ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADDITIONS.

[111]. p. 390—“On the Ridge of the Andes or Antis.”

The Inca Garcilaso, who was well acquainted with the native language of his country, and who loved to trace etymologies, invariably calls the chain of the Andes, “las Montañas de los Antis.” He states positively that the great mountain-chain, eastward of Cuzco, derives its name from the race of the Antis and from the province Anti, which was situated to the east of the capital of the Incas. The quaternary divisions of the Peruvian empire, according to the four cardinal points, reckoning from Cuzco, did not derive their names from the very circumstantial words (having reference to the sun) which in the Quichua language signify east, west, north, and south (intip llucsinanpata, intip yaucunanpata, intip chaututa chayananpata, intip chaupunchau chayananpata). Those divisions were named from provinces and races of people (Provincias llamadas Anti, Cunti, Chincha y Colla) situated to the east, west, north, and south, with reference to the city of Cuzco, which was the centre of the empire. The four divisions of the Inca theocracy were accordingly named Antisuyu, Cuntisuyu, Chinchasuyu, and Collasuyu; the word Suyu signifying strip or part. Notwithstanding the great distance between them, Quito belonged to Chinchasuyu; and in proportion as the Incas, by their religious wars, extended their faith, their language, and their despotic government, these Suyus acquired greater dimensions and became more unequal in magnitude. With the names of the provinces was thus associated an indication of their position; and “to name those provinces,” observes Garcilaso, “was the same as to say to the east or to the west.” (Nombrar aquellos Partidos era lo mismo que decir al Oriente, ó al Poniente.) The snow-chain of the Andes was regarded as an eastern chain. “La Provincia Anti da nombra á las Montañas de los Antis. Llamáron à la parte del Oriente Antisuyu, por la qual tambien llaman Anti á toda aquella gran Cordillera de Sierra Nevada que pasa al Oriente del Peru, por dar á entender, que está al Oriente.” (Commentarios Reales, p. i. pp. 47, 122.)[[RR]] Later writers have supposed the name of the Andes chain to be derived from the word Anta, which, in the Quichua language, signifies copper. That metal was indeed of the highest importance to a people who for their edged-tools or cutting instruments, employed not iron, but a sort of copper mixed with tin; but still the name of copper mountains would scarcely have been extended over so vast a chain. Professor Buschmann has justly observed, that the final “a” is retained in the word anta when it forms part of a compound; and Garcilaso expressly adduces as an example anta, copper, and antamarca, province of copper. Moreover in the ancient language of the Inca empire (the Quichua), words and their compounds are so simple in formation that the conversion of “a” into “i” out of the question; so that Anta, copper, and Anti or Ante (the country or an inhabitant of the Andes or the mountain-chain itself) must be regarded as words totally distinct from each other. In dictionaries of the Quichua language, with explanations in Spanish, the word Anti or Ante has the following interpretations: la tierra de los Andes;—el Indio, hombre de los Andes;—la Sierra de los Andes. The original signification or derivation of the word is buried in the darkness of past ages. Besides Antisuyu, some other compounds of which Anti or Ante forms a part, are, Anteruna (the native inhabitant of the Andes), Anteunccuy or Antionccoy (the sickness of the Andes; mal de los Andes pestifero.)

[112]. p. 390—“The Countess de Chinchon.”

