred years ago, a learned society of France 
 seriously debated the question whether on the whole 
 the discovery of America had been of advantage to 
 the world, that is probably to France. But now even 
 though the nations of western Europe have found in 
 the fast-expanding trade of America still another 
 u Orient " from which to drain wealth for their 
 capacious coffers, they seem to have utterly ignored 
 or failed to comprehend the fact that America is, 
 after all, not only a part of the world, but rapidly 
 becoming the acknowledged central continent of it, 
 and must hereafter hold the keys of commerce. 
 
 All these years, however, the New World has been 
 steadily growing in population, wealth, and a correct 
 understanding of its own interests, until now. At 
 the end of these three and a half centuries, during 
 which Europe has overlooked us, there has been 
 developed here a commercial power overshadowing 
 both coasts of the continent, and fully competent to 
 take into its own control the guidance of the com- 
 mercial future of this hemisphere. 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 21 
 
 The United States of America, are deeply in- 
 terested in all movements aimed at the creation 
 of new, or the deflection of ancient lines of traffic 
 between Western Europe and Eastern Asia. 
 
 Let me here call your attention to a few considera- 
 tions, drawn from the physical structure of the two 
 continents of North and South America. Some facts 
 are open to the most superficial observer. It is evident 
 that North America is not only very much the 
 larger, but that it lies wholly within that northern 
 hemisphere which contains the population, the history, 
 and the commerce of the globe. It lies, moreover, 
 almost altogether to the westward of South America. 
 The meridian of Washington almost escapes the 
 western coast of South America, while the meridian 
 of Cape Horn passes to the eastward of the United 
 States altogether. Tehuantepec is near the longi- 
 tude of Omaha. A ship bound from New York 
 to San Francisco is compelled, in rounding Brazil 
 and doubling Cape Horn to sail further eastward 
 than the entire direct distance between the two 
 cities. 
 
 Do not suppose for a moment that South America, 
 with her undeveloped wealth, is to have no share in 
 the western commercial system. Her position is such 
 as to vastly increase her commercial value and 
 intimate -connection with both coasts of North 
 America, so soon as our own nation shall have 
 provided ample inter-oceanic communication. At 
 present the countries of three-fourths of the South 
 American coast are nearer, by steam or sail, to the 
 
22 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 ports of Europe than to the Atlantic harbours of 
 the United States ; nor are our Pacific ports better 
 situated in this respect. 
 
 When the slow and arduous task of ascertaining 
 the true nature of the geography of the Americas 
 was accomplished, and the fact was unwillingly 
 accepted that nature had left no break in the rugged 
 barrier which extended from the frozen sea of the 
 north to the Straits of Magellan, and even sooner, the 
 quick and fertile brains of the early navigators grasped 
 the conclusion that what nature had omitted must 
 be supplied by the ingenuity and courage of man. 
 
 The thought was promptly supplemented by deeds 
 of exploration so daring, so judicious, and so ex- 
 haustive, that if the records of their observations, now 
 at Madrid, should at this day be examined, we should 
 require but little additional information on the 
 American Canal question. What Spain already 
 knew of the continental nature of the regions which 
 widened away to the north and south, though vague 
 and faulty, was sufficient to restrict her surveys to 
 the irregular reach of narrow land which extends 
 between Tehuantepec and Darien for more than 
 seventeen hundred miles. 
 
 At many different points in this isthmian extent, 
 enthusiastic explorers were positive of discovering an 
 eligible point for the construction of transits from 
 sea to sea, by ship-canal, or otherwise. Even then, 
 the names of the Tehuantepec, Honduras, Nicaragua, 
 Panama, Darien, and Atrato routes, were as familiar 
 in the mouths of men as they are to-day. 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 23 
 
 There was then but one question to answer, and 
 one problem to solve: "What is best for Spain? 
 and by which of these routes, if more than one 
 is practicable, can Spain best carry on her commerce 
 with the Indies ? " The requirements of an American 
 commercial system were not thought of. 
 
 So far as American interests are concerned, Europe 
 of to-day is as regardless of them almost as were the 
 Spanish explorers. 
 
 The reason of this neglect is obvious, when we 
 consider that hitherto a route for a canal has been 
 sought by or through Europeans, and the merits 
 of each locality have been considered only with 
 reference to European commercial interests, and the 
 employment of their own capital. This, too, has per- 
 mitted a species of political blindness, preventing 
 them discerning that that route only, which was best 
 for the trade which needed it most, could be most 
 advantageous for all. 
 
 Let us once more turn to the map of North 
 America. 
 
 At the centre of its southern projection, almost 
 landlocked by the coasts of Cuba, Florida, Yucatan, 
 and the mainland, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediter- 
 ranean of America, is situate precisely where it can 
 best answer the demands of American commerce. 
 
 The great interior river navigation of North 
 America has its outlet through the Mississippi into 
 the gulf of Mexico ; while a region larger and richer 
 than all Europe, west of the Adriatic, is drained 
 into its circling coastline. It is impossible to over- 
 
24 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 estimate the importance of this inland sea, and it 
 would be something akin to insanity to dismiss it 
 from consideration in connection with such a subject 
 as the development of the American system of trade. 
 
 Let us draw a line north and south as nearly as 
 possible through the centre of North America. We 
 find that it cuts the southern terminus of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, a little west of the peninsula of Yucatan, 
 and at about the narrowest portion of the isthmus, 
 which is on the meridian of the western border of 
 the State of Missouri. 
 
 Here, and here only, can the trade of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and our swarming interior, together with 
 that of the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as that of 
 Asia and of Europe, be fully accommodated. If it 
 be possible to construct at this point a railway and 
 an available ship canal, nothing but the discovery 
 of something approaching to a natural strait should 
 carry us further to the southward, beyond Yucatan, 
 or through the dangerous navigation of the Caribbean 
 Sea. It should be borne in mind that the Isthmus 
 of Tehuantepec is in latitude 18, while that of Darien 
 is but little more than 8. 
 
 Nor should we for one moment lose sight of the 
 solid truth that common carriers exist for the sake 
 of trade, not trade for the sake of common carriers, 
 and the end must in no case be sacrificed to the 
 means. 
 
 In the determination of a question which involves 
 interests of such magnitude as those which are now 
 under discussion, no local jealousies, no minor con- 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 25 
 
 siderations of individual profit, or loss, can be enter- 
 tained. Nothing less dignified than the develop- 
 ment of a continent or the aggrandisement of a nation 
 is entitled to a hearing. America will listen first 
 of all to the United States, believing, at the same 
 time, that the prosperity of the other political powers 
 as well as all Europe is bound up in her own. 
 
 In peace, which may be regarded as the normal 
 condition of our American national sisterhood, a ship 
 canal across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec would bring 
 the Gulf ports nearer the harbour of San Francisco, by 
 more than 2,500 miles, than would a similar work in 
 connection with the Atrato at Darien. A similar 
 advantage would be attained, in varied proportions, 
 governed by respective localities, for the Atlantic ports 
 of the United States, and the commercial cities of 
 western Europe. This continues true, in a greater 
 or less degree, whether we compare the Tehuantepec 
 with Darien, Nicaragua, Honduras, or any other 
 proposed line of inter-oceanic transit. The trade 
 lines from either coast of South America with either 
 coast of North America, and of the entire west coast 
 of our double continent with Europe, can be made to 
 converge more advantageously at this point than any 
 other. Nowhere else can all that vast preponderance 
 of the Asiatic trade, which is compelled by Pacific 
 calms, currents, and trade winds, to follow what is 
 called the northern passage, accomplish such a saving, 
 either in absolute distance, or in the specific facilities 
 of ocean navigation. The apparent gain which is pre- 
 sented by a superficial examination of the map is very 
 
26 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 largely augmented when we take into account those 
 tropical calms and other phenomena which mark the 
 eccentric ocean that separates us from China and 
 Japan. If these truths are of such importance in their 
 general application, so much the more do they become 
 intensified when we consider them with reference to 
 that incalculable commerce which, in that event, would 
 converge towards and radiate from the shores of the 
 Gulf of Mexico. No more vivifying stimulus could 
 be given to the swift development of our southern 
 tier of States; no greater boon could be conferred 
 upon the valley of the Mississippi, than a direct con- 
 nection by water with our Pacific coast and Asia, nor, 
 in these days of costly steam ships, should any need- 
 less day or mile be added to the time or distance of 
 their passage. 
 
 At the same time, selfishness itself forces upon us, 
 as a not unimportant consideration, that no stronger 
 stimulus to her commercial system, no better gua- 
 rantee of future prosperity, could be provided for 
 our sister republic. 4 The statesmen of Mexico have 
 learned to look upon the Tehuantepec ship canal as 
 one of the bright stars of hope in their national 
 future. 
 
 It has been said that the history of the Suez Canal, 
 extending back as it does to the time of the Pharaohs, 
 Ptolemies, Roman Emperors and Moslem Caliphs is 
 a mine of archaeological romance ; but if that is true of 
 the Egyptian transit, it may be repeated with tenfold 
 verity concerning the central lands of America. 
 Geological observers assure us that the very summit 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 27 
 
 of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is of coral formation. 
 The rocks that tower above these deeply cut and 
 winding passes, were once low islets, or submerged 
 beneath the bosom of the western sea, and at their 
 sunken bases the monsters of the deep played in and 
 out where we propose to construct our artificial chan- 
 nel. Speculation loses itself at once in any attempt 
 to imagine the precise configuration of this part of 
 the continent at that early date, or the nature of the 
 convulsions by which it was changed. We can hardly 
 guess if the mouth of the Mississippi was not then 
 hundreds of miles further to the north, on the margin 
 of a great inland sea, whose outlet may have been at 
 Tehuantepec, and into the western ocean instead of 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 The recent researches of the Abbe Brasseur de 
 Bourbourg have removed some points of Central 
 American Archaeology from the realm of conjecture, 
 and placed them among the established facts of 
 science. Not only the Tehuantepec cliffs, but the 
 mountains of the Atlantic coast range, are of coral 
 formation. The most wonderful of our observations, 
 it may be, and the most interesting to Biblical 
 scholars, is yet to come. Who will hereafter sneer 
 at Noah's flood, when he learns that the mighty ruins 
 of Yucatan point so distinctly to precisely such a 
 general submergence ? These ruins, rivalling in in- 
 terest, though perhaps not in extent those of Egypt, 
 are covered with hieroglyphical representations evi- 
 dencing a high degree of architectural and engineering 
 skill. What, indeed, shall we say, except that the 
 
28 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 real history of the globe in which we live mocks at 
 that which has been written, and laughs at the feeble 
 light of what we are pleased to call " science." Well 
 may archaeologists ask, which is the old world ? 
 
