Note XXXIV-49 — Chapter XXXIV · INTEROCEANIC COMMUNICATION. 1801-1887.

This I attribute to the jealousy of the Spaniards, who were careful to withhold any information that might lead the English to the discovery of an easy communication between the two seas. Alcedo, in his Diccionario Histórico de las Indias Occidentales, says that it was interdicted, on pain of death, even to propose opening the navigation between the two seas. 'En tiempo de Felipe II. se proyectó cortarlo, y comunicar los dos mares por medio de un canal, y á este efecto se enviaron para reconocerlo dos Ingenieros Flamencos, pero encontraron dificultades insuperables, y el consejo de Indias representò los perjuicios que de ello se seguirían á la monarquia, por cuya razon mandò aquel Monarca que nadie propusièse ó tratase de ello en adelante, pena de la vida.' The navigation of the Atrato also was interdicted, on pain of death.