HENRY C. TAYLOR. 181 
but well above the fever line, on the mountain slope, in 
a bracing and healthy air. Store-houses and hulks, 
coal piles and elevators, would give facilities for the 
rapid coaling and provisioning of the fleet. Stone dry- 
docks alongshore, and floating docks sent from the 
United States in sections to be put together on the lake, 
would offer opportunities for the quick repairs of 
damages sustained in battle. Telegraph cables would 
connect the station with Washington, and railways 
‘through Mexico, always available in peace, would be 
easily made so in any war against Kuropean powers. It 
is well to note here, as an important item, that sucha 
government establishment, always kept ready for a war, 
would not, during the long intervals of peace, be ex- 
pensive. ‘The nautical needs of the merchant marine are 
so nearly those of men-of-war, that a dockyard of the 
first class, with all its repair shops and. provisioning 
facilities, could be kept fully employed and in a high 
state of efficiency during a peace however long ; and 
this at no expense, no running expense, to the govern- 
ment, but, on the contrary, at a handsome annual profit. 
Here, then, in this secure, capacious, and healthy re- 
treat, within a few hours of the open oceans, let us see 
what would be the capacity for reaching out possessed 
by a fleet in this stronghold. If the speed ofa fleet be 
fifteen knots, it can in two and one-half days, from the 
canal entrance, reach the Yucatan channal, south coast 
of Cuba, windward passage, Jamaica, and as far east as 
Maracaibo on the Spanish main. In five days it may 
be off the mouths of the Mississippi and Rio Grande, in 
the Florida strait or among the Bahamas, in the Mona 
passage or at Martinique and Barbadoes, and include 
in its reach to the eastward the whole of the Spanish 
main. 
On the Pacific side, in five days, at full speed from 
the entrance of the canal, the fleet can arrive in the 
65 