 Even so imperfect an allusion to the topography of 
 the isthmus leads us to observations tending to 
 correct a somewhat popular fallacy concerning the 
 Tehuantepec route. While much of it lies through a 
 virgin wilderness, and will encounter the obstacles 
 appertaining thereunto, that very wilderness is itself 
 a mine of wealth. Nowhere on the globe is there a 
 healthier or more equable climate, in spite of its 
 intertropical locality. Nowhere are there such bound- 
 less supplies of the most valuable woods known to 
 the arts and mechanical necessities. Pine, oak, 
 mahogany, logwood, lignum-vitae, ebony, and other 
 valuable varieties of trees, are supplemented by the 
 rubber tree, medicinal plants, dye stuffs, and a soil 
 which produces in profuse abundance, coffee, indigo, 
 cacao, tobacco, sisal-hemp, bananas, oranges, and 
 endless tropical fruits. A large portion of this region 
 was under luxuriant cultivation by the hands of 
 white men, while yet the spot whereon we stand was 
 an unbroken wilderness. Here, on the banks of the 
 Tehuantepec, Cortez selected his own estates as 
 being the very garden of Mexico, and the surest 
 fortune for his descendants. Nor was he at all in 
 error. To this day his broad lands are held by 
 those who call him their direct ancestor, while even 
 Republicanism calls his estates u the Marquisanas." 
 Back among the hills and mountains lie towns 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 29 
 
 and villages, with churches that date back over three 
 centuries, while hidden in the primeval forests are the 
 majestic ruins of a yet more ancient civilization, older 
 than the Spanish Conquest, older than the Aztec 
 monarchy, older perhaps than Karnak or Thebes. 
 
 I have dwelt upon this feature of the isthmus 
 country to better develop an important desideratum 
 which cannot be so well supplied by any of the other 
 routes proposed: to wit, the sure development of 
 local population, wealth, trade, and agriculture upon 
 these lines of interoceanic transit. Not alone would 
 such a development create a local protectorate and 
 guardian of the great work itself, but would rapidly 
 provide sufficient resources of supplies, repairs, and 
 other benefits to passing navigation, which could 
 only be secured at great expense, and,, continual uncer- 
 tainty in localities less favoured or more remote. 
 
 This region has at present no outlet no regular 
 communication with the outside world. Give it these. 
 Give the people education, with toleration in religion, 
 and you establish at once all the conditions of life, 
 growth, and power. 
 
 Such, briefly, are some of the ascertained advan- 
 tages of the Tehuantepec route in time of peace, and 
 the most thorough and searching examination will 
 but make them more strikingly manifest. 
 
 The history of the world compels us to assume war 
 as one of the sure prophecies of all national future, 
 and that misfortune will occur to some one or other 
 of the commercial powers interested in the American 
 interoceanic transit as certainly as the sun rises and 
 
30 The New Route of Commerce by 
 
 sets. Let us hope that our own beloved land may 
 not be involved, but only fatuity could allow us to 
 lose sight of even that sad possibility. 
 
 In the event of war among any of the maritime 
 powers, it will be of the first importance to all the 
 rest, that so necessary a commercial highway should 
 be kept sacred to the interests of peace, and not be- 
 come, in the hands of weak or interested states, an 
 object of warlike ambition or a scene of military 
 operations. 
 
 Neither of these great ends could be assured should 
 the proposed canal be located to the southward of 
 the peninsula of Yucatan. 
 
 On the other hand, the land-locked character of the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and the narrow and difficult naviga- 
 tion of its outlet^ on either side of the island of Cuba, 
 would make this nation, conjointly with Mexico, the 
 guardian and guarantor of a canal which opened upon 
 the Gulf: and it would be difficult to over-estimate 
 this advantage. We could not even approach a due 
 conception of its importance without lifting the veil 
 from our national future, and peering prophetically 
 in among the eventful centuries yet to come. 
 
 In war, then, as in peace, the necessities of our 
 commercial developments, the self-evident economies 
 of trade, the dictates at once of broad statesmanship 
 and prudent patriotism, point unmistakeably to the 
 Isthmus of Tehuantepec as the best of all localities 
 for the construction of our interoceanic ship canal. 
 
 We have assumed, what we fully believe to be 
 true, that a canal at Tehuantepec would be of more 
 
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 31 
 
 value to the United States and to the world, than a 
 similar canal at any other point to the South of it, 
 and explorations have demonstrated the fact that at no 
 point is it possible to make a thorough-cut from sea 
 to sea. Such would be a preposterous undertaking 
 in the way of mammoth cuts and tunnels, and would 
 carry both cost and engineering into a region of 
 dreamy and fanciful extravagance. 
 
 The Tehuantepec project, on the other hand, only 
 presents difficulties precisely similar to those which 
 have already been overcome with ease in other ship- 
 canal undertakings in various parts of the world. 
 
 cmswiCK PRESS : FEINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF THE AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC COMMISSION 
 ON THE ARTIFICIAL WATER- 
 WAYS OF EUROPE, 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE TEHUANTEPEC 
 
 RAILWAY AND SHIP CANAL. 
 
 OCTOBER 16, 1871. 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS. 
 1871. 
 
COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 BREVET-MAJOR-GEN. J. G. BARNARD, U. S. Army. 
 COL. JULIUS W. ADAMS, Vice-Prefident of the American 
 
 Society of Civil Engineers; Engineer of Public 
 
 Works, Brooklyn, N. York. 
 COL. J. J. WILLIAMS, Chief Engineer of the Tehuan- 
 
 tepec Railway Company. 
 
REPORT. 
 
 THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY AND 
 SHIP CANAL. 
 
 London, O&ober i6th, 1871. 
 
 SIMON STEVENS, EJqre., 
 
 Prejident of the Tehuantepec Railway Company, 
 
 New York, 
 SIR, 
 
 HE underjlgned, appointed by you, a Commijjion 
 to examine Jbme of the principal artificial 
 waterways in Europe, with a view of applying 
 the bejl and mojl recent experience to the pro- 
 jecl for an interoceanic Railway and Ship 
 Canal acrofs the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, rejpeclfully 
 report, that a portion of our number have examined personally 
 the Caledonian Canal, the great Dutch Ship Canal now under 
 conjlruclion for the purpofe of ejlablijhing an eafy and direcl 
 communication between the port of Amfierdam and the German 
 Ocean, and aljb the lefs known, though very interejling, work 
 now in progrefs at the Hook of Holland, viz., the new Water- 
 
 c 
 
36 *fhe Tehuantepec Railway 
 
 way from Rotterdam to the Sea (" Waterweg van Rotterdam 
 naar Zee "). 
 
 The members of the CommiJJion have been courteoujly 
 furnijhed with every facility for the examination of thefe in- 
 terejling works. The Lord Advocate of Scotland, one of Her 
 Majejly's CommiJJioners of the Caledonian Canal, kindly 
 furnijhed us with letters to the officers in charge of the canal ; 
 the Superintendent of which, Mr. Davidfon, accompanied us, 
 and explained the more interejling parts of the works. To 
 the eminent engineer, Mr. Hawkjhaw, and to his ajjbciate at 
 Amjlerdam, Mr. J. Dirks, we are indebted for the fullejl in- 
 formation, together with plans of the Amjlerdam Ship Canal, 
 one of the mojl remarkable works of engineering of the prejent 
 day. Mr. Dirks perjbnally accompanied us in our examinations. 
 To Mr. Caland, the chief engineer, and a member of the 
 " Waterjlaat " of Holland, we are aljb indebted for the oppor- 
 tunity of making ourfelves perjbnally acquainted with the work 
 at the Hook of Holland, as well as for documents and valuable 
 information. 
 
 Want of time (owing to duties or engagements) has prevented 
 perjbnal vijits to other great waterways, ejpecially the Suez 
 and Languedoc Canals, which would be injlruclive in reference 
 to a projecl for any new Ship Canal ; but theje works 
 are Jo thoroughly defcribed, their characlerijlics and details fo 
 well known, as to enable us to dijpenje with perjbnal examina- 
 tions. The various Jurveys and projects for Ship Canals at 
 Jundry points acrojs the American IJlhmus, are of courje familiar 
 to, and have been attentively examined by us. 
 
 A brief memoir of the hijlory of the railway and canal 
 project for the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec will be in place here. 
 This IJlhmus has always, Jlnce the early days of American di/- 
 covery, attracted attention and explorations, as one of the mojl 
 available points for interoceanic communication ; but the project 
 
and Ship Canal. 37 
 
 for a " Ship Canal" firjl ajQumed a definite form in the Report 1 
 by Senor Moro, founded on a Jurvey made in 1842. 
 
 This Jurvey originated in the concejjion by the Mexican 
 Government to Don Jofe de Garay of the right to open a com- 
 munication between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, through the 
 IJlhmus of Tehuantepec, coupled with the condition that the 
 grantee "Jhall caufe to be made at his own expenje a purvey 
 of the ground and direction which the route Jhould follow, and 
 aljb of the ports which may be deemed mojl proper and commo- 
 dious from their proximity.'* 
 
 Although the communication to be ejlablijhed was not necef- 
 Jarily to be a Jhip canal, or even (wholly) a water communication, 
 yet it is evident that Juch a canal, or at leajl a great canal, was con- 
 templated both by the Mexican Government and the grantee ; 
 and the engineer, Moro, exprejjly Jlates that to Juch a communi- 
 cation his attention was chiefly directed in making his Jurvey. 
 
 In fulfilment of the obligation to make a Jurvey, Senor de 
 Garay immediately dijpatched to the IJlhmus a Scientific Com- 
 miflion, compofed of Senor Gaetano Moro as chief, and Lt.-Col. 
 de Troupliniere, and Capt. Gonzales of the Jlaff corps, and 
 Lieut. Mauro Guido of the navy, as ajjijlants, and Don Pedro 
 de Garay, an officer of the Minijlry of War, as Jecretary. The 
 Commi0ion Jpent nine months upon the IJlhmus in the execution 
 of its tajk. It fixed the pojition of the more remarkable points 
 by ajlronomical obfervations or by triangulation, meajured the 
 mojl important altitudes by barometric or trigonometric objerva- 
 tions, and explored in a general way the more important water- 
 courjes and harbours ; and furnijhed, Jo far as it went, a tolerably 
 accurate account of the IJlhmus in its geographical and topo- 
 
 1 " An Account of the Ifthmus of Tehuantepec, with propofals for 
 eftablifhing a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 
 bafed upon the Surveys and Reports of a fcientific commiflion appointed by 
 Don Jofe de Garay. London, 1846." 
 
