Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1876

No. 48.
Mr. Scruggs to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Bogota, July 17, 1875. (Received September 10.)

No. 114.]

Sir: I inclose herewith, for the information of the Department, a printed copy of a translation from Spanish to English of an elaborate and somewhat curious report made to the last Colombian Congress on the subject of the proposed interoceanic ship-canal.

Although this report is evidently fanciful in many respects, it is, nevertheless, interesting as showing the history of the proposition to unite the two oceans by water communication, and besides contains some statements which are conceived to be of interest in the United States.

I have, &c.,

WILLIAM L. SCRUGGS.

[Inclosure.—Translation.]

Report of a commission.

Chamber of Representatives.

Gentlemen Representatives:

One of the most important projects that, in my humble judgment, can come before the legislative chambers, and one that most justly claims your attention, has been submitted to your consideration, and by you transferred to my investigation, in accordance with our parliamentary usage.

In it is decreed the exploration of the isthmuses of Panama and Darien, by Colombian engineers, with the view of opening an interoceanic canal, and it is therein also resolved, in virtue of the results obtained, to take such action as may be necessary for the satisfactory execution of the said work.

We observe, then, that the draught refers to the greatest of all modern undertakings, and not only awards to Colombia a share in material interests, which no one has ever denied to her government, but also lays open to her sons a worthy held for their labor in the exploration, and the glory of the discovery, if it be discovered, of the route we are in search of. Allow me, therefore, on the present occasion to recall to your recollection some of the data most concerned with the question to-day before us, which will serve to justify my voting unreservedly in favor of the project, and also in some measure to shield me from the charge, which I already hear preferred against me, of being visionary.

The communication of the two great seas, or rather the continuity of the one known in the middle of the fifteenth century, onward to the regions of the east was dreamt of by Columbus at the same time that the existence of a new continent arose on his imagination; and after the lapse of centuries this has ceased to be a magnificent dream and has become a necessity which civilization, commerce, and industry require to be satisfied.

But the world is now moved not by the holy wish of launching a new crusade, such as Columbus imagined, nor yet by the sole desire of shortening the route to the seas of Asia in quest of the fabulous commerce in spices; the interests of industry, which requires expansion, are in league with the sentiment of brotherhood among the nations, which looks to strengthen itself by increasing the facilities for intercourse and commerce, for easy, safe, and daily contact.

With that intuition of genius which converted the Genoese dreamer into the discoverer of the New World, he directed his course in his fourth and last voyage to the precise spot where such a communication might possibly be found, or where the excavation of a canal might be possible, if it does not already exist there.

A few years after, and when the discoverers were exploring the barrier which, more real than the ancient columns of Hercules, impeded the passage of their vessels, the immense satisfaction fell to Balboa of being the first to overlook the waters of the Pacific Ocean, and with the discovery of the Sea of the South, the idea naturally arose of uniting it to the one they had already at their command, together with the noble longing to force its secrets and to subjugate its greatness.

It is not to be doubted that throughout the whole region of the American isthmus the discoverers received information and data, more or less exact or exaggerated, regarding the existence of a communication between the two seas.

The Indians Cirambiráes, Cobiras, Beboganáes, Catures, Samarabiráes, &c., of Darien, and those of Chepo, Bayano, and the Gulf or San Blas, in Panama, as well as the dwellers on the isthmus of Tehuantepec, were unanimous on the point. Hernan Cortez reported the same to Charles V, and so, naturally, did Pedrarias Davila and his successors in the government of Darien and Panama, and thence arose the project of perfecting a canal, the mission of two Flemish engineers, the adverse report of the council of the Indies, which judged its realization would be against the interest of the monarch; and, ultimately, the order, as laconic as peremptory, of Philip II, which prohibited, under pain of death, not only the navigation of the rivers which might serve as outlets to an interoceanic canal, but also the very discussion of such an undertaking.

