The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. By Theron" 

 Skeel, C. E. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, June 6th, 1871.] 



The isthmus of Tehnantepec is that part of the republic 

 of Mexico lying between the peninsula of Yucatan, on the 

 east, and the broader part of Mexico, on the west, and com- 

 prises the two states of Oxacaca and Yera Cruz. The gulf 

 of Tehuantepec bounds it on the north, and the Pacific 

 ocean on the south. It has always attracted more attention 

 than any other portion of Mexico, because, during the first 

 years of its discovery, the number and large size of the 

 rivers, emptying into the sea near Yera Cruz, on the road 

 from the sea to the city of Mexico — a part of the country 

 which was first known and explored by the Spanish dis- 

 coveries — seemed to indicate that a passage from sea to 

 sea — the long sought for route to the Indies — might be 

 found there; and now with better knowledge of the 

 Isthmus it is equally interesting to us, because we hope to 

 unite the two oceans by a canal. In the days of Colum- 

 bus, the whole coast from Yera Cruz to Sisal was explored, 

 and every bay and river was entered, and followed, as far as 

 the ships could go. 



All hope of a natural channel having been exhausted, an 

 expedition was formed under Cortez, partly to determine 

 the feasibility of artificially constucting a canal, and, partly, 

 to search for the mines from which the ancient Aztecs ob- 

 tained their abundant supply of gold. The mines, although 

 once certainly known, were not found; but the Spanish 

 soldiers, headed by the great adventurer, ascended the river 

 Coatzucolcas more than sixty miles, then deserting their 

 ships, crossed through the mountains to the Pacific, where 