38 The Tehuantepec Railway 
 
 graphical relations to the quejtion of a canal, and gave very 
 valuable information concerning the mineral wealth, and the 
 natural and agricultural productions. 
 
 Senor Moro bafed upon this Jurvey, a project for a canal of 
 20 feet in depth, and 50 miles in length, connecting the upper 
 waters of the Goatzacoalcos, on the Gulf Jide, with the lagoons 
 of the Pacific coajl. The Jummit was at Tarifa, at about 
 680 feet above the level of the fea. 
 
 Further than to make the Jurvey mentioned, nothing was ac- 
 complijhed by Senor de Garay with regard to executing the 
 canal. After the acquisition of California by the United States, 
 this route acquired a new importance as a means of communica- 
 tion with our newly acquired Pacific territory. Could pojjejjion 
 have been obtained at once, Tehuantepec would probably have 
 become the ejiablijhed route of communication, owing to the 
 great faving of dijlance over Panama, as well as the Jalubrity 
 of the climate. 
 
 Soon after the cloje of the war between Mexico and the 
 United States, the franchises and privileges of Senor de Garay, 
 became the property of Mr. P. A. Hargous, of New York, who 
 in connexion with a company formed in New Orleans, ajjumed 
 the rights and responsibilities of the Garay-grant. But the 
 necejjary negotiations with the Mexican Government, and with 
 other parties interejled, delayed a commencement of operations 
 till December, 1850, at which time the Company having 
 applied to Prejident Taylor for an officer of engineers to direct 
 the Jurvey, Brevet-Major J. G. Barnard, Captain of Engineers, 
 was detailed for that purpofe. The afpecl of the problem was 
 at this period peculiar, the great object being to ejtablijh, at the 
 earliejl pojjible day, an available route for the great flood of 
 travel between our Atlantic and Pacific coajls. Hence the idea 
 of a canal was put ajide, and that of a railroad JubfHtuted. 
 The Jurvey then ordered was therefore organized and executed 
 Jblely in reference to a railway and a preliminary and auxiliary 
 
and Ship Canal. 39 
 
 waggon road, and thefe it was urgent to ejlablijh with the leajt 
 pojfible delay. Thefe fads not only Jhaped the whole character 
 of the furvey, but they even altered the route. It was necejjary 
 to extend thefe roads at once to the Pacific (inftead of Jlriking 
 the lagoons, as the canal would do) ; and the " Ventofa," or 
 " Salina Cruz," were the mojl available points for the Pacific 
 terminus. 
 
 Injlead of pajfmg over Moro's fummit (Tarifa), the more 
 wejlward pajfes of Chivela and Mafahua were furveyed. Hence 
 the furvey under Major Barnard not only did not coincide with 
 Sr. Moro's at the Jummit, but the entire route between the feas 
 was quite different from that which a canal would occupy. The 
 Jurvey thus executed may be faid to have been commenced in 
 the end of December, 1850, and fubjlantially terminated early 
 in the following June (1851). Its refults are Jo fully Jet forth 
 in the Report of the Survey, prepared by J. J. Williams, one of 
 the underfigned, that we need only Jtate that it ejlablijhed the 
 practicability of a railway route at moderate expenfe, and 
 with grades not exceeding 60 feet per mile, and with a Jummit 
 about 800 feet above the level of the fea. The pajjes Jurveyed 
 were not fuppofed to be as low as the more eajlern one of 
 Tarifa, and no observations whatever were made, Jpecially 
 directed to the practicability of a canal. 
 
 In the year 1857 the railway project was refumed, and a new 
 Jurvey executed under the direction of W. H. Sidell, now 
 Lieut. -Colonel of Infantry and Brevet Brigadier General, U. S. 
 Army, a diftinguifhed civil and railway engineer, the objeft 
 being a final location of the road. This latter Jurvey was made 
 with much care and expenje. Upon its rejults and the previous 
 furveys the line of location has been definitively laid down, the 
 cojl of conjlruclion ejiimated, and everything ejlablijhed necef- 
 fary to the ijfuing of fpecifications for contracts for the execution 
 of the work. 
 
 Since the revival, under the impulfe of the Juccejsful execution 
 
40 The Tehuantepec Railway 
 
 of the Suez Canal, of interoceanic canal projects, the claims of 
 the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec for favourable conjideration have 
 gradually acquired a pre-eminence which was at firjl denied. The 
 virtual failure of all the recent explorations injlituted by the 
 United States Government to find a practicable route where the 
 ijlhmus is narrow, as at Panama and Darien, and the Juperior 
 advantage of geographical pojition of Tehuantepec, its healthful- 
 nefs, and its vajl local refources for the conjlruftion of Juch a 
 work, and its ejlablijhed practicability, in an engineering point 
 of view, for a canal with locks, are now underjiood, and mujl 
 have their weight. 
 
 In defcribing the different Jurveys that have been made, we 
 have rejerved mention of the mojl recent ; and in reference to 
 the ejlablijhment of the "pra&icability" which we have claimed 
 for the canal project, the mojl important. We allude to the 
 furvey made during the lajl winter and fpring by Captain R. 
 W. Shufeldt, of the United States Navy, by order of the 
 President of the United States, in purjuance of an Aft of Con- 
 grejs for that purpofe, and with the co-operation of the Mexican 
 Government, for the fpecial objeft of determining the quejlion 
 of an adequate water fupply. 
 
 The final report had not been transmitted to the Navy De- 
 partment at the date of our leaving the United States, but the 
 authenticated copies of preliminary reports have been furnijhed 
 you by the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, and are given in full 
 in the Appendix of this Report. 
 
 We have in them, from the highejl Jburce and in the mojl 
 pojitive form, the important conclujion "that an interoceanic 
 canal of any necejflary dimensions may be conjlrufted acrojs the 
 IJlhmus of Tehuantepec." We have alfo the further Jlatement 
 of the engineer on whoje exploration Captain Shufeldt bajes his 
 own diclum (jujl quoted), " that a Jhip canal acrofs the IJlhmus 
 of Tehuantepec is not only practicable, but aljb that the to- 
 pography of the country prefents no extraordinary objlacles to 
 its conjlruclion." 
 
and Ship Canal. 41 
 
 The latter Jtatement that " the topography of the country 
 prejents no extraordinary objlacles to the conjtruclion of a canal," 
 is but a confirmation of the information obtained from Major 
 Barnard's, Mr. Sidell's, and Senor Moro's Jurveys. The railway 
 Jurveys and location pajjlng over a line nowhere actually co- 
 inciding with the probable line of location of a canal, does not 
 of courje furnijh the means of exhibiting a profile of Juch a 
 location ; but mojl of the country through which it would lie has 
 been traverjed by Major Barnard's, Mr. SidelPs, Mr. Williams' 
 or Moro's parties. Moreover, it Jhould be borne in mind, unlike 
 the country over which explorations have been recently carried 
 acrofs the Darien IJlhmus, through wilderness entirely unknown 
 to civilized man, of which a Jingle line of Jurvey will furnifh but 
 very meagre information, the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec has been 
 a thoroughfare for centuries, while for the lajl thirty years Jur- 
 veying parties have been, at intervals, traverfmg it from Jhore to 
 Jhore, either with injiruments of precijion in their hands, or Jub- 
 jecling it to jcientific reconnaijjances. With thefe preliminary 
 remarks, we will proceed to define the probable line of location 
 for a canal, commencing at the Jummit. 
 
 The Jummit determined in 1842 by Senor Moro was near 
 Tarifa. This jeleclion was confirmed by incidental examination 
 during Major Barnard's and Mr. Sidell's Jurveys, 1 and has now 
 
 1 " As Principal Engineer of the Commiflion under Major Barnard, 
 while making explorations and a furvey for a railroad acrofs the Itthmus in 
 1851, I took occafion to examine the dividing ridge over which Moro had 
 made his furveys for a Ihip canal in 1842 ; and although I did not pafs over 
 the entire route as furveyed by Moro for a fliip canal, ftill I was at Tarifa, 
 the fummit, and on the moft difficult ground over which he propofed 
 to conftruft it, and I think I am fafe in pronouncing the route, as furveyed 
 by him, the moft practicable of any yet explored." Report of J. J. 
 Williams , i 870. 
 
 It is alfo worthy of remark that in the Report of Major Barnard's 
 furvey the " Rio del Corte " was indicated by the fame engineer as a pro- 
 bable fource of adequate water fupply for the fummit level of a fhip canal. 
 See page 145 of his Report. 
 
42 'The Tehuantepec Railway 
 
 been once more confirmed by the Jarvey of Captain Shufeldt. 
 This Jummit level was barometrically determined by Senor Moro 
 as being 680 feet (206 metres) above the level of the jea. The 
 precije determinations of the elevation of the contiguous (railway) 
 Jummits of Majahua and Chivela authorise the belief that the 
 above Jtatement of Moro is near the truth. The dejcent to- 
 wards the Pacific plains (elevated at the foot of the mountains 
 about 240 feet above the Jea) would be either by the " Portillo 
 de Tarifa," or (penetrating the Jmall " Cerro del Convento") 
 by the valley of the Monetza to its junction with the Chicapa, 
 and thence by the valley of the latter river. The latter route 
 furnijhes the greater development (fay ten or fifteen miles) for 
 reaching the plains. Either route is believed to offer no extra- 
 ordinary difficulties, though doubtlejs this dejcent is the mojl 
 formidable work of the projecl. No tunnel is necejjary, and the 
 difficulties will lie in locating the bed and locks of a great canal 
 along a dejcending mountain pajs, in which the necejjary exca- 
 vations mujl be mojlly in rock. 
 