At the first outset Charles V had ordered the conqueror of Mexico to make inquiry among the natives concerning the secret of the communication. Soon after his successors, in obedience to the notions of their epoch, which saw in a system of restrictions the perfection of economical science, preferred themselves to erect a barrier to their own greatness, in order not to jeopardize even that commercial monopoly with which their colonies were doomed to be oppressed. Later, and on account of information reported to Madrid in 1605 by Don Basco de Mendoza, the monarch issued the royal decree of May 24, 1607, in which he commands Don Juan de Borja, (who at that time governed the ‘new kingdom,’) to proceed to explore the provinces of Chocó, Dabaibe, and the valley of Baeza, which Mendoza had extolled for their remarkable richness and singular conditions. He states in his report, among other notable facts, the following:

“‘The great river of Darien rises in this province, in the rear of the city of Auserma, from a large cordillera, which runs from north to south. Its course lies from south to north, and the Indians that dwell on its banks affirm that it is divided into two branches, and that one of them enters the Atlantic in the bay of Acla, and the other the Pacific at Port Peñas, between the city of Panama and the port of Buenaventura; and this is what Don Pedro de Acuña, governor of Carthagena, is attempting to discover in the vessel called the Napolitana. The fact is of the greatest import, as well for the mere communication by water between the two oceans as for the facilities it affords for the commerce and traffic of these opulent regions.’”

The president Borja commissioned Don Sancho de Camargo to make the exploration referred to. He repaired to the spot, and in the report he presented some months after are to be read seven or eight concurrent depositions made by inhabitants of Toro, who were the first explorers of Chocó, to the effect that the Indians with whom they traded and were concerned in their mining establishments did pass in their canoes from sea to sea.

Limiting the study of the question to what concerns our own territory, I ask, “Did such communication exist? Was it really available?”

In reading the history of the buccaneers who, in the seventeenth century, ravaged our coasts and sacked our cities, one is often surprised to notice the rapidity with which they changed the scene of their operations—now plundering the coasts of the Atlantic, now appearing with their terrible squadron in the waters of the Pacific, and this with so short an interval as can hardly be conceived possible even to-day, when steam has minimized distance.

The belief in the existence of such a canal is supported by the weighty opinion of Don Dionisio de Alcedo, who has the reputation of being a first-rate authority in all matters of American geography, and doubly so as regards the isthmus of Panama, of which region he was governor for many years, and it may be remarked that he undertook the governorship in 1743, that is to say, at a period when the memory of a serious event that occurred there sixty years before might still be fresh, and that he proceeded from thence to Madrid to print his masterly “Geographical Dictionary.” Therein, at the word “Mandinga,” he says as follows:

“The river referred to rises in the mountains of Chepo, and runs eastward, till it discharges itself into the bay to which it gives its name. Its course is four leagues long, and its navigation is prohibited under pain of death, on account of the facility it offers for passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as was done in the year 1679 by the pirates Juan Guarlem, Eduardo Blomen, and Bartholomé Charps.”

These three pirates were tried by the audiencia of the New Kingdom, and, as they could not be had in person to suffer the punishment of their crimes, they were burned in effigy in Santa Fé, while they were in person all the time burning and ravaging the cities of the Pacific.

Their process existed some years ago in the archives of the vice-royalty, where I saw and examined it; latterly, when those documents were ordered to be arranged, it was not to be found, as far as I know, and we must be satisfied to establish the fact, and to charge the loss of the process, and the sentence it contained, on the time, and not on Spain or Colombia, when the first burned pasteboard effigies, and the second beheld with indifference the rich deposit of our miseries and wrongs as a colony, of our hereditary rights, and even of our glories as an independent nation. Twenty years after, in 1698, the West Indian Company was organized in England under the direction of William Patterson, who, with 1,200 men, established himself in the Gulf of Urabá, where he founded the colonies of New Edinburgh and Caledonia.

Attacked by the forces of Spain, abandoned by the British government, before which a protest was lodged by Spain, France, and Holland together against the encroachments made by its subjects on foreign soil, the colonists had no alternative but to abandon their settlements. But their chief had already explored those regions, and, convinced of the existence of a canal which only required perfecting, addressed a memorial to William III, entitled “Patterson’s Four Passes,” in which he solicits the support of the British monarch, and offers him, “in the pass called of Paya, the key of the two oceans, because it is in that point where they communicate.” And we must not imagine that Patterson was a mere adventurer, from his having been the leader of the Darien scheme. When he came to our shores he was already celebrated as the founder of a no less colossal enterprise than the Bank of England. Having closed our ports against foreigners for fear of contraband, it is not surprising that Spain should have persisted in preventing the navigation of our rivers and neglected the exploration of the isthmus; or if anything was done in that direction, it was sure to be with such reserve that it is probable no trace of it is to be found in our days, even in the archives of the mother-country.

