Note 150 — Chapter XXIV
Reading edition
Even with the great assistance of the railway to California, it is doubtful if the Western Route is the better for any colony except New Zealand. The advantage of a bi-monthly mail is of course a distinct question.
It is curious how inveterate is the mistake in question. Columbus expected to reach Cathay more quickly by sailing westward, but was stopped by the American continent. The projectors of the “Darien Scheme” hoped to enrich themselves by making their settlement a great entrepôt between Europe and the East Indies; and Macaulay, in his interesting narrative of the enterprise (“History of England,” Vol. v., p. 200), considers their mistake to consist mainly in the assumption that Spain would permit a settlement on its territory; but it seems not to have occurred to him that, in any event, the scheme was intrinsically hopeless, seeing that the old route by the Cape of Good Hope, besides avoiding the cost and delay of transhipment, surpasses the Darien route even in shortness. (October, 1872).