68 MR. LLOYD’S LEVELLINGS ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA'. 
well be of sufficient depth to admit vessels of any reasonable draft of water, 
and would obviate the inconvenience of the shallow water at the entrance of 
the Chagres. 
1 have felt that I might be expected to state my own opinion of the mode that 
offers tbc greatest facility for communications across the Isthmus, since my 
examination and surveys were made for that specific purpose, and I have ac- 
cordingly done so ; but I have endeavoured at the same time to render the to- 
pographical representation of the country sufficiently detailed to enable others 
to draw such conclusions as may perhaps deserve to be preferred to mine, with 
almost as much advantage as if they had themselves visited the country. 
For the opportunities that I have thus enjoyed of contributing correct topo- 
graphical knowledge of a part of the world, which from its peculiar locality has 
attracted much philosophical and commercial interest, I am indebted to the 
authority and support which I received from General Bolivar ; I am also 
indebted to his liberality for permission to make public the information I 
have acquired. 
In a country in many respects so unsettled, it will readily be imagined that 
the authority and countenance, derived from a Government far from the spot, 
are not alone sufficient to enable a foreigner to carry through operations so ex- 
tensive and long-continued as mine were. I am sensible that I could not have 
completed them, had it not been for the frequent assistance and constant 
support, which I received from the friendship of Malcolm MacGregor, Esq. 
II. M. consul at Panama. 