But in the lapse of time ideas underwent a gradual change. In 1765 the government of Spain opened to commerce the ports of the Windward Islands, and in view of the good results of the measure, the Minister Galvez extended the license in 1778 to the ports of Chili, Buenos Ayres, and Peru, and subsequently to those of the New Kingdom. With what was then styled “free trade” entered the idea of searching for the communication of the two oceans, which had been looked upon up to that period as a danger.

In 1771 the attention of the government was called to a petition preferred by Don Antonio Bunarcli, viceroy of Mexico, who solicited permission to make a regular survey of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The inhabitants of those regions, and especially those of Tabasco, had since the time of Cortez given certain information which led to the expeditions of Diego de Ordaz and Grijalva, and to the discovery of California, and in 1745 the people of Pajaca had presented a memorial in which all the data bearing on the case were collected, in support of their petition to be allowed to explore the isthmus. Their memorial suffered a delay of twenty-six years in reaching Madrid. From thenceforward the idea began to prevail of making use of the water of the river Paso, in order to unite the Chimalapa with the Huazacuala. I will not, however, enter into the discussion of these projects, but rather return to our own country.

The Spanish government not only sent direct expeditions; it also issued its orders to the archbishop viceroy, Don Antonio Caballero y Gongora, to have Darien explored, and facts collected with regard to the enterprise, of whose practicability it was now concerned to be accurately informed. Every step taken in these matters was under the strictest reserve, and it is quite possible that Spain desired that even her own subjects should be in ignorance of the interest she was taking in this majestic enterprise, and still more that the European governments should be so, who would doubtless have looked with jealousy on any increase of her power in those regions; so that these expeditions were made ostensibly for the foundation of colonies to convert the Indians, for building small forts, and for preventing smuggling by the posting of detachments. Ariza, Arevalo, Latorre, Donoso, Pacheco, and others worked vigorously in the exploration, and sent in reports, sounded rivers, drew out maps; and their work was not in vain, in all probability, if we may judge from the following précis of one of the reserved notes sent by the secretary of the India office to the viceroy:

“That His Majesty approves of the judicious measures taken by your excellency for the conclusion of the communication of the two oceans by the isthmus, of which you gave a report in your No.—,” &c.

Unhappily the copies of the reserved notes which were sent from this side to Spain do not exist in our archives, and we may easily imagine how much light would be thrown on the subject if we had before us the letter to which the above was in answer.

Why, it may be asked, if sufficient indication, and even proofs, were at hand of the existence of a natural communication, which only required clearing out to be perfectly adequate for the passage of large ships—why was no action taken, or even suggested, in the matter?

The reply is simple. Because already in Europe the movements which led to the great revolution of 1780 had commenced; because Spain, which had helped to set free the British North American colonies, feared that the plague of liberty might be propagated in her own colonies, where it imported more that she should dominate than that they should prosper, and, ultimately, because the convulsions of the French revolution, and the continual wars in which the nations of Europe were engaged, gave her no time to breathe, and soon deprived her even of the means of preserving her sovereignty over her ancient vassals, who were now claiming the rights of majority.

At the beginning of this century, the project of an interoceanic canal acquired the same importance as the development of American commerce, which was now tolerably unshackled and able to walk alone, and in the Edinburgh Review of July 7, 1809, a periodical distinguished for the strong sense and discretion of its articles, one was published, of which I possess only the following extract:

“By means of scientific explorations conducted by order of the Spanish government, the hydrographical deposit of Madrid constructed, in 1805, a spherical map of the Caribbean Sea and coast of the main-land, from the island of Trinidad to the Gulf of Honduras. This map revealed an important discovery. The bay of Mandinga, an immense gulf which commences ten leagues to the east of Portobello, penetrates the isthmus to within five leagues of the Pacific. This prodigious bay, which is almost closed by a chain of islands lying very near each other, which stretch right across its mouth, has never been navigated by any Europeans except Spaniards, and, as is clear from all the more ancient maps in which it is marked, was never believed to penetrate so far inland. A river empties itself into this bay, to which it has given its name. This river is navigable, and, as we know, reaches very near one of the tributaries of the Chepo, a large river which falls into the Gulf of Panama. We do not yet possess any positive data respecting the navigability or capacity of those rivers, but what Alcedo tells us, namely, that their navigation was prohibited by the Spanish government, under pain of death, for the express object of obstructing the communication with the Pacific, and the circumstance, well proved, of the, buccaneers having passed from ocean to ocean in this neighborhood, authorizes us to believe that the region presents extraordinary facilities for the great undertaking.” All these data are confirmed by what Humboldt says respecting the isthmuses of Panama and Darein. He got his first information in Carthagena, from his friend Don José Ignacio de Pambo, who had been struggling for years to obtain the free navigation of the Atrato, as the best means of fomenting the commerce of our coast, by opening a road to regions so abundant in gold and platina. Some time after that philosopher, the glory of a century and the honor of a nation, made known how, as far back as the year 1788, the cura of Novita had got his parishioners to unite the waters of the Atrato with those of the San Juan by means of the quebrada called La Raspadura. And later, after examining that region, he gave his support to the opinion of Cochrane, (who had also examined it,) and maintained that there was no considerable cordillera “between the bay of Cupica and branches of the river Atrato.” Later observations of Berghaus confirmed the opinion that, in the isthmus, the cordillera, instead of being a continuous barrier, becomes in two or three parts a series of hillocks.

