[XXXIII-70] The commercial tax was not to be more than double that assessed in 1885. The general govt on the 1st of April, 1885, established a salt monopoly, and in the same year decreed the reëstablishment of custom-houses at the Isthmus ports. This decree was subsequently suspended. La Estrella de Pan., May 16, 1885; Pan. Star and Herald, Nov. 2, 4, Dec. 30, 1885. The budgets for the ten years from 1867 to 1876 amounted together to $3,018,391, and the appropriations voted for the same year were $3,335,084. The absence of regular accounts for the period 1867-75 renders it impossible to find out what were the actual receipts and expenditures. The revenue from Jan. 1, 1876, to June 30, 1877, was $339,526, and the expenses reached $356,483, though only $274,298 were paid. The revenue collected from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1878, $218,095; the assembly voted for expenses of that fiscal year $382,841, but the government seems to have paid out only $226,278. For 1880-1 the legislature computed the revenue at $300,628. It had the preceding year authorized the executive to increase the commercial tax 25 per cent. The expenditures for the year were estimated at $316,077. Pan., Mem. Sec. Jen., 1878, 43-6, 48; 1879, 3, 32-3; Id., Leyes, 1879-80, 8, 9, 64-78.
[XXXIII-71] $81,375 of it bore interest at 6 per cent. Pan., Mem. Sec. Hac., 1879, 37. Dec. 19, 1879, the legislature authorized the executive to borrow $50,000 at 12 per cent. For further information, see Pan., Gaceta, Nov. 17, 1870, to Sept. 1, 1881, passim.
[XXXIV-1] See summary of geographical knowledge and discovery from the earliest records to the year 1540. [Hist. Cent. Am., i. 68-154, this series].
[XXXIV-2] They thus argued from the first: Quintus Metellus Celer, proconsul of Rome in Gaul, was presented by the king of Suevia with a number of red men, who had been thrown upon his coast. So said Cornelius Nepos, and Pliny repeated it. Now these savages, having no knowledge of ships or navigation, could not have come from America; they were not black, and consequently were not from Africa. There were no people in Europe like them; so they must have come from Asia. But how? Either from the east or from the west; they could not have rounded the eastern hemisphere either by its northern or southern side, for obvious reasons; therefore they must have come from the north-west, and hence there must be a way from Asia north-eastward to Europe, running round the north pole. Upon this logic were staked thousands of lives and millions of money. Dominicus Marius Niger, the geographer, speaks of men who were driven from India through the north sea to Germany, while on a trading expedition. As late as 1160, some strange persons arrived on the coast of Germany. Humboldt thought they might have been Eskimos. Othon, in his Storie of the Gothes, speaks of such arrivals, arguing that they must have drifted in through a north-west passage. Gilbert's Discourse, in Hakluyt, iii. 16-17. Again, Hakluyt finds it recorded that some 200 years before the coming of Christ, the Romans sent a fleet against the Grand Khan, which, crossing the strait of Gibraltar, and steering toward the N. W., in lat 50° found a channel, in which it sailed to the westward until it reached Asia, and after fighting the king of Cathay, returned by the way it went.
[XXXIV-3] Hist. Cal., i. 1-109; Hist. Northwest Coast, i. 1-342; Hist. North Mexican States and Texas, i. 1-201; Hist. Oregon, i. I will add, in this connection, that Juan de Ayola, with 200 Spaniards, in 1535 crossed from the Paraguay River to Peru. Irola, twelve years later, ascended the Paraguay River to 17° S., crossed the mountains to the Guapay River, and succeeded in establishing communications between Peru and her dependency, La Plata. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclop., ii. 90.
[XXXIV-4] They fitted out two vessels, Le Maire advancing most of the money, and going on the voyage as supercargo, Van Schouten as commander. They doubled the cape with one remaining ship in Jan. 1616. The Spaniards afterward completed the exploration, and their forts in Magellan Sound became useless. The straits of Magellan have been, however, used in late years as the transit of an English steamship line.
