Jan.] PROJECTED CANAL. 239 



my early rambles, and fancied, as I gazed on the threshold of some 



protruding tower, that I saw the insatiate Pizarro brandishing his 



sword, while the whole train of Kotzebue's and Sheridan's creation 



passed before me like the fevered visions of Macbeth. My rhetoric 



cannot charm you, for I write under peculiar excitement. 



******** 



" I am now in the guard-house. Oh ! for a Latin quotation ! I have 

 no book to glean one from. I am here a prisoner, for failing to show, 

 or rather to obtain, a passport. Life has a charm it never before pos- 

 sessed, for I was never before sensible of holding it by so precarious 

 a tenure. Immured in a prison, with a constitution peculiarly liable to 

 the prevailing fever ! To die far from home-— in a strange place— 

 among strangers, I had almost said among savages ! — to tread the 

 gloomy path alone — unsupported, uncheered by the soothing accents 

 of friendship and affection ! I would quote Shakspeare, but will not 

 trespass. I have actually written my own requiem. How did you feel 



in Dartmoor prison ? I pause not for a reply. 



******** 



" Once more I am free, and may pursue my business. I am quartered 

 with the somewhat celebrated Colonel Kirkland, projector of the canal 

 to unite the two oceans. He is a very intelligent man, but does not 

 appear (as I apprehend) to entertain correct views relative to the ar- 

 rangement of the project. He discards, in toto, the idea of a canal 

 across this section of the isthmus. His location is easterly — com- 

 mencing at the Atrato, on the Caribbean, or Atlantic side, and con- 

 necting it with St. Juan, which empties into the Pacific. This would 

 be all very well, if ship navigation were admissible : but even steam- 

 boats would find it difficult. Humboldt says that at extraordinary 

 seasons both rivers have been conjoined, and thus the Atlantic and the 

 Pacific have been oft united. What shall I say, who am totally igno- 

 rant of this matter, excepting that I cannot imagine a ship-channel 

 across the isthmus impracticable 1 Far better were it to clear the ob- 

 structions of San Juan Costa Rica, and through the picturesque lakes 

 of Grenada and Leon find our way to the lordly Pacific. If there be 

 not a ship-channel, St. Juan and Grenada will ultimately command a 

 preference — an unavoidable preference. 



" Much speculation has been afloat as to the relative height of the 

 two seas. For my part, I can offer nothing scientifically, as you well 

 know. I can and will, however, modestly suggest that the regular 

 trade-winds cause a heaping of the waters in the Caribbean archipelago, 

 from which emanates the Gulf Stream torrent. The reaction from the 

 Bay of Mexico and the quiet of the peninsula of Yucatan compared 

 with the sweep around Cape Antonio and the dangerous Cordilleras ; 

 the powerful eddy in-shore from the point of Yucatan to St. Martha — 

 an eddy so strong that our fleet little bark with difficulty stemmed it- 

 all combine to satisfy me that the water there is constantly beyond its 

 level. If it be so, a canal cut sufficiently deep would probably be 

 productive of the most astonishing consequences. The Bahamas it 

 would not be necessary to cross in our voyaging : indeed it would 

 probably be impracticable ; for if the water in the Caribbean be higher 



