328 On a Communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 



invaded the Choc6 by water, with the troops drawn from Carthagena in 

 the month of January, 1820 ; Colonel Cancino, who had the command of 

 the province, receiving intelligence of the circumstance while at the port of 

 Buenaventura, where the Andes frigate. Captain (now Admiral) John II- 

 lingworth, was then lying, resolved on taking the enemy in flank. Em- 

 barking with this view on board the Andes, he proceeded to the bay of 

 Cupica, where he had the frigate's six-oared launch sent ashore, and drag- 

 ged across the isthmus to the Napipi, which was accomplished by manual 

 labour in the space of ten hours, notwithstanding the delay occasioned by 

 being obliged to cut a way through the woods. On reaching the banks of 

 the Napipi, the boat was launched anew, aad the party re-embarking de- 

 scended the Napipi, and ascended the Atrato as far as Quibdo, in time for 

 Colonel Cancino to execute his daring and masterly project of taking the 

 enemy by surprise, at a time when they did not conceive it within the com- 

 pass of human possibility for him to be near tliem. The writer of the 

 article in question further adds, that the boat in which this important 

 expedition was performed, remained at Quibdo for many years after the 

 event, and fell to pieces under the eyes of all the inhabitants. The cir- 

 cumstance was perfectly well known, and at the time of his writing both 

 Colonel Cancino and Captain (now Admiral) Illingworth were to his per- 

 sonal knowledge living witnesses of the fact. 



With the evidence of these two instances, resting upon authority which 

 hardly admits of being questioned, before us, all doubt of the practicability 

 of establishing a communication between the two seas at this point disap- 

 pears 5 and the chief objects of inquiry which remain, are those which re- 

 gard the navigation of the Atrato and the Napipi. 



The distance from Carthagena to the mouth of the Atrato usually occu- 

 pies two days in the small coasting vessels of the country, whence it takes 

 them six days, during the season from .January to March, when strong sea 

 breezes prevail from the north-east, to ascend the Atrato as far as its 

 confluence with the Napipi. The ascent to the source of the Napipi occu- 

 pies, in the boats of the country, only three days. 



The Atrato discharges itself into the bottom of the gulph of Darien by 

 a number of mouths, forming a marshy delta covered with woods, and sub- 

 ject to frequent inundations. Of these mouths or channels, that called 

 Barbacoas is tlie most frequented ; and has at its entrance from the deep 

 and extensive bay of Candelaria, a depth of from six to eight feet of water 

 at its lowest ebb. Within this bar, which not improbably admits of great 

 improvement, the river is of sufficient depth for vessels of the greatest 

 draught. This bar is said to be wholly formed of the deposit of the river, — 

 mud and rushes, and consequently easily susceptible of being removed — in 

 which even merchant ships of the largest size might sail up the Atrato, as 

 far as the confluence of the Napipi. This point Humboldt* places at 

 * Pers. Narr. vol, vi. p. 250. 



