295 



arid from Acapulco to Manilla*, we find from 

 105 to 115 days for the voyage from the United 

 States, or from England to Canton, in remain- 

 ing in the northern hemisphere, without once 

 cutting the equator ; that is, in taking advan- 

 tage of the canal of Nicaragua, and the con- 

 stancy of the trade-winds in the calmest part of 

 the Pacific Ocean -f-. The difference of time 

 would therefore scarcely be a sixth ; vessels 

 could not return by the same way, but in going 

 the navigation would be safer at all seasons. A 



* The Galleon takes from 40 to 60 days. See my Pol. 

 Essay, vol. iv, p. 71 ; and Tuckey, Maritime Geogr. vol. in. 

 p. 497. 



f In these estimates of time, the employment of the power 

 of steam has not been calculated. The French engineers who 

 made an estimate of the expence of the canal of Suez,, admit, 

 in their parallel between the navigation from the coast of 

 France to India, across the projected canal, and the passage 

 round the Cape of Good Hope, that by the former way, half 

 the distance is gained, and § or \ of time. Descript. de 

 I'Egypte, (Etat. moderne), torn, i, p. 111. It were to be 

 wished that the mean duration of the passage from London 

 to Calcutta and Canton, and from Liverpool to Buenos Ayres 

 and Lima, (and vice versa), were calculated with precision, 

 taking a sufficient number of years and ships to make the 

 influence of seasons, winds, currents, the construction of ves- 

 sels, and the errors of piloting, disappear in the total ave- 

 rage The duration of passages is one of the most important 

 elements of the movement of commercial nations, that vital 

 movement which augments from age to age with the im- 

 provement of the art of navigation. 



