INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



317 



a distance of twelve leagues, costs now one dollar a 

 quintal. Besides the advantages that would accrue 

 to the internal communications, the canal would give 

 great importance to the roadstead of Batabano, 

 which could be available to small vessels laden with 

 jerked beef from Venezuela, which would thus 

 avoid doubling Cape San Antonio. In the stormy 

 season, and in time of war, when privateers are 

 cruising between Cape Catoche, the Tortugas, and 

 Mariel, it would be advantageous to shorten the 

 voyage from the Spanish main to Cuba, by arriving, 

 not at Havana, but at some port on the south side of 

 island. 



In 1796 the probable cost of the Guines canal was 

 estimated at a million, or one million two hundred 

 thousand dollars ; we may suppose it would now 

 cost a million and a half of dollars. The products 

 that might pass annually through the canal have 

 been estimated at 75,000 boxes of sugar, 25,000 

 arrobes of coffee, and 8,000 hhds. of molasses and 

 rum. In the first project, that of 1796, it was 

 intended to connect the canal with the Guines 

 brook, running it from the Holanda sugar estate 

 towards Quivican, three leagues south of Bejucal 

 and Santa Rosa. This idea has now been aban- 

 doned, as the Guines brook loses its water toward 

 the east, in the irrigation of the savannas of Guana- 



