ILLUSTRATIONS (18). CALIFOBNIA. 433 



(boxa) to the mouths of the Ganges ; so that the countries of 

 the Aurea (i.e., the Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy) are 

 situated, in relation to the eastern shores of Veragua, as Tor- 

 tosa (at the mouth of the Ebro) is in relation to Fuentarabia 

 (on the Bidassoa) in Biscay, or as Venice in respect to Pisa." 

 But, although Balboa first saw the South Sea from the heights 

 of the Sierra de Quarequa, on the 25th of September,* it was 

 several days later before Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, who 

 had discovered a passage from the mountains of Quarequa to 

 the gulf of San Miguel, embarked on the South Sea in a 

 canoe.f 



The recent acquisition of the western coast of the New Con- 

 tinent by the United States of North America, and the fame 

 of the golden treasures of New (now called Upper) California, 

 have rendered the question of forming a direct communication 

 between the shores of the Atlantic and the western regions, 

 by the isthmus of Panama, more urgent than ever. I, there- 

 fore, consider it my duty here once more to direct attention 

 to the fact, that the shortest route to the shores of the 

 Pacific, as pointed out by the natives to Alonzo Martin 

 de Don Benito, is in the eastern part of the Isthmus, and 

 led to the Golfo de San Miguel. We know that Columbus J 

 sought for a narrow pass (estrecho de tierra firme) ; and in. 

 the official documents extant, of the dates of 1505, 1507, and 

 especially in that of 1514, mention is made of the sought-for 

 opening (abertura), and of the pass (passo), which, in this 

 district, should lead directly to the "Indian Land of 

 Spices." A channel of communication between the Atlan- 

 tic and the Pacific, is a subject which has more or less 

 occupied my attention for the space of forty years ; and in my 

 published works, as well as in the several memoirs which, with 

 honourable confidence, the Free States of Spanish America 

 have requested me to write, I have constantly recommended 

 a hypsometrical survey of the Isthmus throughout its whole 

 length, but more especially at two points, viz., where at 

 Darien and what was formerly the deserted province of 

 Biruquete, it joins the South American Continent, and where, 



* Peter Martyr's Epist. dxl. p. 296. 



f Joaquin Acostsi, Compendia hist, del Descubrimiento de la 

 Nueva Granada, p. 49. 



Vida del Almirante por Don Fernando Colon, cap. 90. 



2 E 



