History of Central America, Volume 3, 1801-1887 / The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 8

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

DISCOVERY OF THE SAVANA RIVER.

Discovery of the Savana River and the Route for the Ship-canal. I imagine that the river Savana was not delineated in the maps which Humboldt saw.[XXXIV-49] Such, indeed, was the case with the map which I had on my first journey into Darien in 1849, so that I was totally ignorant of its existence until I actually saw it, after entering Boca Chica, when, finding the great depth of water at its mouth, and that it flowed almost directly from the north, I became convinced that I had at last found the object of my search, viz., a feasible route to the Atlantic, and thereupon immediately ascended it, and crossed from Cañasas to the sea-shore at Port Escocés and back, and subsequently, in 1850 and also in 1851, crossed and recrossed, at several times and by several tracks, the route from the Savana to Port Escocés and Caledonia Bay, notching the barks of the trees as I went along, with a machete or cutlass, always alone and unaided, and always in the season of the heaviest rains. I had previously examined, on my way from Panamá, the mouths of Chepo, Chiman, Congo, and several other rivers, but found them all obstructed by bars and sand banks, and impracticable for a ship passage, so that upon seeing the Savana, I had not the least hesitation in deciding that that must be the future route for interoceanic communication for ships.

The Darien Canal Route.—Port Escocés, or Scotch Harbor, and the bay of Caledonia, on the Atlantic coast of the Isthmus of Darien, present an extent of six nautical miles, from s. e. to n. w., of safe anchorage in all winds. These harbors are situated between Carreto Bay and the channel of Sassardi, and are 140 miles e. s. e. of Limon Bay, and twenty-one miles w. n. w. of Cape Tiburon, the n. w. boundary of the Gulf of Darien. Port Escocés extends to the s. e. to lat. 8° 50´ and long. 77° 41´; and Golden Island, or Isla de Oro, or Santa Catalina, which forms the n. w. boundary of Caledonia Bay, is in lat. 8° 54´ 40´´, and long. 77° 45´ 30´´.

The channel of Sassardi, also, extending from Caledonia Bay n. w. five miles to the Fronton, or point of Sassardi, is sheltered from the winds and seas of both seasons, and has good depth of water.

Twenty-two miles s. w. of Port Escocés is the site of the old Spanish settlement of Fuerte del Príncipe, on the river Savana, established in 1785, and abandoned in 1790. From thence the river Savana has nearly a s. by e. course for fourteen miles to its mouth, which opens into the river Tuyra, Santa Maria, or Rio Grande del Darien, three miles above Boca Chica and Boca Grande, the two mouths by which the latter discharges itself into the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific.

Thus the distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, by the route from Port Escocés or Caledonia Bay, to the gulf of San Miguel, by way of the river Savana, would be thirty-nine miles. In a direct line, from Port Escocés to the gulf, the distance is thirty-three miles.

In Considerations on the Great Isthmus of Central America, read before the Royal Geographical Society of London, on the 11th and 25th Nov., 1850, Captain Fitzroy, R. N., says: 'Any route that could be made available between San Miguel Gulf and Caledonia Bay, or the Gulf of Darien or Choco, would have the advantage of excellent harbors at each end, and a great rise of tide in one of them (San Miguel). The river Savana is recommended by Dr Cullen from personal examination, as being more navigable (for canoes[XXXIV-50]), and approaching nearer the north coast than the Chuquanaqua does; though this does not appear in the Spanish maps. From the head of the Savana, a ravine, about three leagues in length, extends to Caledonia Bay, and there (Dr Cullen says, having passed through it) he thinks a canal might be cut with less difficulty than elsewhere, if it were not for the opposition of the natives. He also speaks of the Indians transporting their canoes across at this ravine, and of the comparative healthiness of this part of the Isthmus.'

The whole work to be done, in order to make a ship-canal communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by this route, would be to cut from Príncipe or from Lara mouth to Port Escocés or Caledonia Bay, a distance of from twenty-two to twenty-five miles, of which there would be but three or four miles of deep cutting.

The canal, to be on a scale of grandeur commensurate with its important uses, should be cut sufficiently deep to allow the tide of the Pacific to flow right through it, across to the Atlantic; so that ships bound from the Pacific to the Atlantic would pass with the flood, and those from the Atlantic to the Pacific with the ebb tide of the latter. Such was the plan recommended in my report to Lord Palmerston. By such a canal—that is, one entirely without locks—the transit from sea to sea could be effected in six hours, or one tide.[XXXIV-51]

For the engineering details, and estimates of the cost of the work, I beg to refer to the valuable report of Mr. Lionel Gisborne, C. E., who, with his assistant, Mr. Forde, was commissioned, last April, by Messrs Fox, Henderson, and Brassey, to survey this route, which they found to be perfectly feasible for a ship-canal communication, and fully as eligible as I had represented it.