286 PANAMA AND THE PACIFIC. 



of the admiral on the West India station, who 

 is accustomed to despatch a sailing vessel of 

 war, at stated periods, to Chagres, in order to 

 bring official and other correspondence, as well 

 as specie, from the Pacific coast of South 

 America.* 



I am the more induced to make these repre- 

 sentations from a conversation I had with 

 Commodore Mason, in which he expressed 

 his concern, that he had not adequate force 

 under his controul, to give protection to Bri- 

 tish commerce on the South American shore of 

 the Pacific, and his confidence in the opinion, 

 which has been much confirmed by my own 

 observation, as well as by the report of others, 

 more competent than myself, that such com- 

 merce has a tendency to increase if duly pro- 

 tected ; and that if vessels of war were more 

 frequently enabled to visit the various ports 

 on the coast from Valparaiso to Panama, 

 better security would be afforded to the 

 British merchants against the revolutions, to 



* Why should not telegraphic communications be 

 established between Chagres and Panama ? It would 

 facilitate the means of uniting the services of the naval 

 squadrons on the Jamaica and South Pacific station 

 under one control. The Commodore at Lima was at 

 the time of my visit to the Blonde, under the orders of 

 the admiral in Brazil. 



