Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/456

 a length of time, which is not only inconvenient for commercial objects, but which in some degree cuts off the British settler from correspondence with his friends and family, and unnecessarily prolongs the period of receiving such intelligence as the British Consuls in those quarters may find it expedient to convey to the Government. Whereas the passage by Panama might, with ease, be effected in the following periods:

as the following details will show:

Taking Lima as a central position, by this calculation, it appears that the difference of time in conveying correspondence from the western coast of South America to England, may be thus stated:

The passage from Panama to Chagres is perfectly easy, being only twenty-one miles by land, and the remainder by a river, safe and navigable for boats and canoes. This was the route by which the several towns and provinces on the Pacific Ocean made their communications with Europe, before the separation of the Colonies from Spain; but the frequent revolutions which have taken place in South America, and the consequent poverty and want of enterprise in the Spanish part of the population, seem to have put a stop to the regular and periodical communications between these places, which were formerly established by public authority.

The following table demonstrates that a vessel, sailing from England, and doubling the Cape of Good Hope, has to sail as follows: