56 
ascend as far as Horqueta by the branch of Mistan, and to 
Hidalgo-titlan and somewhat higher by that of Apotzongo. 
From the battery on the left shore at the entrance of the 
river, a clear channel is to be seen through the break in the 
bar, which w'e were informed never varies in position ; and 
although we knew well that there is a sufficient depth of 
water for large ships (since but a few years ago two large 
French vessels with colonists had entered the channel), we ex- 
amined it ourselves in an open boat, going out to the distance 
of 2 miles, where we found 50 feet of water with a rapidly in- 
creasing depth. The shallowest water we found on the bar 
was 20^ feet, and we were not certain that we had gone over the 
deepest part of it.* A North American pilot, who resides in 
the establishment of Mr. Baldwin, assured us that he had many 
times crossed the bar, and that he had never found less water 
upon it than 21 English feet. This account nearly agrees 
with our own observation, and confirms the old opinion that 
the bar does not shift, a circumstance easily explained, since 
the current of the river is slow, its waters limpid, and the 
tides are almost imperceptible at its mouth. 
The abundance of ship timber which is to be found on the 
borders of the river itself, the convenience and security of the 
port, the facility of defending its entrance by placing batteries 
at the points of the river facing the channel, and which from 
the nature of the ground might be rendered unassailable from 
the land side, are all so many combining circumstances to ren- 
der the Coatzacoalcos the fittest place in all the gulf of Mexico 
for the establishment of an arsenal. These advantages were 
first pointed out to the Spanish government by the engineer 
Cramer, in the year 1774. In 1778 another engineer, Don 
Miguel del Corral, submitted to the Viceroy a plan for the 
construction of an arsenal, with two building slips for vessels 
of every size, and a fort to defend the entrance of the river. 
In making our survey we descended the river in canoes 
* When we reached the greatest distance from the land, the rusty shanks 
of the rudder of our hoat broke, and this compelled us to return inmediateiy, 
without taking any other soundings, as we had intended. 