 From Tarifa to the Portillo or to the Cerro del Convento, the 
 dijlance is about four miles, meajured over a plain Jo level that 
 in the rainy Jeajbn it becomes inundated. To deprejs the Jum- 
 mit below the level of this plain would require a deep cutting 
 extending Jeveral miles. Such a cutting, even to the depth of a 
 hundred feet, in relation to the magnitude and importance of the 
 work, of which it would form an inconjlderable part, would hardly 
 be thought formidable ; and the rejulting advantage of reducing 
 the number of locks, and placing the Jummit more conveniently 
 in reference to its Jupply of water, may quite probably de- 
 mand it. 
 
 We Jhall therefore ajjume that the canal Jummit is not over 
 600 feet above the Jea. The dejcent to the plains at the foot of 
 the mountains would therefore be about 360 Jfeet, requiring 
 thirty-Jix locks of ten feet lift. From the foot of the mountains 
 the canal, dejcending through 240 feet with the natural Jlope of 
 
and Ship Canal. 43 
 
 the plains, would reach the Upper Lagoon in a dijlance of about 
 fourteen or fifteen miles. 
 
 The main Jburce of water Jupply of the jummit, as deter- 
 mined by the jurvey of Captain Shufeldt, will be from the upper 
 waters of the Rio del Corte, at a point Jbme twenty-five to thirty 
 miles from Tarifa. The route of a feeder was carefully fur- 
 veyed, with tranjit and level, by Mr. Fuertes, chief civil engineer 
 under Captain Shufeldt, who found it entirely practicable. 
 Mr. Fuertes finds the Jupply furni/hed by the Rio del Corte, and 
 other available Jburces, at its lowejl jlage, to be 2,000 cubic feet 
 per Jecond, or 120,000 cubic feet per minute. 
 
 From the Jummit towards the Gulf of Mexico, the canal 
 would follow the well-defined route of the valley of the Tarifa 
 and Chichihua rivers, to the junction of the latter with the 
 Malatengo. Crojjing the latter Jlream, it would jlrike the Goat- 
 zacoalcos at Old Mai Pajb, which river it would cro/s at that 
 point. 
 
 The route from Tarifa to the Malatengo and Goatzacoalcos 
 is thus described by Senor Moro : " This part of the country 
 is the mojl fertile and pleafant that it is pojjible to imagine. 
 Shortly after leaving Tarifa, it is truly interejling to obferve, 
 mixed together, the fpruce and fir-tree of the cold climates, the 
 oak of the more temperate, and the palm-tree of the warm 
 regions. Further on, theje trees, as well as beautiful green 
 meadows of vajl extent, occur alternately, with woods of a 
 luxuriant tropical vegetation. Trees of precious woods, wild 
 cacao, vanilla, &c., are everywhere Jeen. The plains near the 
 rivers, cultivated by the inhabitants of El Barrio, Santa Maria 
 Petapa, and San Juan Guichicovi, give an idea of the ajlonijhing 
 fertility of the foil, Jince the natives only come in time to burn 
 down the brujhwood, and Jbw without cultivation, jcarcely ever 
 revifiting their cornfields until the harvejl time." 
 
 Various confiderations caufed the left bank of the Goatza- 
 coalcos to be preferred for the railway furveys ; but there is 
 
44 *Fhe *fehnantepec Railway 
 
 no doubt that the proper location of the canal is on the right 
 bank. A diminution of length by Jbme forty miles, the avoid- 
 ance of tranjverfe ridges (eajily Jurmounted by a railway), the 
 fewer crojjings of jlreams, and the avoiding of the overflows 
 all are con/iderations uniting in its favour. 
 
 From the Lagoons to the Jummit at Tarifa, and from that 
 point to the crojjing of the Goatzacoalcos, the line is Jo well 
 defined as to leave but the mere details to be determined. 
 From that point the canal, to avoid the great Suchil bend of the 
 river to the wejlward, would follow, as near as practicable, its 
 chord, crojjlng the Chicolote and the Chalchijapa, and approach- 
 ing the Goatzacoalcos again near the jburce of the Coahuapa. 
 This region is a denje forejl. Observations taken from the 
 Jummit of Mount Encantada, authorije the belief that it is 
 unbroken by any great topographical irregularities. The only 
 conjiderable Jlreams to be crojjed (this Jlatement applies to the 
 whole route) are the Malatengo, the Goatzacoalcos, the Chico- 
 lote, and the Chalchijapa. The Jecond named is by far the 
 largejl. The ordinary rife and fall is Jeventeen or eighteen feet ; 
 but in exceptional Jeajbns it is Jtated to have nfen higher. The 
 point of proposed crojjlng has been Jelecled on a thorough know- 
 ledge of its favourable character. 
 
 From the Coahuapa to the junction and termination in the 
 Goatzacoalcos River, the propojed route lies through a country 
 nearly level. 
 
 The entire length of purely artificial canal thus approximately 
 located, will be from about 115 to 120 miles. The number of 
 locks would be 120 in all, ajjuming a Jummit of 600 feet, a lift 
 of 10 feet, and aljb, as we have a right to do, that there will be 
 no Jecondary Jummits. 
 
 We have now to Jpeak of the harbours. The Goatzacoalcos, 
 for thirty miles from the Gulf of Mexico, forms an excellent 
 harbour. Its accej*s is over a bar having thirteen feet at low 
 
and Ship Canal. 45 
 
 water (according to the recent furvey of Captain Shufeldt). 1 
 This bar is unchanging, and we anticipate no Jerious difficulties 
 in attaining a navigable depth of twenty feet or upwards. 
 From the bar up to the point where the canal (as we have 
 defcribed its location) terminates, a dijtance of about thirty miles, 
 the river is generally over twenty feet deep. At a few points 
 there are but fifteen or Jixteen feet depth. Of courfe, to adapt 
 this portion of the river to a Jhip canal, will require channel 
 improvements, and perhaps jbme rectifications in its courje no 
 work, however, of great magnitude. 
 
 On the Pacific, the Upper Lagoon furnijhes a bajln in which, 
 in the region occupied by the ijlands, and thence to the canal 
 Santa Tereja, a depth of water of about twenty feet, with a 
 mud and jhingle bottom is found. 
 
 To reach the ocean one or both of the narrow peninjulas, 
 which Jeparate the lagoons from it, mujl be cut through, and an 
 external harbour, or entrance piers, thrown out Jimilar to thoje 
 now under conjlruclion at the North Sea terminus of the Amjler- 
 dam Canal. The works at Suez, thoje at Amjlerdam, and 
 thoje of a very different character at the mouth of the Maas, 
 yet having much in common with them and with that which we 
 are now propojing, are Jufficient proof that, to modern engineer- 
 ing, the ejlablijhing of a good entrance to theje lagoons, for 
 vejjels of large draught, is quite practicable. 
 
 In the railway jurveys it was important to reach the bejt 
 exijling port on the Pacific. Ventoja was firjl Jeleded. Neither 
 this point nor Salina Cruz is conjidered eligible for the canal, 
 owing to the andvatages" the lagoons offer for a capacious 
 harbour, and the diminution in length of artificial canal and 
 
 1 The furvey of Lieut. Leigh, U. S. Navy, in 184.8, gave 121 feet 
 at extreme lo-iv water of Spring tides. There has probably been flight if 
 any change. 
 
46 T'lie ehuantepec Railway 
 
 avoidance of river crojjings, but it is interejling to know that there 
 are already Jecure anchorages in the cloje vicinity of our pro- 
 pojed entrance to the canal. 
 
 The Jlatements given in the Appendix, pp. 21-22, Jhow 
 that the formation of an external harbour on the Pacific coajl, 
 which will afford entrance to the Lagoons, is fraught with no 
 probable difficulties, and that the coajl is not a dangerous one, 
 and that there now exijl in the cloje vicinity Jafe anchorages. 
 
 It would be quite premature to attempt an ejlimate for the 
 work we indicate. Surveys of the line can alone determine the 
 data upon which one can be made. But we Jlate with confidence 
 that, for the length of the line and height of Jummit, it is rare to find 
 a route Jo devoid of engineering difficulties. Moreover, the ijlhmus 
 furnijhes every variety of building material, while from its 
 population, and that of the States of Oaxaca and Vera Cruz, 
 can be drawn, at no expenfe for transportation, a hardy labour- 
 ing force quite adequate to execute the work. The foil of the 
 ijlhmus and of the contiguous regions affords, in abundance, 
 Jujlenance for Juch a force. The climate throughout is healthy 
 even to European labourers. With a native force jicknejs is not 
 to be anticipated. Hence, Jbme of the mojl formidable difficulties 
 and Jburces of expenditure in the conjlruftion of interoceanic 
 routes, at other more Jbuthern points of the American ijlhmus, 
 are not encountered on the ijlhmus of Tehuantepec. The cojl 
 of earth and rock excavation or majority, jhould not exceed, on 
 the ijlhmus, the cojl of Jimilar works in Europe. 
 
 In this connexion we exprejs our hearty concurrence with the 
 views of M. Thome de Gamond, in his " Avant projet," for 
 the Nicaragua Canal projected by M. Felix Belly. M. De 
 Gamond jays ; " We think that after the example of the 
 Dutch and the Americans, it is important to make extenjive ufe 
 of timber injlead of majbnry. The San Juan river traverjes 
 a virgin forejl, furnijhing trees of great dimenjions, both in 
 diameter and height. Theje timbers belong to the Concejjion,' 
 
and Ship Canal. 47 
 
 and can be employed in unlimited quantity, with no other expenfe 
 than that of the carpenter's work. To overlook the value of 
 thefe gratuitous resources, and to prefer majbnry merely becauje 
 mafonry is more durable and more monumental, would be to 
 increafe expenfe for an empty fatisfaclion." 
 
 Again he fays, " It would be an error to think that we can, 
 in this enterprife, copy works executed in Europe under the 
 formal rules of conjtruclion there adhered to. It is necejfary, 
 above all things, for the accomplijhment of fuch an enterprije, to 
 lay under contribution the immenfe local resources of nature, and 
 to utilize in the employment of theje rejburces that which is 
 mojl applicable in the dijtinclive genius of every nation." 
 
 All that is faid above by M. de Gamond applies perfectly 
 to Tehuantepec. The immenje forejts of the mojl valuable and 
 durable timbers which lie along the route jhould furnijh the 
 material for locks, bridges, and aqueducls, by which the ex- 
 penfe of theje otherwife mojl cojtly jlruclures will be reduced 
 to a fraction of that which majbnry would require. 
 
