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Atrato, and the Rio San Juan de Charambira. 

 Persons accustomed to take accurate observa- 

 tions, if furnished only with barometers, instru- 

 ments of reflection, and time-keepers, might in 

 a few months solve problems, which, during 

 centuries, have interested all the commercial 

 nations of both worlds. If, in the enumeration 

 of the countries which present advantages for 

 the junction of the two seas, I have not passed 

 over in silence the Isthmus of Choco, that is the 

 platiniferous soil, extending from the river San 

 Juan de Charambira to the Rio Quibdo, it is on 

 account of its being the sole point on which a 

 communication exists since the year 1788, be- 

 tween the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea. 

 The small canal of Raspadura, which a monk, 

 the curate of Novita, caused to be dug by the 

 Indians of his parish, in a ravine periodically 

 filled by natural inundations, facilitates the in- 

 land navigation on a length of 75 leagues, be- 

 tween the mouth of the Rio San Juan, below 

 Noanama, and that of the Atrato, which bears 

 also the names of Rio Grande del Darien, Rio 

 Dabeiba, and Rio del Choco *« During the 



* I might have added the synonymous name of San Juan 

 (del Norte), if I did not fear confounding the Atrato with 

 the Rio San Juan of Nicaragua, and the Rio San Juan of 

 Charambira. The name Dabeiba is that of a female war- 

 rior, who reigned, according to the first historians of the con- 

 quest, in the mountainous countries between the Atrato and 



