362 BEVIEWS — NOTES ON CENTKAL AMERICA. 



does not pretend to specific accuracy. Such, however, is not the case with a 

 large map recently published in London, which has very generally been accepted 

 as an authority, namely, " Map ok Ck.ntral Amkkica, including the Stales of Guat- 

 emala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, etc., etc., by John 

 Baily, Esq , R. M. — Trelawney Saunders, London, 1850. 



" We are not surprised to find embodied in this map all the territorial pretensions 

 and arbitrary political divisions of the country devised and set up by the British 

 government. A few strokes of the colorist's brush have been sufficient to indicate 

 British sovereignty over two-thirds of the Department of Vera Paz in Guatemala, 

 to convert the islands belonging to Honduras, in the bay of the same name, into 

 British dependencies, and to carry Mosquito jurisdiction over more than half of the 

 respective states of Honduras and Nicaragua. Nor has it been less potent in set- 

 tling the question of boundary between Nicaragua and Costa Rica in favor of the 

 latter state, in -which, by a singular coincidence, British influence has always pre- 

 donrnated ! These peculiarities of the map, in view of its origin, can hardly be 

 regarded as surprising. Those who constructed it have probably smiled to know 

 with what ignorant servility it has been copied on this side of the Atlantic. 



" It may nevertheless be sail of thiB map that it is the nearest approximation to 

 accuracy which has yet been published. Still, in many important geographical as 

 well as political features it is deficient, and in others totally wrong. Leaving out 

 of view both Guatemala and Costa Rica, we find a number of most important errors 

 in the remaining states, which appear all the more surprising, hince Mr. Baily not 

 only resided for many years in Central America, but must have travelled over a 

 great part of its territories." 



This extract is a sufficient clue to the political teudencics of the 

 work, iu so far as it bears on questions in dispute between the British 

 and American Governments, and these must be borne in remembrance 

 in studying its contributions to our geographical knowledge of the 

 country, furnished b} r Mr. Squier, with the aid of large and well 

 executed maps. After making all allowance, however, for the bias 

 so unmistakeably influencing the American Charge d' Affaires in rela- 

 tion to every thing in which Britain can be supposed to have the 

 remotest interest, the contributions to our geographical knowledge of 

 the important district referred to are interesting and valuable ; and 

 the more so as the authorities for many of the details are supplied 

 and their relative trustworthiness i3 accordingly patent to all. In 

 the map of Honduras and San Salvador, for example, we learn that 

 the leading points on the proposed line of railway were determined 

 by Lieutenant Jeffers from numerous and careful astronomical obser- 

 vations ; and these constitute the basis on which the details within 

 their range are calculated. "These calculations are entitled to 

 additional confidence from the circumstance that there are, both in 

 Honduras and San Salvador, a number of elevated and commanding 

 mountain and volcanic peaks, which are almost constantly kept in 

 view by the traveller, and always euable him to determine his position 