This lady was the wife of the Viceroy Don Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera, Bobadilla y Mendoza, Conde de Chinchon, who governed Peru from 1629 to 1639. The cure of the Vice-Queen took place in the year 1638. A tradition which is current in Spain, but which I have frequently heard contradicted in Loxa, names Juan Lopez de Cañizares, Corregidor of the Cabildo de Loxa, as the person by whom the Quina (Cinchona) bark was first brought to Lima, and universally recommended as a medicine. In Loxa, I have heard it affirmed that the salutary properties of the tree were long previously, though not generally, known in the mountainous regions. Immediately after my return to Europe, I expressed doubts whether the discovery had really been made by the natives in the vicinity of Loxa, for the Indians in the neighbouring valleys, where intermittent fevers are very prevalent, have an aversion to the Quina bark.[[RS]] The story which sets forth that the natives learned the virtues of the Cinchona from the lions, “who cure themselves of intermittent fever by gnawing the bark of the Quina tree,”[[RT]] appears to be merely a monkish fiction, and wholly of European origin. No such disease as the lion’s fever is known in the New Continent; for the so-called great American lion (Felis concolor) and the small mountain lion (the Puma, whose footmarks I have seen on the snow) are never tamed, consequently never become the subjects of observation. Nor are the various species of the feline race, in either continent, accustomed to gnaw the bark of trees. The name “Countess’s Powder” (Pulvis Comitissæ) originated in the circumstance of the bark having been dealt out as a medicine by the Countess de Chinchon. But this name was subsequently metamorphosed into “Cardinal’s” or “Jesuit’s” Powder, because Cardinal de Lugo, Procurator-General of the Order of the Jesuits, made known the medicine, whilst he was on a journey through France, and recommended it the more urgently to Cardinal Mazarin, as the brethren of the Order were beginning to carry on a profitable trade in the South American Quina bark, which they contrived to obtain through their missionaries. It is scarcely necessary to mention that Protestant physicians suffered themselves sometimes to be influenced by religious intolerance and hatred of the Jesuits, in the long controversy that was maintained, respecting the good or evil effects of the fever bark.

[113]. p. 393—“Aposentos de Mulalo.”

The Aposentos are dwellings or inns. They are called in the Quichua language Tampu, whence the Spanish term Tambo (an inn). On the subject of these Aposentos see Cieça’s Chronica del Peru (cap. 41 ed. de 1544, p. 108), and my Vues des Cordillères (Pl. xxiv).

[114]. p. 394—“The fortress of the Cañar.”

This fortress is situated near Turche, and at an elevation of about 10,640 feet.[[RU]] Not far distant from the Fortaleza del Cañar is situated the celebrated ravine of the sun, called the Inti-Guaycu (in the Quichua language huaycco). In this ravine there are some rocks on which the natives imagine they see the image of the sun, and a bench called the Inga-Chungana (Incachuncana), the Inca’s play. I made drawings of both. (Vues des Cord., pl. xviii. et xix.)

[115]. p. 394—“Causeways covered with cemented gravel.”

See Velasco’s Historia de Quito, 1844, (t. i. p. 126–128), and Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Peru, (vol. i. p. 157.)

[116]. p. 395—“Flights of Steps.”

See Pedro Sancho in Ramusio, vol. iii. fol. 404, and the Extracts from Manuscript Letters of Hernando Pizarro, of which Mr. Prescott, the great historical writer, now at Boston, has so advantageously availed himself (vol. i. p. 444). “El camino de las sierras es cosa de ver, porque en verdad en tierra tan fragosa en la cristiandad no se han visto tan hermosos caminos, toda la mayor parte de calzada.”[[RV]]

[117]. p. 396—“Greeks, Romans, &c., present examples of these contrasts.”

“The Greeks,” says Strabo, (lib. v. p. 235, Casaub,) “in building their cities sought to produce a happy result by aiming at the union of beauty and solidity; but, on the other hand, the Romans directed particular attention to objects which the Greeks neglected; paving the streets with stone, building aqueducts to provide a plentiful supply of water, and constructing drainage for carrying all the uncleanliness of the city into the Tiber. They likewise paved all the roads in the country, so that the merchandize brought by trading vessels might be conveniently transported from place to place.”

[118]. p. 397—“Nemterequeteba, the messenger of God.”

Civilization in Mexico (the Aztec country of Anahuac), and in that country which, in the Peruvian theocracy, was called the Empire of the Sun, has so rivetted the attention of Europe, that a third point of dawning civilization, the mountainous regions of New Granada, was long totally lost sight of. I have already treated this subject in some detail.[[RW]] The government of the Muyscas of New Granada bore some resemblance to the constitution of Japan: the temporal ruler corresponded with the Cubo or Seogun at Jeddo, and the spiritual ruler was like the sacred Daïri at Meaco. The table-land of Bogota was called by the natives of the country Bacata, i. e., the utmost limit of the cultivated plains considered with reference to the mountain wall. When Gonzalo Ximenez de Quesada advanced thither he found the country ruled by three powers, whose relative subordination one to another is not now clearly understood. The spiritual chief was the electoral high priest of Iraca or Sogamoso (Sugamuxi, the place at which Nemterequeteba is said to have disappeared), the temporal princes were the Zake (Zaque of Hunsa or Tunja), and the Zipa of Funza. The last-named prince seems to have been, in the feudal constitution, originally subordinate to the Zake.

