190 HONDURAS INTER-OCEANIC RAILWAY. Book I. 
feeding the canal from the lake, is but a subordinate con- 
sideration in the matter. An incomparably greater amount 
of labour and cost will be caused by the necessity of a 
thorough canalization of the San Juan river, and of exten- 
sive constructions for the purpose of establishing an efficient 
harbour on the Atlantic as well as on the Pacific terminus 
of the line. But even if all these difficulties were at once 
overcome, the existence of the canal, no doubt, would affect 
the commerce of the world in an extraordinary manner, 
but it would by no means diminish the utility of a railway 
between Port Cortez and the Bay of Ponseca : quite on 
the contrary, it would enhance it. Then a degree of civili- 
zation and prosperity, of which we can now only form a 
faint idea, would be developed all around the shores of the 
Pacific, and every means of quick travelling and of quick 
transport of the more important articles of traffic would 
correspondingly^rise in value — a consideration under which 
the canal through Nicaragua could never pretend to com- 
pete with the Honduras railway. All this must be obvious 
to whoever takes the trouble of thoroughly considering the 
question. As to the difficulties of the Nicaragua canal 
enterprise, we ought to entertain too high an opinion of the 
intelligence and technical experience of those French gen- 
tlemen who have recently undertaken to perform the work, 
than to suppose that they do not see and completely under- 
stand the nature and difficulties of the enterprise. This, 
however, is not the matter in argument. The real pur- 
pose contemplated in beginning the canal may have nothing 
to do with the question whether it is intended to he finished. 
Amongst the other routes and projects, that of a railroad 
across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the only one which 
seems to compete with that through Plonduras ; but its 
advantages are entirely neutralized by the absence of har- 
