6 TRINIDAD. 



by those of Mexico, from the mouth of the "Rio Grande to Vera- 

 Cruz, whence it is rounded on the S. and S.E. to Cape Catoche 

 in Yucatan, which stretches northwards towards Cape Sable in 

 the extreme S. of Florida. Into the entrance thus narrowed by 

 the approach of these points, Cuba advances so as to hold the key 

 of that most important basin — the Gulf of Mexico, important as 

 being* the outlet of the great valley of the West, and of the 

 commercial road from the Pacific through the Isthmus of 

 Tehuantepec. 



The Caribbean Sea is more irregular in its formation, and is 

 bounded on the W. by Central America and the Isthmus of 

 Panama; on the S. by New Granada and Venezuela; on the 

 N. by Cuba, Hayti, and Porto Rico ; on the E. by the Lesser 

 Antilles, from the Virgin Islands down to Trinidad, which holds 

 the key of the rich and extensive basin of the Orinoco, as does 

 Cuba that of the Gulf of Mexico. This basin is the outlet of the 

 following important rivers : — the San Juan, the Atrato, the 

 Magdalena, and the Orinoco ; likewise of the commercial roads 

 from the Pacific through the territory of Nicaragua and the 

 Isthmus of Panama. Lake Maracaibo is also an inlet of its 

 waters. 



Lieutenant Maury, speaking of the Gulf of Mexico and the 

 Caribbean Sea, says in rather enthusiastic language, but which is 

 well adapted to my object : — " Nature has scooped out the land 

 in Central America, and cut the Continent nearly in two there, 

 that she might plant between the mouth of the ' King of Rivers'' 

 and the ( Father of Waters ' an arm of the sea, capable of 

 receiving the surplus produce which the two grandest river-basins 

 on the face of the earth are, some day, to pour out into the Gulf 

 of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. These two sheets of water form 

 the great commercial lap of the south. This sea and gulf receive 

 the drainage of all the rivers of note in both Continents, except 

 La Plata on the south, and Columbia on the west; the St. Lawrence, 

 and those of the Atlantic seaboard on the east. 



"The Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico are twin basins. 

 They are seas Mesopotamian, and wholly American. The great 

 equatorial current having its genesis in the Indian Ocean, and 

 doubling the Cape of Good Hope, sweeps by the mouth of the 

 Amazon : and, after traversing both the Caribbean Sea and the 

 Gulf of Mexico, meets with the gulf-stream and places the 

 commercial outlet of that river almost as much in the Florida 

 Pass as in the mouth of the Mississippi itself. 



' ' These twin basins are destined by nature to be the greatest 

 commercial receptacles in the world. No age, clime, nor quarter 

 of the globe affords any parallel, or any conditions of the least 

 resemblance, to those which we find in this sea or gulf. 



