450 



VOYAGE DOWN THE RIVER. 



Shortly after daylight, we heard the noise 

 of bogas advancing up the river. The patron 

 immediately prepared his bow-swivel and his 



dom of New Grenada, on account of a new plan of commu- 

 nication between the two seas. From Tupica we cross, for 

 five or six marine leagues, a soil quite level, and proper for 

 a canal, which would terminate at the Embarcadero of the 

 Rio Niassi. This last river is navigable, and flows below 

 the village of Zitaro into the great Rio Atrato, which itself 

 enters the Atlantic Sea. A very intelligent Biscayan pilot, 

 M. Gogueneche, was the first who had the merit of turning 

 the attention of government to the bay of Tupica, which 

 ought to be for the new continent what Suez was formerly to 

 Asia. M. Gogueneche proposed to transport the cacao of Guay- 

 aquil by the Rio Naipi to Carthagena. The same way offers 

 the advantage of a very quick communication between Cadiz 

 and Lima. Instead of despatching couriers by Garthagena, 

 Santa Fe, and Quito, or by Buenos-Ayres and Mendoza, 

 good quick-sailing packet-boats should be sent from Tupica 

 to Peru. If this plan were carried into execution, the Vice- 

 roy of Lima would have no longer to wait five or six months 

 for the order of his court. Besides, the environs of the Bay 

 of Tupica abound with excellent timber, fit to be carried to 

 Lima. We might almost say that the ground between Tu- 

 pica and the mouth of the Atrato, is the only part of all 

 America in which the chain of the Andes is entirely broken. 



" In the interior of the province of Choco, the small ravine 

 (Quebrada) de la Raspadura unites the neighbouring sources 

 of the Rio de Noanama, called also Rio San Juan, and the 

 small river Quito. The latter, the Rio Andageda, and the 



