297 



the voyage from the Havannah, and the United 

 States to Manilla, the expeditions made from 

 England and the Massachusets to the fur-coast 

 (north-west coast) or to the islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean/ to visit afterwards the markets of Can- 

 ton and Macao. 



I shall add to these commercial consider- 

 ations some political views on the effects which 

 the projected junction of the seas may produce. 

 Such is the state of modern civilization, that 

 the trade of the world can undergo no great 

 changes that are not felt in the organization of 

 society. If the project of cutting the isthmus 

 that joins the two Americas, should succeed, 

 Eastern Asia, at present insulated and secure 

 from attack, will inevitably enter into more in- 

 timate connections with the nations of Euro- 

 pean race which inhabit the shores of the At- 

 lantic. It may be said, that that neck of land 

 against which the equinoxial current breaks, 

 has been for ages the bulwark of the indepen- 

 dence of China and Japan. In penetrating 

 farther into futurity, imagination dwells upon 

 the conflict between powerful nations, eager to 

 obtain exclusive advantages from the way 

 opened to the commerce of the two worlds. I 

 confess I am not secured from that apprehen- 

 sion either by my confidence in the moderation 

 of monarchical or of republican governments, 

 or by the hope, somewhat shaken, of the progress 



