290 STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE 



munication, would hardly be credited^ were they 

 not attested by the reports of the committees 

 appointed to examine the subject^ at the sug- 

 gestion of his late Majesty^s government^ and 

 by a host of witnesses^ whose intelligence and 

 veracity cannot be doubted. 



When it is proved that the present usual 

 route round Cape Horn^ embraces a distance of 

 more than 12,000 miles^ which will be reduced to 

 little more than four thousand ; that a voyage of 

 about forty days will supersede one of nearly 

 four months ; that a communication along the 

 coasts of Chile and Peru^ in many instances^ 

 will be successfully accomplished in forty or 

 fifty hours, which now requires twenty days or a 

 month, surely it will be admitted that great and 

 important objects will be attained by the change. 



The relation in which Great Britain stands 

 towards those countries coming within the in- 

 fluence of the proposed operations^ cannot be 

 viewed with indifference. Millions and millions 

 of British capital have been embarked in the 

 cause of these new states, for which no return 

 has been made : on the contrary, an accumu- 

 lating interest has swelled the amount to an 

 almost incredible sum. The clamours of the 

 bondholders are loud and repeated^ and appeals 

 to government are making, to sustain their de- 

 mands on the justice of those countries. In the 



