18fi MEXICO, CENTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



was ever made to realise tlie project. In 1811 the Spanish Cortes also decreed 

 the opening of this line, but their decision could be regarded as little more than an 

 abstract resolution inspired through the fear of losing the empire of the West. Imme- 

 diately after the constitution of IVew Spain as an independent state, the geographical 

 study of the land was resumed ; but no definite canalising projects were formed 

 till 1842, when José de Garay offered to take such a work in hand. But he failed 

 to raise the necessary capital, and a like fate befell the American company which 

 had obtained the concession, in 1867, after the fall of Maximilian. All these now 

 abandoned projects of an interoceanic canal have been followed by that of a ship 

 railway on the same plan as that of the Chignecto isthmus in Nova Scotia, but of 

 far greater proportions. The importance of such a route, especially for the navi- 

 gation of the United States, is obvious enough. For the trade of the whole world 

 the best line across Central America would, doubtless, be that oi Panama, which 

 lies on the direct highway from England to Peru, Chili, Australasia, and Indo- 

 nesia. But the Americans are naturally most interested in the route lying nearest 

 to their own territory. Most of their traffic is carried on between New York and 

 San Francisco, on which highway the Tehuantepec route is 860 and 1,630 miles 

 shorter than those of Nicaragua and Panama respectively. Planned by Ends, the 

 same American engineer who opened the South Pass in the Mississippi delta, 

 the Tehuantepec ship railway would be regarded mainly as an American work, 

 and the future tariff was even arranged in such a way as to favour the American 

 quite as much as the Mexican seaports. Mexico was, none the less, ready to grant 

 great privileges to the promoters, such as exemption from taxes for ninety-nine 

 years, and the grant of nearly 1,250,000 acres of land. The expenditure was esti- 

 mated at £15,000,000 for a line 150 miles long, the heaviest engineering work 

 being a cutting 850 yards long and over 100 deep at the highest point of the 

 waterparting. This would reduce the steepest gradient to less than two in 100 

 yards ; but the undertaking was suspended by the death of the engineer. 



The Mexican telegraph system has been rapidly developed throughout every 

 province of the republic, having increased threefold during the last decade. It 

 is now also completed by the submarine cables connecting Galveston with the 

 Mexican seaboard, and Vera Cruz with the northern and southern ports. Another 

 submarine line now also joins Salina Cruz, the port of Tehuantepec, with the 

 Pacific seaports of the Central American republics. Most of the lines belong to 

 the federal government, though several are also owned by the different states, railway 

 companies and private corporations. The telegraph and postal services increased 

 more than fourfold in the eight years ending in 1888 ; yet the letters forwarded 

 are still at the low rate of three per head of the population, showing that, com- 

 pared with the countries of West Europe, instruction has hitherto been in a back- 

 ward state. 



But education also is at last making rapid progress. Most of the states have 

 adopted the principle of compulsion and gratuitous public instruction for all chil- 

 dren ; but the official returns make it evident that public opinion has not yet 

 completely sanctioned such measures. At the same time it is impossible to ascer- 



