16 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



Since the beginning of that tide of emigration 

 across the Isthmus of Panama, which results from 

 the discovery of the gold region in California, and 

 the greater interest which has been felt in this little 

 but important territory by capitalists, who have con- 

 templated by some means the establishment of con- 

 nections between the Atlantic and Pacific, there 

 has been no lack of historical notices, as well 

 as descriptions of its surface, &c. ; but I have seen 

 scarcely any thing that bears a mark of original in- 

 vestigation, or that has any material freshness even 

 of expression. The old gazetteer and encyclopedia pa- 

 ragraphs have been constantly re-produced. And as 

 my object is not so particularly to offer a history of 

 Panama as it is to place in the hands of emigrants 

 some needful and interesting descriptions of the 

 Isthmus, its phenomena, resources, &c, I shall not 

 attempt much originality on this point. From a re- 

 cent number of Chambers's " Papers for the People," 

 the facts in the present chapter are for the most part 

 derived, and these facts may at least entertain the 

 reader, though he cherish a far greater anxiety 

 respecting what is present, and what he will have to 

 encounter, if he shall for any purpose go there. 



There was something magnificently ludicrous in 

 the notion which the rulers of Spain conceived — of 

 keeping the discoveries of the immortal Genoese a 

 close secret to themselves. That this idea was se- 

 riously entertained, there can be no doubt. In 1517, 

 an English merchant-ship which made St. Domingo, 

 was fired at by the new authorities there, and driven 