 The uje of timber in the United States for locks and aque- 
 ducls and bridges is Jo common that we need not refer to 
 examples : to adopt its uje at Tehuantepec is but to adopt the 
 principle of M. de Gamond, and to apply the " dijtinclive 
 genius " of American conjlruclion to an American work, and at 
 the fame time to " utilize " the immenfe conjtruclive refources 
 offered us in the forejls of Tehuantepec. 
 
 In what precedes we have given no " dimenficns " for the 
 propofed canal. It would be premature in this report to do fo. 
 But it Jhould be underjlood that we refer to a SHIP-CANAL with 
 an available depth of not lejs than 20 feet, and locks of cor- 
 refponding dimensions (fay of 450 feet in length and 50 feet in 
 breadth). The prefent tranfition jlate of ocean navigation, in 
 which a fubjlitution of jleam for fails, and of jleam vejjels of enor- 
 mous length for exijling models, furnijhes an independent and ade- 
 quate motive for the ufe of timber for locks. While it would be 
 
48 Tehuantepec Railway and Canal. 
 
 imprudent to hamper navigation by " monumental " conflruclions 
 of dimensions which might prove inadequate to the future, it would 
 certainly be premature to build, in mafonry, locks of the enormous 
 length that Jbme Jhipbuilders anticipate iron Jleamjhips are 
 dejlined to attain. 
 
 We have but to add that the propofed railway, owing to 
 local resources, and the extent of rich and productive countries 
 which would become tributary to it, would command a lucrative 
 traffic independent of interoceanic movements, 1 and would be 
 almojl an indijpenfable auxiliary in the construction of a canal, 
 in which capacity alone it would pay for its own conjlruclion. 
 
 We are, Sir, 
 
 Rejpeclfully, your obedient Servants, 
 
 J. G. BARNARD, 
 Colonel of Engineers, Bvt. Major General, U. S. Army. 
 
 J. J. WILLIAMS, 
 Chief Engineer, Tehuantepec Railway Co. 
 
 JULIUS W. ADAMS, 
 Engineer Public Works, City of Brooklyn. 
 
 1 See Appendix, page 22, Extrads from the Report of J. J. Williams, 
 Chief Engineer, 1870. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 MR. SIMON STEVENS, PRESIDENT OF THE TEHUANTEPEC 
 RAILWAY COMPANY, TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Office of the Tehuantepec Railway Company, 
 1 74, Chambers Street, New York. 
 July 29th, 1871. 
 
 To THE PRESIDENT, 
 
 HERE AS the Government of the United States 
 lately jent an exploring expedition to the IJlh- 
 mus of Tehuantepec to ascertain if a Jufficient 
 quantity of water exifls upon the Jummit for 
 the Jupply of an Interoceanic Ship Canal : and, 
 Whereas, the rejults of the invejtigation of 
 that expedition, as well as the report of the CommiJJioners which 
 co-operated with it on the part of the Mexican Government, are 
 favourable to the conjlruclion of Juch a canal : and, 
 
 Whereas this Company has received from the Mexican 
 Government its Decree, approved December 2Oth, 1870, 
 authorising, in addition to its other privileges, the conjlruclion of 
 a Ship or navigable Canal acrojs the Ijlhmus of Tehuantepec : 
 and, 
 
 Whereas the line of the Railway authorised to be conjlrucled 
 was duly located in July, 1870, but has now to be modified in 
 order that it Jhall become an auxiliary to the canal : 
 
 Therefore this Company dejires, before proceeding further in 
 this great work, to obtain Juch information relative to the prin- 
 cipal artificial water-ways in other countries, as may be beneficial 
 in locating the canal acrojs the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec, defining 
 the mode of its conjlruclion, and preparing plans and making 
 
50 Letter to the Prejident. 
 
 the necejfary ejlimates. With this view I have, as Prejident of 
 the Company, rejblved to form a Commiflion compofed of 
 eminent engineers, to whom will be referred theje preliminary 
 quejlions. Inajmuch as this work is recognijed to be of high 
 National and International importance, it has feemed both 
 proper and dejirable that an officer of high rank in the United 
 States Engineers Jhould be on the CommiJJion. 
 
 I have, therefore, tendered the appointment to General J. G. 
 Barnard, of the U. S. Engineers, and have named as his co- 
 adjutors Col. Julius W. Adams, Vice-PreJident of the American 
 Society of Civil Engineers, and Col. Lorenzo Perez Cajlro 1 of 
 the Mexican Engineers, to compoje the CommiJ[fion, to meet 
 in London, as Jbon as convenient after the 2Oth of Augujt, 
 where I propoje to join them with Col. J. J. Williams, Engineer 
 in Chief of the Company. 
 
 I have the honour to requejl that General Barnard may be 
 detailed by the Hon. Secretary of War for this duty, and that 
 he may receive the necejjary orders to enable him to vijit Juch 
 places as the Commijion may deem requifite. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 Sir, 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 (Signed) SIMON STEVENS, 
 
 Prefident. 
 
 1 Col. Caftro having been elefted a deputy to the Mexican Congrefs was 
 unable to meet the Commiffion in London. Col. J. J. Williams was 
 appointed to take his place. 
 
Reply of General Humphreys. 5 1 
 
 THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS OF THE UNITED STATES 
 IN REPLY TO MR. STEVENS' LETTER TO THE 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Office of the Chief of Engineers, 
 
 Walhington, D. C. Aug. 3rd, 1871. 
 
 MR. SIMON STEVENS, 
 
 Prejident Tehuantepec Railway Co., 
 
 174, Chambers St., N. Y. 
 SIR, 
 
 JN reply to your communication to the Prejident of the 
 United States, ajking for the Jervices of Gen. J. G. 
 Barnard upon a commiflion to meet in London, 
 England, the latter part of Augujl, 1871, to take into 
 confideration certain quejlions connected with the Tehuantepec 
 Railway and Ship Canal, I have the honour to encloje a copy 
 of a communication addrejjed to the Hon. Secretary of War, 
 with his authority endorjed thereon for Gen. Barnard to Jerve 
 on that CommiflTion. 
 
 Very rejpe&fully, 
 
 Your obedient Jervant, 
 
 (Signed) A. A. HUMPHREYS, 
 
 Brig. Gen. and Chief of Engineers. 
 
 U. S. Navy Department, 
 
 Auguft 3, 1871. 
 
 HEREBY certify that the annexed are true copies 
 from the files of the Department, viz : of Captain 
 Shufeldt's letter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated 
 April 1 8, 1871, and of the copy of E. A. Fuertes' 
 letter to Captain Shufeldt, accompanying it, dated April 4, 1871. 
 
 (Signed) JNO. W. HOGG, 
 
 Acting Chief Clerk. 
 
 BE it known, That John W. Hogg, whofe name is jigned to 
 the above certificate, is now, and was at the time of Jo Jigning, 
 
52 Appendix. 
 
 Acling Chief Clerk in the Navy Department, and that full faith 
 and credit are due to all his official attejlations as fuch. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto fubfcribed my name, 
 and caufed the Seal of the Navy Department of the United 
 States to be affixed, at the City of Wafhington, this Third day 
 of Augujl, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred 
 and feventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States 
 the Ninety-Six. 
 
 (Signed) GEO. M. ROBESON, 
 
 Secretary of the Navy. 
 Seal of Navy Dept, 
 
 CAPTAIN SHUFELDT'S PRELIMINARY REPORT TO THE 
 SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 
 
 U.S. S. Mayflower (4th rate). 
 
 Off Minatitlan, Mexico. 
 
 April 1 8th, 1871. 
 
 TAKE advantage of the failing of the "Kanfas" 
 for Key Wejl, to forward to the Department copies 
 of communications from Mr. E. A. Fuertes, Chief 
 Civil Engineer, and Lieut. Commander Remey, in 
 charge of parties in the interior. Thefe reports Jhow the refults 
 of the more recent labours of thefe gentlemen Jince my letter of 
 1 6th ult. 
 
 It is to me a fource of great gratification to be able to fay, that 
 an interoceanic furface canal of any necejjary dimenjions may be 
 conjlrucled acrofs this IJlhmus. In arriving at this conclujlon, I 
 have guarded myfelf againjl conjidering the interejls of indi- 
 viduals or companies, and avoided the partial opinions of 
 previous explorers. Every inch of the ground has been gone 
 over by my own people, and every obfervation carefully verified. 
 The fupply of water is taken from the Rio Corte, at a point 
 never before vijited or thought of for this purpofe. The hydro- 
 graphic furveys at the termini are entirely original. And in 
 theje three points the problem is involved. The fatisfaclory 
 folution which we have reached as the refult of much labour 
 and anxiety, demonflrates the practicability of this important 
 
Captain Shufeldt'x Correfpondence. 53 
 
 work. I make no ejlimate of its cojl. It will be dear in point 
 of money ; cheap in point of American progrejs, peace, and 
 prosperity. 
 
 Very refpeftfully, 
 
 Your obedient Jervant, 
 
 (Jig.) R. W. SHUFELDT. 
 
 Captain Commanding Tehuantepec and 
 
 NIC. Sur. Expedition. 
 HON. GEO. M. ROBESON, 
 Secretary of the Navy, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 COPY OF THE REPORT OF MR. FUERTES, FORWARDED 
 TO THE NAVY DEPARTMENT BY CAPT. SHUFELDT. 
 
 La Chivela, Mexico. 
 
 April 4th, 1871. 
 
 CAPT. R. W. SHUFELDT, U.S.N., 
 
 Commanding U.S. Surveying Expedition to 
 Tehuantepec, &c. 
 
 HAVE the pleafure to report to you officially, that a 
 Ship Canal acrojs the IJthmus of Tehuantepec, is not 
 only practicable, but aljb that the topography of the 
 country prefents no extraordinary objlacles to its con- 
 jlruclion. The junction of our tranjit and level lines was ex- 
 pected on the 31/1 of March, about one mile W. of the Cap-pac 
 Brook. The datum plane ajjumed from barometric observations 
 at the Corte, was found only eight (8) feet lower than given by 
 the level. The Jummit level will be reached by a feeder about 
 thirty (30) miles in length. The water will be taken at the 
 river Corte, near the confluence of the Blanco river, and at right 
 angles to the direction of the former. An inconsiderable cut 
 through a very narrow ridge dividing the valleys of theje rivers, 
 will protect the feeder completely againjl damage by flood. 
 