The Muyscas had a regular system of computing time, with intercalation for the amendment of the lunar year. For money they made use of small circular gold plates, cast, and all equal in diameter, (a circumstance worthy of remark, as traces of coinage even among the ancient and highly civilized Egyptians have hitherto been sought in vain). Their temples of the Sun were built with stone columns, some vestiges of which have recently been discovered in Leiva.[[RX]] The race of the Muyscas should properly be distinguished by the denomination Chibchas; for Muysca, in the Chibcha language, merely signifies men or people. The origin and the elements of civilization, introduced among the Muyscas, were attributed to two mythical beings, Bochica and Nemterequeteba, who are frequently confounded one with another. Bochica was the most mythical of the two; having been in some degree regarded as divine and even equal to the Sun. His fair companion Chia or Huythaca occasioned, through her magical art, the submersion of the beautiful valley of Bogota, and for that reason she was banished from the earth by Bochica, and made to revolve round it as the moon. Bochica struck the rocks of Tequendama, and thereby opened a passage through which the waters flowed off in the neighbourhood of the Giants’ Field (Campo de Gigantes), where, at the elevation of 8792 feet above the level of the sea, the bones of elephant-like Mastodons have been discovered. It is stated by Captain Cochrane,[[RY]] and by Mr. John Ranking,[[RZ]] that animals like the Mastodon still live in the Andes, and that they cast their teeth. Nemterequeteba, surnamed Chinzapogua, (el enviado de Dios, the envoy of God,) was regarded as a human being. He is represented as a bearded man, who came from the East, from Pasca, and who disappeared at Sogamoso. The foundation of the sanctuary of Iraca is sometimes ascribed to Nemterequeteba and sometimes to Bochica. The latter, it would appear, also bore the name of Nemterequeteba, and, therefore, that the one should have been confounded with the other, on such unhistoric ground, is a circumstance easily accounted for.

My old friend Colonel Acosta, in his admirable work entitled Compendio de la Historia de la Nueva Granada, endeavours to show, through the evidence of the Quichua language, that New Granada is the native land of the potato plant. In the Compendio (p. 185), he observes, “that as the potato (Solanum tuberosum) is known in Usmè by the indigenous name Yomi, and not by the Peruvian name, and as it was found by Quesada, cultivated in the province of Velez in 1537, a period when its introduction from Chile, Peru, and Quito must have been improbable, the plant may be regarded as indigenous to New Granada.” It must, however, be borne in mind that the Peruvians had invaded Quito, and made themselves completely masters of it before 1525, in which year the death of the Inca Huayna Capac occurred. Indeed, the southern provinces of Quito fell under the dominion of Tupac Inca Yupanqui at the close of the fifteenth century.[[SA]] The history of the first introduction of the potato into Europe is, unfortunately, involved in much obscurity, but the merit of the introduction is still very generally supposed to be due to Sir John Hawkins, who is said to have brought the plant from Santa Fé in the year 1563 or 1565. But a fact, which appears to be better authenticated, is, that the first potatoes grown in Europe were those planted by Sir Walter Raleigh on his estate at Youghal in Ireland, from whence they were conveyed to Lancashire. The Banana-tree (Musa), which, since the arrival of the Spaniards, has been cultivated in all the warmer parts of New Granada, is believed, by Colonel Acosta (p. 205), to have been known only in Choco before the Conquista. The name Cundinamarca, which by affected erudition was applied to the young republic of New Granada in the year 1811, a name suggestive of golden dreams (sueños dorados), would properly be Cundirumarca, not Cunturmarca.[[SB]] Luis Daza, who accompanied the small invading army commanded by the Conquistador Sebastian de Belalcazar, who advanced from the south, mentions having heard of a distant country, rich in gold, and inhabited by the race of the Chicas. This country, Daza states, was called Cundirumarea, and its prince solicited auxiliary troops from Atahuallpa in Caxamarca. The Chichas have been confounded with the Chibchas or Muyscas of New Granada; and by a similar mistake the name of the unknown more southerly region has been transferred to this country.

