w 
PREFACE. 
In presenting to the public the results of the recent survey 
of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, I cannot restrain the expression 
of regret that these results, foreshadowing as they do an enter- 
prise calculated to effect a great commercial revolution, and 
fraught with so many mutual benefits to the United States and 
to Mexico, are not set forth by abler hands than my own. It is 
nevertheless satisfactory to me, that the work has received the 
endorsement of the Engineer-in-Chief, under whose instructions 
and personal supervision all the operations of the different par- 
ties were conducted, from the commencement to the close of 
the survey. Under these circumstances I trust to be exculpated 
from the charge of personal vanity in appending herewith the 
letter of Major Barnard, whose prolonged stay on the Isthmus 
precluded the issue of these pages over his own signature. 
New York, Feb. 1st, 1852. 
Dear Sir : — 
Returning* home after a much more protracted absence than I had at 
first reason to anticipate, it is a source of gratification to me to find my- 
self relieved by you from the task of collating from the official reports 
of the Engineering and Hydrographic Parties, such portions of them as 
are desirable for the public, whose attention has already been attracted 
to the undertaking by the course of events connected with it, and in 
whose mind a deep and steadfast interest has been awakened by the 
great national hopes, of which I cannot but think our humble labors are 
the precursors. 
Within three years a new era has dawned upon us, and with the ac- 
quisition of California and the settlement of Oregon, the energies of men's 
minds have been diverted from the old and circuitous channels of trade 
to other and shorter ones, which, while they are destined to bind us 