 In addition to the Corte, the Jlreams Blanco, Majeo-Ponoc, 
 EJcolapa-Coyolapa, Pericon, and probably the Coquipoc, can 
 aljb be brought to the Jummit level by the fame feeder, yielding 
 a volume of not lejs than two thoufand (2,000) cubic feet of water 
 
54 Appendix. 
 
 per Jecond. This delivery is Jufficient to Jupply a canal for the 
 largejl jhips now built, and the excejs of water can be ujed to 
 irrigate and develope the agricultural wealth of the Pacific plains, 
 now nearly Jterile. The line of the feeder is nearly direcl to 
 the Jummit, through Juitable jbil, and presents lejs difficulties than 
 the geographical condition of this part of the earth would lead 
 to anticipate. In facl, there feems to be no necejjity for accejjbry 
 cojlly work, with the exception of a dam at the Corte, an 
 aqueducl a few hundred feet in length /panning the Cap-pac, 
 and the cut and accejjbry work at the outlet end of the feeder at 
 the point where the Albrecias Cerro blends its eajlern end with 
 the Tarifa plains. Nothing remains now to be done but to 
 ejlablijh by the level, the true height of the Jummit at Tarifa, 
 which, thus far, has been ajjumed at fix hundred and eighty 
 (680) feet, upon the authority of Senor Moro's trigonometrical 
 measurements. I intend to put three parties in the field, to level 
 in Jeclions, jb as to finijh this work in ten days. I jhall Jlart 
 to-morrow for Tehuantepec, on a tour of injpe6Hon ; and, in the 
 meantime, have written to the Mexican Commijjloners, appointing 
 an interview, in order to induce them to accompany me to 
 Minatitlan. 
 
 Very rejpeclfully, 
 
 (Signed) E. A. FUERTES, 
 
 Chief Civil Engineer. 
 
 THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY TO MR. STEVENS. 
 
 Navy Department, Wafhington, 
 Aug. 8, 1871. 
 
 JOUR letter of 5th injl. has been received. Captain 
 R. W. Shufeldt at New Canaan Ct. has been 
 authorized to allow General Barnard and Colonel 
 Williams to examine the maps and notes of Jurvey 
 that have been or are being prepared under his direftion to 
 
External Harbour, Ventofa. 55 
 
 accompany his final report of the refults of explorations of the 
 Tehuantepec Expedition. 
 
 Very refpecrfully, &c. 
 (Signed) JAMES S. ALDEN, 
 
 For Secretary of the Navy. 
 SIMON STEVENS, ESQ., 
 Prefidcnt Tehuantepec Railway Co. 
 New York. 
 
 EXTERNAL HARBOUR, VENTOSA. 
 Extraff from Tr a flour's Report^ page 108, of Barnard's Survey. 
 
 |HE bay of La Ventofa is much jafer than the harbour 
 of Vera Cruz. Violent tempejls frequently render 
 the latter inaccejQIble during Jeveral days, and even 
 when the north wind blows the communication be- 
 tween the town and the vejjels in the harbour is interrupted. 
 During our jbjourn at the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec we have never 
 had to record one tempejt or hurricane on the Pacific Ocean." 
 
 Extraftfrom Temple's Report , page ill, Barnard's Survey, 1851. 
 
 ..." From all the foregoing considerations, I am of opinion 
 that La Ventofa is not only the bejl but the point for a harbour 
 on the Pacific coajl of the IJlhmus. It is a far fafer and better 
 port than either Valparaifo in Chili or Monterey in California ; 
 ports in conjlant ufe the year throughout. I fpeak from per- 
 fonal obfervation, as well as from an examination of the feveral 
 charts, and their fimilarity of outline has fuggejled the com- 
 parifon ; for although the indentation of the coajl is pojjibly a 
 little deeper at each of thefe places than at La Ventofa, yet they 
 are both open to the northward, and as the general ' trend ' 
 of the coajl is nearly north and fouth, the prevailing gales 
 blow direclly along Jhore, and into thefe harbours, creating a 
 heavy fwell, and often forcing vejjels to ' Jlip and go to fea ' for 
 fafety ; whereas, at La Ventofa, the * trend' of the coajl is eajl 
 and wejl, fo that the ' Northers ' blow directly off Jhore, and 
 create no fwell whatever. The danger being from the fudden 
 
56 Appendix. 
 
 Jlrain brought upon a cable by the /urging of a vejjel in a fea- 
 way, and not from the Jleady Jlrain caufed by the wind, it 
 follows that northers may be difregarded in an ejlimate of the 
 fafety of this anchorage, as was fatisfaclorily Jhown in the cafe 
 of the * Gold Hunter.' But northers, although frequent during 
 the winter, and feldom occurring at other feafons, are the only 
 gales that blow in this region. The Jbutherly winds, characler- 
 ijlic of the fummer and autumn, are faid to be nothing more 
 than thunder-fqualls of Jhort duration, and incapable of raifmg a 
 fea. Even the frejh and Jleady fea-breezes that prevailed 
 during the latter portion of our Jlay at La Ventofa, were un- 
 accompanied by any increafe of fwell." 
 
 Extraft from Barnard's Report^ page 117. 
 
 Steamer " Gold Hunter," 
 
 Port Ventofa, April n, 1851. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 ..." I am much pleafed with this Port Ventoja. The 
 holding ground is excellent, and the depth of fix and feven 
 fathoms almojl all over the bay very convenient. I fee nothing 
 wanting but a breakwater carried out fome 500 or 600 yards 
 from the outer point of the Moro Rock, to protecl the landing 
 from the furf, to make it an excellent port. During the four 
 days we have been here we have had two of frejh foutherly 
 winds, and two of Jlrong northers. The former did not agitate 
 the fea much, and the latter, though blowing very Jlrong, has 
 not jlraightened out the chains. We are Jlill riding by the bight 
 which is buried in the clay bottom." 
 
 "T. T. MOTT." 
 To P. E. TRASTOUR, 
 Tehuantepec. 
 
 TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY AND TRIBUTARIES. 
 
 Extracts from the Report ofj. J. Williams , upon the 
 
 Location of the Tehuantepec Railway and 
 
 Tributary Lines, 1870. 
 
 |EAVING Minatitlan, the propofed head of prefent 
 Jhip navigation, twenty miles up the Goatzacoalcos 
 River from the Gulf, the line takes the Jlope of the 
 ridge north of that village and pajfes jujl fouth of 
 Cofuliacaque, thence jujl fouth of TeJIJlepec, following, with 
 
Tehuantepec Railway and 'Tributaries. 57 
 
 but Jlight variation, and for the purpoje of correft alignment, 
 the line of overflow, thence curving to the Jbuth and eajl of 
 Lake Otiapa, thence curving Jbutherly to the eajhvard of the 
 hacienda of Almagro, thence nearly Jlraight to within one mile 
 wejl of Mount Encantada, thence curving wejlwardly and 
 direft to the crojjing of the Jaltepec River, about five miles 
 wejl of Suchil, known as Hargoujana. For this divijion of the 
 road the line is quite direcl, the curves of eajy radius, and the 
 grades gentle. 
 
 The principle governing in this location being to preserve the 
 grade from about three to five feet above the level of extreme 
 overflow and at the foot of the Jlope of the high land which 
 conjlitutes the dividing ridge between the waters of the San 
 Juan and Goatzacoalcos Rivers, and following this line, to 
 prejerve the Jhortejl practicable route, to the crojjing of the 
 Jaltepec. At Hargoufana the Jaltepec is crojjed at the level of 
 no feet above high tide, at Ventoja. The line from thence 
 Jbuth follows a deprejjion in the ridge and rijes for one and one- 
 half miles at the rate of Jixty feet to the mile to the Jiimmit, 
 which divides the waters of the Jaltepec from thoje of the 
 Jumuapa River. This Jutnmit is jujl Jbuth of the Picadura to 
 Suchil, and is 290 feet above high tide at Ventoja. 1 The line 
 thence running Jbutherly dejcends for eight miles, crojjing J*everal 
 branches of the Jumuapa until it reaches the latter at Pajb de 
 la Puerta, with no grade exceeding Jixty feet to the mile. 
 Crojjing the river at this place at a height of 155 feet above 
 tide, the line then follows a branch of the Jumuapa, which lies 
 in the direclion of the route to the Jummit between the valleys 
 of the Jumuapa and the Sarabia, a dijlance of Jix miles, two 
 miles of which is at the rate of Jixty feet to the mile, with a 
 total rije in that diftance of 195 feet. From this Jummit the 
 line continues direft to the Sarabia River, a dijlance of four 
 miles, over a gently undulating profile, and crojjing the latter 
 river at a height above tide of 305 feet, or a fall of but forty- 
 Jeven feet in four miles, curves to the eajlward and following a 
 branch of the Sarabia for two miles, with a rije of twenty feet 
 per mile, reaches the Jummit between the Sarabia and the Ma- 
 latengo Rivers, at a height above tide of 340 feet, thence 
 following a tributary of the Malatengo over a gently dejcending 
 grade, (Arroyo de los Venados, about two miles Jbuth of Boca 
 del Monte), it crojjes the latter river about 280 feet above tide, 
 and near its junction with the Rio Almaloyo, and Jkirting the 
 baje of the upland between the two rivers, takes the valley of 
 
 1 When reference is made to high tide, it means high tide at Ventofa. 
 
58 Appendix. 
 
 the Rio Almaloyo, which it follows to the plains of Chivela, a 
 dijlance of twenty-four miles, rijmg in that dijlance 410 feet, or 
 a mean rife of Jeventeen feet per mile, with no grade of over 
 fifty feet per mile. Still following a branch of the Almaloyo, 
 it crojjes the Chivela plains and enters the PaJ*s of Chivela at a 
 height of 773 feet above tide, or a rije of eighty-three feet in 
 four and one-half miles. This is the extreme height of the 
 grade at the Jummit pajs which divides the waters which flow 
 into the Pacific from thofe which flow into the Atlantic. From 
 the Jummit of the Pajs of Chivela for a dijlance of three and 
 one-half miles the line defcends a tributary of the Rio Verde on 
 a grade of 116 feet per mile to the crojjing of the Guichilona, 
 thence by the valley of the Rio Verde three and one-half miles, 
 on grades not exceeding fifty-three feet per mile, to Rancho de 
 la Martar, at the bafe of the mountains on the Pacific plains. 
 This point is 240 feet above high tide at Ventoja. The total 
 dijlance from Minatitlan to Salina Cruz by this location is 162! 
 miles, which is composed of Jlxty-two miles on the Atlantic 
 plains, Jixty-JIx miles through the mountain divifion, and thirty- 
 four miles over the plains of the Pacific. 
 