On this account, probably, he recommended that our investigation should be extended to the east and southeast of a line drawn from Panama to Portobello, and directed attention to the bay of Mandinga, where one of the above-mentioned abasements of the cordillera takes place.

And let it not be objected that Humboldt did not personally traverse that part of the country; science, practice, and genius sufficed our ill-fated Codazzi to mark on his map the bank of the river Carare as not likely to be, as it really is not, marshy; the same sufficed for Leverrier to be able to announce the existence of the unknown planet, which should fill a void in the regions of space and supply the correction needed to explain the irregularities of the others.

Ultimately, allow me to call to mind that in 1868 Señor Juan de D. Ulloa communicated to the secretary of finance and public works an account given by Señor Manuel Lozano, one of the principal inhabitants of Quibdo, with reference to a party of caoutchouc traders, headed by Silverio Quesado.

According to their statement, a gunshot on a certain lagune, formed by the overflowings of the Atrato, may be heard on the river Paya, which falls into the Gulf of San Miguel. At the end of three centuries we have an indication of the route discovered by Patterson and not yet explored. The data here adduced suffice to afford, if not a sound basis, at least an excuse for the opinion, which, in my mind, rises to a conviction, that a communication between the two oceans does really exist by means of a natural canal, which only requires to be perfected.

Let us now see what has been done toward excavating one, since the existence of one ready made is probably not credited.

The colonies, as soon as they shook off the yoke of the metropolis and obtained breathing-time from the more imperious demands on their attention, dedicated themselves to the task of discovering the desired communication, and with so much the greater ardor, as they were now emancipated from the narrow colonial circle, and were ambitious to give wings to their commerce, to their industry, to their very life, the horizon of which they were anxious to widen.

The principal routes were five, according to tradition and the explorations theretofore made:

• That of Tehuantepec, making use of the waters of the river Paso in order to connect by artificial means the waters of the Chimalapa, which fall into the Pacific, with those of the Huazacalco, which enters the Atlantic.
• The isthmus of Nicaragua, communicating the lake of that name, from which issues the river San Juan, with the bay of Papagayo.
• That of Panama, in which several lines have been proposed.
• That of Darien, or the Cupica route, in which each explorer has fancied he has discovered a new and the true line.
• And, lastly, the communication between the Atrato and the San Juan.

Let us briefly recapitulate some of the works undertaken or orders issued with a view to determine the question in the privileged zone of our own territory.

Even before Bolivar saw his dream of emancipation realized, he paid especial attention to the construction of a railroad or the opening of a canal through the isthmus, and was even desirous of repairing to the scene of action, in order personally to superintend the works that might be engaged in. (Report to Congress, 1823.)

The Colombian plenipotentiaries, in the famous congress of Panama, were directed to advance every reasonable scheme for effecting such an important undertaking, in which the commerce of the world was interested, and still more the newly-redeemed republics. The Government of the United States of America, alive to the importance and magnitude of the work, instructed its agents on that memorable occasion, through its illustrious Secretary, Clay, to offer to Colombia its cordial sympathy and co-operation.

As soon as the congress was closed, having left no mark of, its having been held beyond the memory of a great idea still-born, the Libertador took measures to have that region explored; and Messrs. Lloyd and Falmare passed the years of 1828 and 1829 in making the requisite surveys, on account of the republic, with the view of either cutting a canal or constructing a railroad. The latter project was looked on with greater favor, as it was considered of quicker realization and less cost. Those two eminent explorers decided in favor of a line which should cross the valley of the Trinidad, a tributary of the river Chagres, and thence make for the waters that fall into the bay of Chorrera.

The calamities with which the republic was visited at that epoch, by the series of civil wars which resulted finally in the disruption of the glorious Colombian nationality, interrupted the measures which had been initiated, and which were already giving such promising results, and the matter was only resumed in 1835, when the law of 29th May was passed, “conceding a privilege to the Baron Charles de Thierry for the opening of a canal by means of the waters of the river Grande, the river Chagres, and the bay of Limon.”

As the company destined to perform the work did not commence operations within the stipulated period, the Government of Washington commissioned one of its citizens, Colonel Biddle, to solicit the same or a similar concession.

In the negotiations on the affair, he met with something that seemed to him like an obstacle, which was in our country, as it were, the first manifestation of public spirit in favor of an important undertaking, which might ennoble the nation, and at the same time enrich its citizens. Rich Granadian capitalists were also candidates for the same privilege, and all the concurrents finally agreed to solicit the privilege in common, which was conceded by the legislative decree of June 6, 1836, and adjudged to Colonel Biddle and others on the 22d of the same month.

Nothing came of this concession, however, and the congress passed a law on the 1st of June, 1842, which set forth that, previously to declaring forfeited the concessions of 1835 and 1836, the government should issue proposals at home and abroad for the excavation of an interoceanic canal.

From that time forward permission has been given to every corporation or individual that has desired it to explore the isthmus, and many privileges granted, which remain in writing.

Among the chief of them we may mention that of the decree of 18th June, 1851, in favor of Messrs. Manuel Cárdenas and Florentino González, to excavate a canal within the zone comprised between the mouth of the Atrato, in the gulf of Urabá, to a league higher than the confluence with the Napipi, and on the Pacific side between the 8th parallel to the point of San Francisco Solano.

At the same date a concession was granted to Messrs. Ricardo de la Parra and Benjamin Blagge to communicate the Atrato and San Juan, between the 5th and 6th parallels.

A law of 1st June, 1852, conceded to Messrs. Patrick Wilson, Eduardo Cullen, Charles Fox, John Henderson, and Thomas Brassey the right to make a canal between the gulf of San Miquel and the bay of Caledonia.

In 1854 the government ordered General Codazzi, chief of the chorographic commission, to explore both the route indicated in the latter concession, as also those by Atrato, Napipi, and the bay of Cupica; but the political complications of that year caused the undertaking to be delayed, which meanwhile Dr. Cullen, on account of his company, and Lieut. G. Strain, in the corvette Cyane, on account and by order of the North American Government, were executing with unexampled constancy and vigor.

In 1855 the law of 25th April granted a new privilege to Messrs. Joseph Gooding and Ricardo Vanegas, for excavating a canal between the 4th and 8th parallels.

As these privileges never advanced much beyond the written stage, on the 25th January, 1867, the government of the nation made a contract with Señor Eustacio de la Torre N, as representative of Mr. Henry Duesbury; but it was disapproved by Congress, who did not judge that the necessary legal requisites had been fulfilled; and on same date (June 27) it passed a law giving detailed instructions to the executive, in order to promote a new contract, within or without the republic.

The invitation offered abroad produced the desired effects, and we see that the Colombian legation in Paris, in a note dated 7th September, 1867, (Diario Oficial, No. 1292,) communicated the proposal made by Messrs. Roehn, Ragon & Chevey, the first of them a celebrated naturalist, who had resided many years in Darien, to excavate a canal, which they asserted would only require two sluices. This proposal had to be rejected, as not being in conformity with the conditions laid down in the law of June 27, 1866.

Successively were received the proposals of Page, Keppel & Co., of Puydt, Ayrian, and several others, among which attention was chiefly directed to that made by Count Gleichen, both on account of his connection with the royal family of England, as well as for the marked support it received from Lord Clarendon.

And not only private individuals, but also governments, now began to take interest in the work. The minister of Peru in Bogota communicated to our government, in a note dated 29th March, 1869, an order from his own to subscribe for a great part of the capital which might be required for the work, judging, without doubt, that the American governments must have a greater interest in the realization of the project than any others.

