334 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



that time the Spanish station on this coast Avas Sunta JIan'a, founded as a future 

 "metropolis" on the Gulf of Darien (Uraba), just north of the Atrato delta. But 

 in 1526 the settlement was removed to Panama, and Santa Maria, gradually 

 invaded by the forest, received the epithet of Antigua. 



Darien was in those early days known by the name of " Castille d'Or," and 

 auriferous deposits had already been worked at Cana towards the sources of the Tuyra 

 in the Choco territory. Till the end of the seventeenth century a certain quantity 

 of gold continued to be extracted from this " Eldorado ; " but the buccaneers had 

 found thé way to the mines, and to get rid of these troublesome visitors ihe 

 government could think of nothing better than closing the works. Its policy 

 was based on the principle of ruining its subjects to divert foreign rivals. 



Fig-. 154- — Pbojected Caxal between Uraba and San Miguel Bays. 

 Scale 1 : 1,900,000. 



50' 





ar^ru 



i /^"v < ^^'^^^ 





> M-^. -^ ... , ^ 





78'20- 



West oF breen/vict-i 



Zb'^O' 



. 30 Miles. 



The Atlantic slope of Darien, with its abrupt declivities facing the sea, scarcely 

 affords much facility for canalisation. Nevertheless, numerous surveys have been 

 made by prospectors, and some of the early travellers reported the existence of 

 very low depressions where real mountains raised their wooded slopes high above 

 sea-level. In 1854 the American, Lieutenant Strain, landing at Caledonia Bay, 

 with a party of twenty-eight men, made his wa}' across the isthmus down to the 

 Pacific in sixty-three days ; but several of his followers had perished of hunger 

 and hardships. 



MM. Wyse, A. Reclus and Soso also studied a projected scheme of canalisation 

 for this region, having a total length of 78 miles, including a tunnel over 10 

 miles long. The Atlantic terminus would have been at the port of Acanti, the 

 first place north of the muddy mouths of the Atrato where vessels can anchor in 

 clear water. At the other side of the tunnel the cutting was to descend through 

 the valley of the Tupisa down to the Tuyra estuary, which penetrates far inland, 