[119]. p. 400—“Fall of the Rio de Chamaya.”

See my Recueil des Observ. Astron., vol. i. p. 304; Nivellement Barométrique, No. 236–242. I made a drawing of the swimming courier, representing him in the act of winding round his head the handkerchief containing the letters. See Vues des Cordillères, pi. xxxi.

[120]. p. 401—“A point of some importance to the geography of South America, on account of an old observation of La Condamine.”

My object was to connect chronometrically, Tomependa, (the starting-point of La Condamine’s journey) and other places on the Amazon river, geographically determined by him, with the town of Quito. La Condamine was in Tomependa in June, 1743; consequently, 59 years before I visited that place, which I found, after astronomical observations made during three consecutive nights, to be situated in south lat. 5° 31′ 28″, and west long. 78° 34′ 55″). By my observations, and a laborious recalculation of all those previously made, Oltmanns has shewn that until the time of my return to France the longitude of Quito had been erroneously determined, and that the error made a difference of full 50½ arc-minutes.[[SC]] Jupiter’s satellites, lunar distances, and occultations afford a satisfactory accordance, and all the elements of the calculation are before the public. The too easterly longitude which had been determined for Quito was, by La Condamine, carried to Cuenca and the Amazon river. “Je fis,” says La Condamine, “mon premier essai de navigation sur un radeau (balsa) en descendant la rivière de Chinchipe jusqu’à Tomependa. Il fallut me contenter d’en déterminer la latitude et de conclure la longitude par les routes. J’y fis mon testament politique en rédigeant l’extrait de mes observations les plus importantes.”[[SD]]

[121]. p. 403—“At the elevation of nearly 12,800 feet above the sea, we found marine fossils.”

See my Essai géognostique sur le Gisement des Roches, 1823, p. 236; and for the first zoological determination of the fossils contained in the cretaceous formation of the Andes chain, see Leopold de Buch, Pétrifications recueillies en Amérique par Alex. de Humboldt et Charles Degenhardt, 1839 (in fol.), pp. 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 22. Pentland found fossil shells of the Silurian formation in Bolivia, and on the Nevado of Antakana at the elevation of 17,480 feet. (See Mary Somerville’s Physical Geography, 1849, vol. i. p. 185.)

[122]. p. 407—“The point at which the Andes-chain is intersected by the magnetic equator.”

See my Rélation Hist. du Voyage aux Régions Equinoxiales, t. iii. p. 622; and Cosmos, vol. i. pp. 191, 432; where, through errors of the press, the longitude is in one place marked 48° 40′, and in another 80° 40′, whereas it ought to be 80° 54′.

[123]. p. 409—“Tedious court ceremonies.”

Conformably with an ancient ceremonial, Atahuallpa spat, not on the ground, but into the hand of a distinguished lady of the Court circle. “This was done,” observes Garcilaso, “by reason of his majesty.” “El Inca nunca escupia en el suelo, sino en la mano de una Señora mui principal, por Magestad.” (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales, p. ii. p. 46.)

[124]. p. 410—“Captivity of Atahuallpa.”