The treaty of the 14th January, 1860, between this republic and that of the United States of America had already been arranged by means of their respective plenipotentiaries, Messrs. Miguel Samper, Thomas Cuenca, and General Cushing. As this was disapproved by the Colombian Senate, the negotiations were renewed a few days after between the plenipotentiaries Messrs. Justo Arosemena and Jacobo Sánchez, on our part, and Mr. Hurlbut on the other. These signed the treaty of 26th January, 1870, which was approved, with slight amendments, by the law of 8th July of the same year, and would be now in force if its ratification had been exchanged within the prescribed limit. Meanwhile, scientific and laborious men have made several explorations which have added precious data to the geography of our country. Some have obtained the conviction of the feasibility of a canal at more or less cost; others have come from the ground persuaded of its impossibility. Dr. Cullen, with the constancy that is born of conviction, and which is the force of genius, has been indefatigable in the cause; and in the long list of those who have taken part in this crusade of civilization, mention should at least be made of Garella and Courtines, of Oliphant, Kelley, Prevost, Gisborne, Bourdiol, de Puydt, Ayrian, Admiral Davis, and Commodore Thomas Self ridge, who is at this moment in those waters. Some have fixed upon the rivers Sucubti and Chucunaque to strike for the waters of the Lara and the Sabana; others have judged it preferable to make for the river Sabana from the rivers Sabardi and Morti; some have explored the Mandinga and the Mamoni, to fall into the Pacific by the Bayano and Chepo; others are in favor of the Truandó and Bandó; others of the Tuyra, and others the Napipi. But among all these explorers, not one Colombian is to be found; and of all these explorations, one only, that of the year 1828, was made by order and at the charge of the Colombian government. The explorers have been attracted by their own interest or commissioned by their respective governments; they have surveyed the wonderful nature of our territory; it is possible they have been able to judge of the feasibility of the grand project; but besides the generalities indispensible for obtaining a privilege, each and every of those celebrated explorers possesses to-day in that respect a greater number of data than our own government, the owner of that territory which the conquest could not dominate, and which the republic has beheld with such lamentable indifference.

The project which has been committed to my examination supplies a remedy to this unhappy state of affairs. By all means let our waters and our territory be open to the flags of all nations of the world and our archives to every worker of civilization, in the same manner as the Colombian heart is ever open to all who arrive with the salutation of a brother; but let us not be those who know least of our own territory, nor those who least enjoy the riches with which Providence has seen fit to bless it.

If this account of the explorations made up to the present time without our receiving any details, which are sure to be valuable, concerning them, be not sufficient to persuade us of the propriety of exploring by means of Colombians the territory of the isthmus, remember that we have just seen published in the public journals the opinion of the celebrated Lesseps regarding the American canal, which he thinks practicable by the Nicaragua line; but, with all due respect to the man who has renewed and improved the ancient canal of the Pharaohs, allow me to state that he neither possesses, nor has any one been able to furnish him with, irrefragable data, which would warrant him to decide in favor of the Nicaragua route or concerning its relative superiority to the lines which our country offers.

We purpose providing ourselves with those data; let us judge with our own eyes of the veracity or of the erroneousness of the reports rendered by competent Spanish explorers and recorded by prudent chroniclers; and in no case let ours be the only flag unknown in the regions of Darien and the solitudes of the Isthmus.

As it would be trespassing on your attention to furnish in this paper further data concerning the existence of a natural canal, I hereby, from this moment, undertake, in case this project becomes a law of the republic, to draw up for the use of the Colombian Commissioners, whom the Government may appoint, a detailed examination of the whole subject, as complete as my humble abilities may accomplish; a task that will certainly be laborious and might be tedious, were I not buoyed by the desire of being useful to my country, and by the hope that my name may thus be heard in the regions of the Isthmus, since I am both unable and unqualified to take service in person among its explorers; because, were I able to do so, Núñez de Balboa, the knight of the ocean, will not have felt greater joy at overlooking from the summit of the Andes the vast solitudes of the Pacific, which opened so wide a horizon to his ambition, than that which I, the least of the Colombians, should feel on gliding on still waters through the channel which unites the two oceans, and on being one of the first to contemplate so vast a field opened to the glory and prosperity of my country.

I will here conclude the present too extended report, and in accordance with our parliamentary usage, I propose: “Let the bill which ordains the exploration of an interoceanic canal through the Isthmus of Panama be read a second time.”

J. M. QUIJANO OTERO.

Bogotá, 1st April, 1875.