244 THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, 



this undertaking. A more explicit understand- 

 ing would be necessary to prevent interruption, ^ 

 and the object is surely of sufficient magnitude 

 and importance to justify, if not to call upon 

 the British or any other powerful government 

 to sanction and encourage by the stipulations 

 of a more solemn treaty, the construction of a 

 canal, or even a road.* 



To ensure its success, however, the State of 

 New Granada should be bound by a most 

 specific obligation, from which it ought to be 

 impossible for her to recede, without sacrificing 



* I have lately seen a letter from Mr. Ferraud, the 

 North American consul at Panama, to Mr. Wheelwright, 

 in which he says, that the distance from the Chagres to the 

 Rio Grande is about twelve miles that labourers are 

 plenty in the country: a thousand may be obtained at 

 about two dollars per week ; that wood, limestone, and all 

 materials for the completion of a canal are to be found on 

 the spot ; and that the country is nearly level By Lloyd's 

 map, which I have added, on a reduced but accurate scale, 

 the shortest distance from the Mandinga to one source 

 of the Rio Grande is only four statute miles and a half, 

 and from the Obispo to the junction of the Hondo and 

 Rio Grande, the distance measured by compass is seven 

 statute miles. 



