ie 
=e 
362 Steam Navigation to the Pacific, §¢. 
“ My impression is, that the first object, before thinking of a 
canal, should be to make a good road from the junction of the 
rivers Trinidad and Chagres to the Rio Grande or Panama ; by this 
means an intercourse between the steamers on the Atlantic and 
the steamers on the Pacific could be effected in three or four hours 
with perfect ease, and a cargo even transported in that time.” » 
As it regards’steam navigation in the Pacific, I feel convinced 
that it will gratify you to know, that the great work is gomg on. 
Even the few voyages made between Chile and Peru have shown, 
so palpably, its advantages, that the stopping of the steamers has 
produced a great sensation throughout the land ; it-is impossible 
to form an estimate of what it will do for these countries—the 
governments of Chile, Peru and Bolivia, have granted every pro- 
tection and continue to give me every support; and I am under 
the firm conviction that when once perfected, its advantages will 
be found vastly beyond what-I have described them. [am very 
much indebted for the insertion in the American Journal of 
Science, of my paper on iron steambeats. I have made’ con 
siderable efforts to bring forward that subject in England ; Thave 
gone into its detail and examined with all minuteness the whol 
subject, and I am perfectly convinced. that ‘not only all “our 
western waters will be navigated by steam vessels built of iron, 
but that transatlantic steamers will and must be of iron. Mr. 
Brunel, the celebrated engineer of England, wrote me a letter of 
thanks for the paper, and promised to lay it before the board of 
directors of the Great Western Company, and I have reason © 
believe that it was mainly instrumental in bringing about 
building of the great iron steamer, which will shortly ply across 
the Atlantic, and show herself as vastly: superior to the Great 
Western, as the Great Western was superior to others, when she 
commenced transatlantic navigation. = 
; I ii “i 
ee, New Haven, July 20h, 1841, 
OT eae ie Seana _ Fo mn. WHEELWRIGHT. ‘Sabighigina Oi ae 
letter of March Sth, received yesterday, with. two specimens of 
coal, for which I'thank you. Yon rightly judge that I feel @ 
pee 
a 
ey 
ey eases, Sex yout peoyect; which T.consider to be one of the 
£ 