The captive Inca was, at his own desire, a short time before he was put to death, conducted into the open air, for the purpose of seeing a large comet, described to have been of a greenish black hue, and nearly as thick as a man’s body; (“una cometa verdinegra, poco menos gruesa que el cuerpo de un hombre,” Garcilaso, p. ii. p. 44). This comet, which Atahuallpa saw shortly before his death, (therefore, in July or August, 1533), he supposed to be the same comet of evil omen, which had appeared at the death of his father Huayna Capac, and was certainly identical with that observed by Appian.[[SE]] The comet was seen by Appian, on the 21st of July, standing high in the north, near the constellation of Perseus; and it appeared like a sword held by Perseus, in his right hand.[[SF]] The year in which the Inca Huayna Capac died, is considered by Robertson not to be satisfactorily determined; but the investigations of Balboa and Velasco shew, that the event must have occurred about the end of 1525. The statements of Hevelius (Cométographie, p. 844), and of Pingré (vol. i. p. 485), obtain additional confirmation from the testimony of Garcilaso. (p. i. p. 321,) and the traditions preserved among the Amautas (“que son los filosofos de aquella republica”). I may here add the remark, that Oviedo is certainly incorrect in stating in the yet unpublished continuation of his “Historia de las Indias,” that the name of the Inca was not Atahuallpa, but Atabaliva. See Prescott’s Conquest of Peru, vol. i. p. 498.

[125]. p. 410—“Ducados de Oro,” (3,838,000 golden ducats.)

The sum mentioned in the text is that stated by Garcilaso de la Vega.[[SG]] On this subject, however, Padre Blas Valera and Gomera give different accounts.[[SH]] Moreover, it is difficult to ascertain the precise value of the Ducado Castellano or Peso de Oro.[[SI]] The intelligent historian, Prescott, has had the opportunity of consulting a manuscript, bearing the promising title of “Acta de Reparticion del Rescate de Atahuallpa,” (Act of assessment for the ransom of Atahuallpa). The Peruvian booty shared by the brothers Pizarro and by Almagro, appears to be too highly estimated by Prescott, who says it amounted to 3,500,000l. sterling, but the ransom money, the treasures of the different temples of the Sun, and of the Huertas de Oro, were all included in that amount.[[SJ]]

[126]. p. 412—“The great Huayna Capac, who, for a Child of the Sun, was somewhat disposed to free-thinking.”

The nightly disappearance of the sun excited, in the mind of the Inca, many philosophic doubts respecting the government of the world by that luminary. Among the Inca’s remarks on this subject, as recorded by Padre Bias Valera, are the following:—“Many maintain that the sun lives and is the creator and maker of all things (el hacedor de todas las cosas); but whosoever desires to do a thing completely must continue at his task without intermission. Now many things are done when the sun is absent, therefore, he cannot be the creator of all. It may also be doubted whether the sun be really living, for, though always moving round in a circle, he is never weary (no se cansa). If the sun were a living thing he would, like ourselves, become weary; and if he were free, he would, doubtless, sometimes move into parts of the heavens in which we never see him. The sun is like an ox bound by a rope, being obliged always to move in the same circle (como una Res atada que siempre hace un mismo cerco), or like an arrow which can only go where it is sent, and not where it may itself wish to go.” (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales, p. i. lib. viii. cap. 8, p. 276.) The Inca’s simple comparison of the circling movement of a heavenly body to that of an ox fastened by a rope is very curious, owing to a circumstance which may be explained here. Huayna Capac died at Quito in 1525 (seven years prior to the invasion of the Spaniards), and his empire was divided between Huascar and Atahuallpa. Now, in the native language of Peru, the name Huascar signifies rope, and Atahuallpa means a cock or a fowl. Instead of res Huayna Capac probably used the word signifying, in his native language, animal generally; but, even in Spanish, the word res is not applied exclusively to oxen, but is employed to denote cattle of all kinds. How far the Padre, with the view of weaning the natives from the dynastic service of the Inca, may have mingled passages from his own sermons with the heresies of the Inca, we need not here inquire. That it was deemed very important to keep these doubts from the knowledge of the lower classes of the people is evident, from the very conservative policy and the state maxims of the Inca Roca, the conqueror of the province of Charcas. This Inca founded schools exclusively for the higher classes, and, under heavy penalties, prohibited instruction being given to the common people, lest it should render them presumptuous, and cause them to disturb the State. (No es licito que enseñen á los hijos de los Plebeios las Ciencias, porque la gente baja no se eleve y ensobervezca y menoscabe la Republica; Garcilaso, p. i. p. 276.) Thus the theocracy of the Incas may be said to have resembled the Slave States in the free land of the North American Union.

