The Humming Bird. :>l 



the Commission presided by M. Napoleon Wyse Bonaparte 

 arrived for the first time in the Isthmus, to study the routes 

 where the Canal was feasible. He has travelled and explored 

 the greater part of North America, Mexico, and Central 

 America. He has crossed Cape Horn, and remained sometimes 

 in Chili. He knows well all these countries and has been 

 able to appreciate to its full value the importance of a 

 direct communication between the two Oceans. 



In 1878, he was the delegate of the Republic of Guatemala 

 at the International Geographical Congress of Paris, where 

 the question of the Panama Canal was first studied. 



Since, he has followed with the utmost attention all w r hat 

 has been done, either at Paris or in Panama, about the 

 Canal, and more exclusively so, to a commercial point of 

 view, and he is convinced that even if the Nicaragua Canal 

 is done one day, the Panama Canal will be yet a good stroke 

 of business, commercially speaking, and before long the net 

 income of the two Canals will be in proportion to the 

 efforts and costs made. He is certain that one day or ano- 

 ther the two Canals will be made and opened to the traffic, 

 to the satisfaction of the entire world, and an agreement will 

 probably be made by the two Companies for the exclusive 

 use of one of the Canals for the ingress from one Ocean to 

 the other, and the other for the egress. 



But there is a great advantage to conclude at once the 

 Panama Canal, which is already nearly half done, and can be 

 certainly opened, at the latest, the first of January 1900, 

 and the author hopes to be one of those who will assist to 

 this solemn Inauguration, which will leave its mark in the 

 history of the twentieth Century. 



I have only a few more words to say. According to telegra- 

 phic messages just arrived in London, His Excellency Don 

 Raphael Nunez, President of the Republic of Columbia, is 

 expected at Chicago in October next for the official Inaugura- 

 tion of the International Exhibition. For one who knows how 

 to read between the lines, it is certain, if this news is tvue^ 

 that M. Raphael Nunez, one of the most distinguished Diplo- 

 mats of the day and the most eminent personality of Colum- 

 bia, entirely devoted to the interests of his country, is not 

 doing such a long journey, at his comparatively mature age, 

 simply to assist to the festival ceremonies of the Inauguration 

 of the Chicago Exhibition. 



