TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 145 
The political necessity of such a route is proved beyond cayil or dispute by the 
following words of the Duke of Newcastie, Colonial Secretary, spoken from his 
place in the House of Lords, session 1862 :—“ A short time back, when there was 
an apprehension of hostilities with the United States (the Trent affair), he was 
unable to communicate with the Governor of British Columbia for the space of 
six weeks, there being the possible chance of any dispatches sent vid Panama 
falling into hostile hands.” 
At present the only means of crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific is by the 
Panama Railroad, which is essentially an American undertaking, and exclusively 
devoted to the interests of the United States. 
The speech above points out the sort of political paralysis our statesmen are 
liable to while this state of affairs continues, and it is unfortunately only too easy 
to prove that our merchants trading with that part of the world are liable at any 
moment to a similar commercial paralysis, whieh it might not be so easy to recover 
from ; indeed the blow might have been dealt lone before this, had not the fearful 
war and dismemberment of the United States fully occupied the attention of its 
citizens. 
With regard to the Great Transit Route I have proposed, it is right that I should 
just sketch its rise and progress. 
In 1859-60 I was stationed on the coast of Central America (Atlantic side), as 
senior naval officer in command of H. M. 8. ‘Gorgon,’ and then first conceived 
the idea of a transit through Nicaragua. The nature of the service I was at that 
time employed upon precluded the possibility of any elaborate survey or explora- 
tions; but all my investigations went to prove the practicability of my project, and 
subsequently, after paying off the ‘Gorgon,’ I was enabled to go thoroughly into 
the matter. I have now just returned from Nicaragua, and am happy to say that 
my surveys and sections prove beyond doubt the practicability of a railroad from 
ocean to ocean, with good harbours at each terminus, and facilities in other respects 
for opening a great highway of nations such as I believe no other interoceanic 
Project has yet offered. 
he route starts from a headland on the Atlantic, called Monkey Point, thirty 
miles north of Greytown, runs in a westerly direction to San Miguelito on the Lake 
Nicaragua, skirts the northern side of that lake, crosses the River Tipitapa, and 
following the south side of Lake Managua, passes through the city of Leon, and 
finally terminates at Realejo on the Pacific. 
The construction of ack a railroad across Nicaragua would open up the finest 
cotton country in the world, formed by nature for the cultivation of the plant, and 
enjoying a geographical position in close proximity to the best market. The rail- 
road transit, while it would make England independent of the American monopoly 
at Panama, would shorten the route to British Columbia by several days, open up 
the Japanese trade, and bring us within forty-five days of Australia and forty-one 
of New Zealand, thereby knitting those colonies, and securing their commerce to the 
mother country more firmly than ever. 
We have every encouragement to proceed. See what the Suez line has done for 
India ; it has brought that country much closer to England, and afforded the best 
arantee for its future prosperity and permanent connexion. For instance, in 
isl, 759 miles of railroad were made, and 747 in 1862,—that, too, in a country 
where it was previously demonstrated to be an impossibility to construct railroads, 
owing to the monsoons, the crumbly soil, the rapid vegetation, the white ant, the 
heat, the poverty of the inhabitants, the want of labour, the idleness of the poor, 
and the lassitude of the rich. 
Eastern Australia, New Zealand, and our North Pacific colonies are now calling 
loudly upon us to treat them at least as well as our adopted Indian children, We 
are bound by every lawto doso. The opportunity of knitting these colonies to us, 
and making them as profitable as India, is doubtless offered, by opening a speedy 
means of transit between them and us. Suezis an example; let us read the lesson 
right, and no longer persist, by a suicidal apathy, in estranging from us such loyal 
fellow-subjects and good customers. 
1863. 10 
