254 ELLIOT'S PROPOSED EXPLORATION [Jan. 12, 1857. 



advantages. Speaking as a professional man and with some experi- 

 ence of the spirit and purpose of a great maritime rival, I am per- 

 suaded it is a sound opinion, that the Government of this Empire 

 cannot too constantly encourage the enterprise of travel in outlying 

 regions, and most especially waterborne travel. A former President 

 of the United States is reported to have said with more roughness 

 than reverence, that if there were a bag of coffee in the mouth of 

 an unmentionable place, there would be found a countryman of his 

 to go and trade for it. It would not be recommendable to follow 

 any leading to that destination for coffee or any other commodity ; 

 but in all rational and honourable maritime undertaking on the face 

 of this planet in the pursuit of knowledge, it is a matter of high 

 policy that this nation should lead, and strive to pass beyond the 

 rest of mankind. Most honourable is it to the successive Boards of 

 Admiralty, since the close of the long war, that we have done so 

 both in the Arctic and Antarctic, for assuredly we had better have 

 lost ten sail of the line in battle, than that any other nation should 

 have vanquished us in those perilous investigations. Their priceless 

 result has been the maintenance of the spirit and genius of the Navy. 



The practical preliminary step which has suggested itself to me, 

 is that Her Majesty's Government should be led to move the 

 Governments of New Grenada and Venezuela, on the part of the 

 Koyal Geographical Society, to authorise and second the resumption 

 of Humboldt's scientific investigations on the Orinoco and its 

 affluents. With that permission granted, I would submit that the 

 expedition should be assembled at Trinidad, in two or more vessels 

 of suitably light draught and power, and set out from that island at 

 the right time of year ; regard being had to the rains, rise of rivers, 

 &c. Immediately below the mouth of the Meta there are rapids. 

 It is possible, however, although there is plenty of water in the 

 narrow channels between the rocks, and Humboldt represents that 

 there is no real danger with a good pilot, that it might be desirable 

 for the permanent navigation of the Meta, that the line of boats 

 should bo separate, so as to avoid the rapids, unless indeed they 

 could be easily turned by a slack water navigation. 



Our situation at Trinidad, lying at the very threshold of this 

 mightiest highway for the transit of commerce and civilisation, 

 would greatly facilitate the steady prosecution of these deeply in- 

 teresting explorations. 



Colonel Smyth O'Connor, f.r.g.s., said he had resided many years in 

 Trinidad, and had been up the Orinoco. The views of Admiral Elliot were 

 of the greatest consequence to the British colony. He had no doubt that 

 Trinidad, Tobago, and the other islands off the Spanish Main, originally 

 formed part of the South American Continent, but had been torn from it by 