 The maximum grade is Jixty feet per mile excepting the 
 grade through Chivela pajs, which, ajcending toward the 
 Gulf, is 1 1 6 feet per mile, but only for a dijlance of three and 
 one-half miles, and in operating the road an extra engine will 
 be required to be ujed in ajjijling heavy northern bound trains 
 over the Jummit. This Jhould not be conjidered an unfavour- 
 able feature in the route from the facl that on one of the greatejl 
 thoroughfares in the United States the Baltimore and Ohio 
 the Jame grade was adopted in crojjing the Alleghanies for a 
 dijlance of Jixteen miles. 
 
 The maximum curvature is 7, or a radius of 819 feet, and 
 this is only ujed in the pajs of Chivela. 
 
 In ejlimating the cojl of the Tehuantepec Railway, I have 
 before me the report of Major Barnard containing my original 
 ejlimates, and aljb the reports of the Chiefs of parties under 
 Mr. Sidell. With theje I am able to make the following ap- 
 proximate ejlimate of the cojl of conjlruclion : 
 
 Auxiliary and carriage-road between Minatitlan 
 
 and the Jal tepee River $62,000.00 
 
 Auxiliary road from the Jaltepec to Salina Cruz 41,000 . OO 
 Clearing, grubbing, graduation, majbnry, and 
 
 bridging Minatitlan to the Jaltepec . . . 1,200,000.00 
 
 Do. do. Jaltepec to Salina Cruz 4,120,000.00 
 
Inter oceanic Movements. 59 
 
 Superjlruclure Minatitlan to Salina Cruz . . 1,271,922. 28 
 
 Stations, buildings, and water fixtures . . . 216,000.00 
 
 Engines and cars 332,150.00 
 
 Engineering and contingencies, 10 per cent . . 720,000. oo 
 
 Total cojl $7*9^3,072 . 28 
 
 Or Jay in round numbers $8,000,000. 
 
 This is the maximum cojt, but during the conjlruclion of the 
 road, in working up the location, and in the modification of the 
 grades, tangents and curves, for the minimum expenditure, it 
 may be considerably reduced. 
 
 Article No. 23 of the general regulations governing the con- 
 Jtruclion of all railroads in the Republic of Mexico, gives the 
 Company the right to make Juch changes in the line of location as 
 they may deem proper and ujeful. It is very Jeldom that a rail- 
 road is conjlrucled without Jbme modification of the original 
 location. 
 
 ******* 
 
 As your injlruclions directed me to obtain as much additional 
 information as pojjible, bearing on the Jtibjecl of the railway 
 acrojs the IJthmus, I take occajion to Jay that, notwithjlanding 
 all that has been Jaid and written about Tehuantepec, I do not 
 think that the Ifthmus has yet been fully dejcribed. 
 
 In the firjl place a map Jhould be made upon which can be 
 laid down the coajl and lateral railway lines which may be built 
 to acl as feeders to the main trunk line, acrojs Tehuantepec ; 
 and in order to do this the plan Jhould include on the wejl as 
 much of the States of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca as will take in the 
 cities of the Jame names ; on the eajt, the States of Tabajco, 
 Chiapas, and a portion of Guatemala bordering on the Pacific ; 
 upon Juch a map Jhould be projected the following connecting or 
 branch lines. Firjl, a road Jhould be conjlrufted from Medelin, 
 already connected with Vera Cruz (twelve miles) by rail, to the 
 harbour of Alvarado, a dijiance of about eighteen miles, over 
 eajy grades. Alvarado has one of the bejl harbours on the 
 Gulf-coajl and is about thirty miles from Vera Cruz. 
 
 The next Jhould commence at or near San Nicholas, a 
 hacienda on the San Juan River, at the head of Jleamboat navi- 
 gation, about forty miles by water above the beautiful city of 
 Tlacotalpan, thence by the valley of the Jame river fifty miles 
 to the town of Pajb San Juan, thence by the fame valley thirty- 
 five miles to Hargoujana, on the Jaltepec River, there joining 
 the Tehuantepec Railway. This line would comprije eighty- 
 
60 Appendix. 
 
 five miles of railway, and about feventy miles of inland navi- 
 gation, and pafs by the doors of the cities of Alvarado and 
 Tlacotalpan. A good line may aljb be continued from the 
 valley of the San Juan over an eafy profile to Minatitlan, thus 
 connecting the whole of the interior Atlantic Jlope of Mexico 
 with its rich pojjeflions on the Pacific coajl by way of the pro- 
 pofed railway acrofs the Ijlhmus of Tehuantepec, pajjing through 
 one of the mojl productive regions in Mexico. To give you an 
 idea of a portion of this route, I mention that when on my way 
 down the San Juan River in a canoe, I ejlimated that about 
 100,000 head of cattle fubfijled in this valley; but on our 
 arrival at Tlacotalpan, Mr. Schlejkie, one of the oldejl, 
 wealthiejl, and mojl refpeftable inhabitants of that place, in- 
 formed me that I was entirely below the mark, and that there 
 were at leajl 500,000 head in that and its connecting valleys. 
 In the conjlruclion of the road this will be an important item. 
 
 The fecond branch railway Jhould Jlart from Rancho de la 
 Martar, or from the point where the trunk line will enter the 
 mountains from the Pacific plains, and run eajlerly down the 
 coajl, over nearly level ground, to the harbour of Tonala, and 
 continue through that part of the State of Chiapas bordering on 
 the Pacific, to the frontier of Guatemala. 
 
 Such a line as this would put the Tehuantepec Railway in 
 direcl communication with one of the richejl and mojl beautiful 
 countries on the Pacific coajl. I was informed by intelligent 
 gentlemen on the Ijlhmus, who live in Chiapas, that that State 
 alone produces on the Pacific coajl annually about 5,000 bales 
 of indigo, 5,000 bales of tobacco, 50,000 arobas of fugar, 5,000 
 bales of cacao, 15,000 bales india-rubber, 6,000 bales cotton, 
 6,000 jacks of coffee, 50,000 hides, to fay nothing of the corn, 
 ginger, vanilla, farfaparilla, and the immenje amount of Brazil 
 wood and other valuable produces, all of which will be fent to 
 market over the Tehuantepec Railway. The entire population 
 and produces of the Pacific Jlope, for jbme two hundred miles 
 eajl and wejl of the Ijlhmus, would find the fame outlet to 
 market ; and when the Vera Cruz and City of Mexico Railway 
 is completed, would be placed in direcl and eajy communication 
 with the capital and the whole interior of the Republic. 
 
 The third lateral railway Jhould Jlart on the Pacific coajl, in 
 the State of Oaxaca, at or near the outlet of the valley in which 
 is Jituated the city of the fame name, and run down to the har- 
 bour of Huatulco, thence to Salina Cruz, to conned with the 
 Tehuantepec Railway. 
 
 This would place the filver mining regions of the State of 
 
Inter oceanic Movements. 61 
 
 Oaxaca as well as the city, in eajy communication with the 
 Gulf coajl, and the city of Mexico, by way of the IJlhmus of 
 Tehuantepec. 
 
 The great advantages of the propojed tributary roads are 
 their extreme feasibility and the comparative eaje and cheapness 
 with which they can be conjtrucled, the ground over which they 
 would pajs, for the greater portion of the dijlance, being nearly 
 level plains. 
 
 The above, together with what has been faid in Major 
 Barnard's report, pages 139 to 142, ought to convince the mojl 
 jceptical that the local bufinefs alone would make the Tehuantepec 
 Railway a paying invejtment, to jay nothing of the interoceanic 
 traffic, from which a very large income may be expecled with 
 reasonable certainty. 
 
 INTEROCEANIC MOVEMENTS. 
 
 Extract from the Report of J. J. Williams on the location of the 
 Tehuantepec Railway and Ship Canal^ 1870. 
 
 |T is only necejjary to look at a map of the world to be 
 convinced of the immenfe relative advantages in 
 pojition, above all others, which a jhip canal acrofs 
 the IJlhmus of Tehuantepec would offer to the com- 
 merce of the world, and more ejpecially to that of the United 
 States. 
 
 By this route the produces of the valley of the MijJiJJippi may 
 be jhipped from the gulf ports direcl for China, Japan, wejl 
 coajt of North and South America, and the ijlands of the 
 Pacific ; and the imports from thoje countries may be brought 
 home to the ports of Texas, New Orleans, Mobile, Penjacola, 
 and from thence tranfhipped to Memphis, Cairo, St. Louis, 
 Louijville, and Cincinnati, and be distributed throughout the 
 Southern and Wejlern States, even to the frontier of Britijh 
 America, at one-third the cojt of transportation of the fame 
 articles by the Pacific Railroad. In a word, the completion of 
 the Ship Canal acrojs Tehuantepec will not only open a 
 direcl outlet from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic to India 
 and China, but alfo from the MijjlJJippi River and tributaries, 
 whereby the jea-going vejjels plying upon thoje waters will be 
 able to proceed with jafety to any port on the Pacific. Thus 
 
62 Appendix. 
 
 giving to St. Louis, the Queen city of the Weft, and the whole 
 valley of the MjJJijJippi, direcl water communication with the 
 Pacific fide of North, Central, and South America. In a word, 
 the completion of the Tehuantepec Ship Canal would be the 
 opening of the mouth of the Mijjijjfippi River into the Pacific 
 Ocean another world of waters. 
 
 The IJlhmus belongs, in its greatejl part, to the State of 
 Oaxaca, which has a population of 600,000, and the rejl to the 
 State of Vera Cruz, which has 300,000, and is bounded on the 
 eajl by the State of Chiapas, which has 200,000. In thefe three 
 States alone, from 8,000 to 10,000 good and hardy acclimated 
 labourers, fuperior in Jlrength and morality to the Chineje, can 
 be had for lejs than fifty cents per day of twelve hours, and they 
 board themfelves ; and bejldes from thefe fources, labour, to any 
 extent that can be utilijed, may be had from Tabafco and 
 other parts of Mexico. This great enterprise itfelf would 
 give work to thousands of the Jons of that Republic, now 
 without employment, and therefore rejllefs. 
 