[127]. p. 415—“Expected restoration of the Inca rule.”

I have treated this subject at length in another work.[[SK]] Sir Walter Raleigh had heard of an old prophecy current in Peru, which foretold “that from Inglaterra those Ingas shoulde be againe in time to come restored and deliuered from the seruitude of the said conquerors. I am resolued that if there were but a small army afoote in Guiana marching towards Manoa, the chiefe citie of Inga, he would yield her Majesty by composition, so many hundred thousand pounds yearely, as should both defend all enemies abroad and defray all expenses at home, and that he woulde besides pay a garrison of 3000 or 4000 soldiers very royally to defend him against other nations. The Inca will be brought to tribute with great gladnes.”[[SL]] A restoration project, which promised to be highly satisfactory to both parties, but, unfortunately for the success of the scheme, the dynasty which was to be restored and which was to pay for the restoration was wanting.

[128]. p. 418—“The adventurous expedition of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.”

I have, in another work, mentioned the fact that Columbus, long before his death, full ten years prior to Balboa’s expedition, was aware of the existence of the South Sea, and its near proximity to the eastern coast of Veragua.[[SM]] Columbus was led to the knowledge of this fact, not by theoretical speculations on the configuration of Eastern Asia, but by positive and local information obtained from the inhabitants themselves, information which he collected on his fourth voyage (11th May, 1502, to the 7th November, 1504). This fourth voyage led the Admiral from the coast of Honduras to the Puerto de Mosquitos, and even as far as the western extremity of the Isthmus of Panama. The natives reported (and Columbus commented on their reports in the Carta rarissima of the 7th of July, 1503), “that not far from the Rio de Belen, the other sea (the South Sea), turns (boxa) to the mouths of the Ganges; so that the countries of the Aurea (i.e., the Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy) are situated, in relation to the eastern shores of Veragua, as Tortosa (at the mouth of the Ebro) is in relation to Fuentarabia (on the Bidassoa) in Biscay, or as Venice in respect to Pisa.” But, although Balboa first saw the South Sea from the heights of the Sierra de Quarequa, on the 25th of September,[[SN]] it was several days later before Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, who had discovered a passage from the mountains of Quarequa to the gulf of San Miguel, embarked on the South Sea in a canoe.[[SO]]

The recent acquisition of the western coast of the New Continent by the United States of North America, and the fame of the golden treasures of New (now called Upper) California, have rendered the question of forming a direct communication between the shores of the Atlantic and the western regions, by the isthmus of Panama, more urgent than ever. I, therefore, consider it my duty here once more to direct attention to the fact, that the shortest route to the shores of the Pacific, as pointed out by the natives to Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, is in the eastern part of the Isthmus, and led to the Golfo de San Miguel. We know that Columbus[[SP]] sought for a narrow pass (estrecho de tierra firme); and in the official documents extant, of the dates of 1505, 1507, and especially in that of 1514, mention is made of the sought-for opening (abertura), and of the pass (passo), which, in this district, should lead directly to the “Indian Land of Spices.” A channel of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, is a subject which has more or less occupied my attention for the space of forty years; and in my published works, as well as in the several memoirs which, with honourable confidence, the Free States of Spanish America have requested me to write, I have constantly recommended a hypsometrical survey of the Isthmus throughout its whole length, but more especially at two points, viz., where at Darien and what was formerly the deserted province of Biruquete, it joins the South American Continent, and where, between Atrato and the Bay of Cupica, on the shore of the Pacific, the mountain chain of the Isthmus almost entirely disappears.[[SQ]]

