Note XXXIV-47 — Chapter XXXIV · INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION. 1801-1887.

Eardley-Wilmot's Our Journal, 69; Colombia, Diario Ofic., Feb. 26, Sept. 10, 1874; Pan., Gaceta, Jan. 11, Aug. 12, 1880. The connection at La Libertad was established on the 1st of Oct., 1882. U. S. Gov. Doc., H. Ex. Doc., For. Rel., Cong. 47, Sess. 2, i. 51-4.

Scattered through this third volume have been given bibliographical notices of about twenty of the chief works consulted in its preparation. I have now to add a few others deserving of special mention. The Gospel in Central America was written by Frederick Crowe, an Englishman, and a Baptist preacher, who resided some time in Central America in the interest of his church. The book—a 12mo of 588 pages, published in London, 1850—contains, as its title implies, a sketch of the country, including British Honduras, physical and geographical, historical and political, moral and religious. The author did his task as well as circumstances permitted, in view of the fact that at his violent deportation much of the material he had gathered was left behind and never recovered. At all events, it afforded much which till then was little known of that country. The statements contained therein not original are credited to the sources from which they were taken; for events after the declaration of independence the author relied on the book of travels by Robert C. Dunlop, from which I have also culled some important facts. Centro-Amerika, and Nicaragua, both written in German by the traveller C. F. Reichardt, and published in Braunschweig, in 8vo form, respectively in 1851 and 1854; the former being of 256, and the latter of 296 pages, one and the other provided with maps. The two works contain valuable data, entitled to credit. Aus Amerika, by Julius Fröbel, issued in 1855 at Leipzig, and Geographie und Statestif von Mexico und Centralamerika, by J. G. Wappäus, published at Leipzig in 1863, have also afforded much useful knowledge. In writing this chapter on interoceanic communication, I am indebted to the Cabinet Cyclopædia, directed by Dionysius Lardner, and to John Richardson's Polar Regions, the first-named giving in its first three volumes all that was known to 1830-1, on the geography of the ancients and middle ages, and on modern voyages and discoveries. The latter narrates the voyages made to discover the north-west passage, furnishing likewise a view of the physical geography and ethnology of the polar regions north and south; the whole subject, though treated in a summary way, brings it out quite comprehensively. The Report on Interoceanic Canals and Railroads, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans—an 8vo of 37 pages with numerous maps printed in Washington, 1867—by Charles H. Davis, superintendent of the U. S. Naval Observatory, contains all that was known on the subject to the time of its publication. The Encyclopædia Britannica—American edition, issued, 1875-86, at Philadelphia—has also afforded valuable data on the voyages in the polar seas, and on explorations and surveys connected with canal matters. None of those works, however, nor the numerous others consulted, have furnished the required information from the beginning of the 19th century to the present time; and those of later years do not usually, to any extent, go back to early ones, or if they do, it is only to give some meagre information.

But my researches have not been confined to books. Aside from the important facts obtained directly from the lips of intelligent natives and other persons conversant with Central American and Panamanian affairs, I have had before me presidential messages, reports of ministers and other officials of the several states, U. S. govt reports, official journals, statements of explorers and surveyors, cyclopædias, magazines, reviews, and a host of newspapers of different countries and in various languages, among which special credit should be given to the Star and Herald of Panamá for an ever well-informed and reliable gatherer and transmitter of news to and from the countries on both oceans over this bridge of the nations. Important data, wheresoever found, have been brought into requisition.