 The following Jlatement, condenfed from official tables, jhows 
 the faving to the trade of the world, in insurance on vejfels and 
 cargoes, profits on time faved, intereft on cargoes, faving of 
 wear and tear of Jhips, faving of wages, provifions, &c., by 
 ujing the Tehuantepec Canal. 
 
 United States . . ',. $35,995,930.00 
 
 England .' .'.. ... 9,950,348.00 
 
 France - . . . 2,183,930.00 
 
 Other countries . . . . 1,400,000.00 
 
 Total yearly faving . . $49,530,208.00 
 
 If the trade increafes annually ten per cent., or one hundred 
 per cent, in the next decade, the faving to the world will then be 
 double the above amount. 
 
 As the annual increafe of the trade of Great Britain, France, 
 and the United States, is, together, more than ten per cent., the 
 faving to the maritime powers of the world of 49,530,208.00 
 dollars in one year, at the end of ten years will be 99,060,416 
 dollars. 1 Ajjuming the trade only of the three powers to 
 increafe in the fame proportion, the aggregate total amount 
 faved at the end of ten years, will be over feven hundred millions 
 of dollars. 
 
 1 See Report of S. J. Abert, C.E., entitled " Is a fliip canal prafticable ?" 
 
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Inter oceanic Movements. 65 
 
 Suppofe the average tonnage of Jhips to be 1,000 tons each, 
 then, as per the tables in this report, 3,049 Jhips would be 
 requijite to carry the freight which would now annually feek 
 the IJthmus route. Abert, ejlimating for Darien or Panama, 
 makes the annual faving for each Jhip 15,420.00 dollars, giving 
 as the aggregate faved upon the tonnage which would pafs the 
 IJthmus the fum of 47,709,480 dollars ; and the faving of one 
 year, at the end of ten years, would be 95,418,960 dollars, 
 fums fufficiently near the firjl to ejtablijh their correclnefs. 
 
 Again, by a comparison of time and money, in the pajjage of 
 a i ,000 ton [hip from New York to California via Cape Horn, 
 with what it would be by way of Tehuantepec, it is ejlimated 1 
 that the faving on the Jhip and cargo would be 13,300 
 dollars, or 13.30 dollars per ton, againjl a toll not to exceed 
 2.50 per ton. Allowing the Jhip to make but four trips per 
 annum of forty-five days each, via the canal, it would give a 
 yearly faving of 53,200 dollars. Deducting 10,000 dollars, the 
 toll on the four trips, there refults a net annual faving on a Jingle 
 one thoufand tons Jhip, of 43,200 dollars. 
 
 Whale Jhips and coajting vejfels have been ejlimated generally 
 at forty dollars per ton. The United States and European 
 commerce around the capes, is conduced in firjt-clafs Jhips, which 
 often cojl eighty dollars per ton. Fifty dollars has therefore 
 been taken as a fair average value, in the conjlruclion of thefe 
 tables, which do not include coajling trade nor the trade of any 
 of the powers of the world, except England, France, and the 
 United States. 
 
 The following tables Jhow the trade of the United States, 
 England, and France, which would probably pafs through the 
 IJlhmus Canal if now finijhed, taken from the official returns of 
 1857 and 
 
 TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES which mufr. pafs through 
 
 the canal. 
 
 Countries traded with. 
 
 Alajka 
 Dutch Eajl Indies 
 Britijh Aujtralia and N. Zealand . 
 Britijh Eajl Indies 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 5,735 . 
 16,589 . 
 52,105 . 
 177,121 . 
 
 Exports and 
 Imports. 
 
 $126,537 
 
 9 4,550 
 4,728,083 
 11,744,151 
 
 1 Vide "Engineering," London, Vol. V., firft half yearly. 
 
66 
 
 Appendix, 
 
 French Eajl Indies . 
 
 3>6 6 5 
 
 98,432 
 
 Half of Mexico .... 
 
 34,673 
 
 . 9,601,063 
 
 Half of New Granada 
 
 131,708 
 
 5,375,354 
 
 Central America . . 
 
 36,599 
 
 425,081 
 
 Chili 
 
 62.7AQ 
 
 6.64-'%6'? 4. 
 
 Peru .-, 
 
 w y I ^ry 
 I 93 I 3 I 
 
 W > V 'T J,^ JT" 
 716,679 
 
 Ecuador . . . 
 
 I Q7Q 
 
 4.8, Q7Q 
 
 Sandwich IJlands 
 
 >7 / 7 
 
 33 8 7 6 
 
 T" 'V/ 7 
 
 1,157,849 
 
 China 
 
 i 2 3>578 
 
 . 12,752,062 
 
 Other Ports in AJia and Pacific . 
 
 4,549 
 
 80,143 
 
 Whale Fijheries . . . 
 
 116,730 
 
 . 10,796,090 
 
 California to Eajl United States . 
 
 861,698 
 
 . 35,000,000 
 
 Value of cargoes . . . 
 
 
 #100,294,687 
 
 Total tonnage . . . . ' 
 
 1,857,485 
 
 
 Value of jhips at $50 per ton 
 
 
 92,874,250 
 
 Total value of Jhips and cargoes . 
 
 - 
 
 $193,168,937 
 
 TRADE OF FRANCE which would 
 
 pajs through 
 
 the Canal. 
 
 Countries traded with. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Exports and 
 
 
 
 Imports. 
 
 chm . . ">-; . "'. 
 
 25,688 
 
 $10,000,000 
 
 Peru . . . ,. ' "> . . . 
 
 35>9 6 
 
 . 13,160,000 
 
 Half of Mexico . . . . 
 
 10,004 
 
 2,79O,OOO 
 
 Half of New Granada . 
 
 2,389 
 
 1,090,000 
 
 Ecuador ..... 
 
 1,650 
 
 44O,OOO 
 
 Bolivia ..... 
 
 1,000 
 
 IOO,OOO 
 
 California ..... 
 
 8,997 
 
 2,073,859 
 
 S Eajl Indies } Outward only 
 
 f 2,028 
 
 [ 20,400 
 
 2,l8o,OOO 
 . 4,440,000 
 
 Sandwich IJlands 
 
 4,119 
 
 2,OOO,OOO 
 
 Philippine IJlands 
 
 1,463 
 
 I,OOO,OOO 
 
 
 <co,ooo 
 
 . 19,800,000 
 
 
 J , 
 
 
 Value of cargoes . . t . 
 
 . 
 
 $59>73> 8 59 
 
 Total tonnage . . . . 
 
 162,735 
 
 
 Value of Jhips at $50 per ton 
 
 
 8,136,750 
 
 Total value of Jhips and cargoes . 
 
 . , 
 
 $67,210,609 
 
Interoceantc Movements. 
 
 6 7 
 
 TRADE OF ENGLAND which would pajs through the Canal. 
 
 Countries traded with. 
 
 Tonnage. 
 
 Exports and 
 
 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Half of Mexico . 
 
 I 1,833 
 
 $2,775,137 
 
 Half of Central America 
 
 5 6l 5 
 
 . 1,244,817 
 
 Half of New Granada . 
 
 10,188 
 
 2,437605 
 
 Chili 
 
 118,311 
 
 . 15,486,110 
 
 Peru 
 
 2443 J 9 
 
 . 20,4/3,520 
 
 Ecuador ..... 
 
 1,820 
 
 360,015 
 
 China \ . ( . 
 
 16,853 
 
 - 7077390 
 
 Java > Outward only < 
 Singapore J (^ 
 
 16,003 
 16,500 
 
 . 3,821,410 
 . 4,364,070 
 
 Australia ..... 
 
 522,426 
 
 . 78,246,095 
 
 Sandwich IJlands .... 
 
 1,950 
 
 520,560 
 
 California ..... 
 
 1 1, 800 
 
 - 2>37 8 l 5 
 
 Value of cargoes .... 
 
 
 $139,184,834 
 
 Total tonnage .... 
 
 1,029,295 
 
 
 Value of Jhips at $50 per ton 
 
 
 51,464,750 
 
 Total value of Jhips and cargoes . 
 
 
 
 $190,649,584 
 
 The value of the tonnage which would take the Tehuantepec 
 route is, according to the above tables : 
 
 United States $92,874,250 
 
 England. . . ... 51,464,750 
 
 France 8,136,750 
 
 TOTAL VALUE OF EXPORTS AND IMPORTS taking the fame 
 route is : 
 
 United States . . $193,168,937.00 
 England ... . 190,649,584.00 
 France 67,210,609.00 
 
 Total value of trade of the 
 Powers pajjing the IJthmus 
 E 
 
 three 
 
 $451,029,132.00 
 
68 Appendix. 
 
 ESTIMATED TONNAGE to pajs through the canal : 
 
 United States 1,857,485 
 
 England . . . . . . 1,029,295 
 
 France . . ' 162,735 
 
 Total tonnage . . . 3,049,515 
 
 Upon the above tonnage, the yearly income, at two dollars 
 per ton, would be $6,099,030, which is the ejlimated annual 
 grojs receipts from tolls upon Jhips belonging to the United 
 States, England, and France. 
 
 This calculation does not include the United States' coajling 
 trade on both oceans, nor the trade that might be expected from 
 the other nations of the world not mentioned. 
 
 The amount of 2,500 dollars toll, now charged on a Jhip of 
 1,000 tons on the Suez Canal, would increafe the above ejli- 
 mated yearly income on Tehuantepec, to 7,625,000 dollars. 
 This amount, bajed upon the yearly ten per cent, increaje would 
 double itjelf in ten years. 
 
 In 1860, the maritime movement between Europe and the 
 Eajl, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, amounted to 7,250,000 
 tons. The ascertained rate of progrejs would give for 1870 a 
 total of 11,000,000 tons, one half of which, at leajl, would pajs 
 through the Suez Canal, and pojjlbly a fifth by way of the 
 American IJlhmus. 
 
 Taking theje faffs into consideration, and bearing in mind that 
 none of the trade of the Wejlern Hemijphere is included in the 
 n,OOO,OOO tons, it remains for commercial men to fay whether 
 or not we are correct in ejlimating an annual amount of 
 3,000,000 tons as likely to pajs through the American IJlhmus. 
 I have the honour to be, very rejpeclfully, 
 
 Your obedient jervant, 
 
 J. J. WILLIAMS, 
 Chief Engineer Tehuantepec Railway Co. 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS, 
 TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. 
 
YC 2561 1: 
 
 M17561 6 
 
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