In the year 1828 and 1829, General Bolivar, at my request, caused the Isthmus between Panama and the mouth of the Rio Chagres to be accurately levelled by Lloyd and Falmarc.[[SR]] Since that time, other measurements have been executed by intelligent and experienced French engineers, and plans have been drawn out for canals and railways with locks and tunnels. But these measurements have invariably been made in the meridian direction between Porto-bello and Panama, or westward from thence, towards Chagres and Cruces. The most important points of the eastern and south-eastern parts of the Isthmus, on both shores, have in the meantime been overlooked. Until those parts shall be described geographically, according to accurate (but easily obtained) chronometrical determinations of latitude and longitude; and hypsometrically, with reference to their superficial conformation, by barometrical measurements and elevations, I see no reason to alter the views I have always entertained on this subject. Accordingly, at the present time (1849), I here repeat the opinion I have often before expressed; viz., that the assertion is groundless and altogether premature, that the Isthmus of Panama is unsuited to the formation of an Oceanic Canal—one with fewer sluices than the Caledonian Canal—capable of affording an unimpeded passage, at all seasons of the year, to vessels of that class which sail between New York and Liverpool, and between Chili and California.

According to examinations, the results of which the Directors of the Deposito Hidrografico of Madrid have caused to be inserted in all their maps since 1809, it appears that on the Antillean shore of the Isthmus, the creek called the Ensenada de Mandinga, stretches so far to the south that its distance from the Pacific shore, eastward of Panama, appears to be only between 4 and 5 German geographical miles (15 to an equatorial degree) or 16 to 20 English geographical miles. On the Pacific coast also, the deep Golfo de San Miguel, into which falls the Rio Tuyra, with its tributary the river Chuchunque (Chucunaque), runs far into the Isthmus. The river Chuchunque too, in the upper part of its course, runs within 16 geographical miles of the Antillean shore of the Isthmus, westward of Cape Tiburon. For upwards of twenty years I have been repeatedly consulted on the problem of the Isthmus of Panama, by companies having ample pecuniary means at their disposal; but in no instance has the simple advice I have given been followed. Every engineer who has been scientifically educated knows the fact that between the tropics, even without corresponding observations, good barometrical measurements (horary variations being taken into account) may be relied on as correct, within from 75 to 96 feet. Besides it would be easy to establish, for the space of a few months, one on each shore, two fixed barometric stations; and frequently to compare the portable instruments used in the preliminary levelling with each other, and with those at the fixed stations. The point demanding the most attentive examination is that where the range of mountains between the Isthmus and the main continent of South America sinks into hills. Considering the importance of this subject to the commercial interests of the whole world, the examination should not, as heretofore, be restricted within narrow bounds. A complete comprehensive survey, including the whole eastern part of the Isthmus—the results of which would be alike useful in facilitating every possible scheme, whether of canals or railroads—can alone decide the much discussed problem, either affirmatively or negatively. This work will in the end be undertaken, but had my advice been adopted, it would have been done at first.

[129]. p. 418—“Impressions excited by the accidental circumstances of life.”

In Cosmos I have adverted to the incitements to the Study of Nature. (Vol. ii. p. 371, Bohn’s edition.)

[130]. p. 420—“Of importance in determining the longitude of Lima.”

At the time of my expedition the longitude of Lima, as determined by Malaspina and marked in the maps published by the Deposito Hidrografico de Madrid, was 5h 16′ 53″. The transit of Mercury over the Sun’s disc, on the 9th of November, 1802 (which I observed at Callao, the port of Lima, from the Round Tower of the Fort of San Felipe), gave for Callao, by the mean of the contact of both limbs, 5h 18′ 16″ 5; by the external contact only, 5h 18′ 18″ (79° 34′ 30″). This result, obtained from the transit of Mercury, has been confirmed by Lartigue and Duperrey; and by observations made during Capt. Fitzroy’s expeditions of the “Adventurer” and the “Beagle.” Lartigue fixed the longitude of Callao at 5h 17′ 58″; Duperrey made it 5h 18′ 16″; and Capt. Fitzroy 5h 18′ 15″. After having calculated the longitudinal difference between Callao and the Convent of San Juan de Dios at Lima, by carrying chronometers from the one place to the other during four journeys, I found that the observations of the transit of Mercury determined the longitude of Lima to be 5h 17′ 51″ (79° 27′ 45″ W. from Paris, or 77° 6′ 3″ W. from Greenwich.) See my Recueil d’observations astron., vol. ii. p. 397, and Relation hist., t. iii. p. 592.

Potsdam, June, 1849.

THE END.