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 as they have gone, and its prospects as far as I can comprehend them. Of this you may rest assured: that it has already received the patronage of the leading merchants trading to the Pacific; several of them having subscribed with the expressed object of forwarding an undertaking fraught with so many public benefits, while others have entered more largely into it, with the view of participating in the great profit which it promises as an investment. The general result given in the 34th page of Mr. Wheelwright's pamphlet, showing 466,950 dollars as the amount of annual receipts on four steamers, costing from 400,000 to 450,000 dollars, and against the same only 236,630 dollars of annual expenditure, whereby the company will realize an annual profit of 230,320 dollars, or (at 48d. exchange) £46,064, is so extraordinarily large, that my first impression was to look upon the project as one hatched by parties connected with our Stock Exchange; but on turning to schedules A. and C, I not only found that the above results were verified by a committee of British merchants residing in Lima, and presided over by Her Majesty's Consul for Peru, but that a note was added, giving reasons to hope for still larger profits, under economical arrangements in the management of the items of expenditure.

It appears that this plan, speculative though it seems, dates its rise from the circular ofiicially issued by Her Majesty's Consul General for Peru, dated Lima, 18th June, 1826, directed to British merchants and residents generally, requesting their attention to dispatches from Her Majesty's Government, promising facilities to carry it into effect, and requesting their active cooperation. No undertaking, therefore, could originate under more respectable auspices; and from inquiries I have made, I have no hesitation in stating that the gentlemen who have taken it up in London are of the utmost respectability, and influenced by the most honorable motives.

The Author of “California" has not expressed himself in favor of the extension of this proposed line, from Panama to the Northern Pacific, further than as the reader may construe his remarks in pages 315 to 320. But I feel confident, after viewing the success of steam in the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, in the Mediterranean, and backward and forward to England, at all seasons of the year; and, above all, in so many safe and expeditious voyages across the Atlantic, that the day is not far distant, when either the directors of the present Pacific Steam Navigation Company, or some new Company, will take up the Northern line. The numerous population along the Western coasts of Central America and Mexico, and the rich products of the adjoining provinces in gold, silver, pearls, cochineal, and indigo, ought to afford profitable employment for steamers as far up as the Gulf of California at least; and were emigration ever turning its tide to California, in the way suggested by the author, whether under the direction of her Majesty's Government, or of a public company, the aid of steam could not fail to be required.

Under the strongest presentiment that these ideas will not lie many years inoperative, I have made calculations of the distances from Panama to the principal northern port; which I here subjoin, as not without importance in the present inquiry. These calculations do not pretend to be exact to a mile, or to an hour; but they are sufficiently so for our purpose. Nine miles are allowed per hour.

The distances from Panama to San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco, Bodega, and Columbia river are given in two ways; first, by the line of coast, via Mazatlan, and second, from Panama direct.