[XXXIV-5] Previously several attempts had been made. Kotzebue, of the Russian navy, went in 1815 to Bering Strait, and the next year discovered the sound bearing his name. Golovnin made a voyage also, but accomplished nothing. The English made a number of efforts, which, if unsuccessful in not attaining the main object, added much to geographic knowledge. Herewith I give the expeditions fitted out in England, or under English auspices. In 1818 two ships, the Dorothea and Trent, under Buchan and Franklin, went to the Spitzbergen waters, but could not advance far. Two other ships, the Isabella and Alexander, under John Ross and W. E. Parry, were ordered to Davis Strait and verified Baffin's exploration of Baffin Bay. Ross entered Lancaster Sound, and reached 81° 30' W. by 74° 3' N. Parry made three other voyages, in 1819, 1821, and 1824, in the last of which one of his ships, the Fury, was wrecked in seeking a passage through Regent Inlet. In 1827 he attempted the polar voyage in sled-boats from Spitzbergen, reaching 82° 40' 30", the farthest point hitherto attained. Capt. John Franklin tried to find the passage overland from York Factory on the west coast of Hudson Bay. He wintered at Fort Chepeweyan in 1819, and in the Enterprise in 1820. In July 1821 he navigated the Arctic sea, east of Coppermine River, a considerable distance, hoping from the trend of the coast to reach Hudson Bay. Want of provisions compelled the abandonment of the expedition, and after severe hardships, and journeying 5,500 miles, reached Great Slave Lake in Dec. 1821. Lyon in 1824 attained Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome. Franklin renewed his land survey of the Arctic coasts, 1825-7. He wintered in 1825 on Great Bear Lake, descended the Mackenzie, and surveyed the coast line westward to Return Reef in 70° 26' N., and 148° 52' W. Meanwhile Richardson and Kendall of his party made a voyage from Mackenzie to Coppermine River, doubling several capes, and completing the survey of the coast through 60 degrees of longitude. Beechey in 1826 in the Blossom explored the coast from Kotzebue Sound to Icy Bay. One of his parties reached Cape Barrow. He waited for Franklin till Oct. 1827, and returned home via Cape Horn. Ross in 1829 tried to find a passage through Regent Inlet, but had to abandon his ship in Victoria Harbor, near 70°. P. W. Dease and T. Simpson in 1837-9 made important explorations between Point Barrow and Mackenzie River; the portion on the east side between Point Turnagain and the estuary of the Back's Great Fish River; and also the south sides of Victoria Land and King William Land. John Rae of the Hudson's Bay Company surveyed a part of the Arctic coast east. In 1845 he surveyed Regent Inlet east and west, found an isthmus between Regent Inlet and the sea explored by Dease and Simpson. Franklin and Crozier were despatched in May 1845 with two stout ships, the Erebus and Terror, well supplied for three years. The expedition sent letters from Whalefish Island, near Disco, and was last seen on July 26th waiting to cross the 'middle ice' on to Lancaster Sound, 220 miles distant. The orders were to proceed to about 74¼° N. lat. and 98° W. long.; thence take a S. and W. course for Bering's Strait, the passage west from Melville Island being precluded. A number of expeditions were despatched in search of Franklin; namely, one under John Richardson and Rae, 1847-9; ships Enterprise and Investigator under Ross and Bird, 1848-9; Herald and Plover under Kellet and Moore, 1848-52; North Star, commanded by Saunders, 1849-50; the Investigator and Enterprise, in 1850, under McClure and Collinson; whaler Advice, under Goodsir; a squadron commanded by Austin, consisting of the Resolute and the Assistance. Capt. Ommaney with two steam tenders under lieuts Osborn and McClintock; several ships sent by Franklin's wife; Rae in 1851; expedition under Edward Belcher, 1852-4; ships Amphitrite and Plover, 1852-5; McCormick in 1852; Rae in 1853-4; Anderson in 1855; and several others, among which deserve mention the American expeditions under lieut De Haven and S. P. Griffin, E. K. Kane, Hayes, Hall, and Schwatka; most of whom made important geographical discoveries and found relics of Franklin's party. It was ascertained beyond a doubt that Franklin sailed up Wellington Channel to 77°, descended by the west side of Cornwallis Island, and wintered 1845-6 at Beechey Island. The wintering positions of the ships were in 1846-7-8 off the north end of King William's Island. Franklin died June 11, 1847, and the ships were abandoned near the above spot Apr. 22, 1848, Capt. Crozier intending to lead the 105 survivors to Great Fish River. Only 40 men reached the vicinity of this river, and all died, according to Eskimo accounts. On this journey Lancaster Strait was connected with the navigable channel along the continent, and the existence of the north-west passage proved. Richardson's Polar Regions, 136-7, 146-9, 151-202; Lardner's Cabinet Cyclop., iii. 176-7, 198-247; Tytler's Hist. View, 133-4, 283-92; Franklin's Narr., i. ii.; Quarterly Rev., xviii. 219; Am. Jour., xvi. 130-2; Encyclop. Brit., xi. 347; xviii. 329-30; xix. 331-2, 335-8; Dictionnaire de la Conversation, xii. 2; xiii. 608-10.
[XXXIV-6] Sent by Capt. Pellet on Barrow Strait, and was guided by a message left by McClure at Winter Harbor on Melville Island.
[XXXIV-7] Nordenskiöld, a Swedish professor and experienced navigator, with the steamer Vega, commanded by Lieut Palander, on the 19th of August, 1878, reached Cape Severo or Tchelyusken, the most northern point of Siberia and of the Old World in 77° 41' N., and steered a south-easterly course, the sea free from ice and quite shallow. Aug. 27th the mouth of the Lena River was passed, the Vega parting company with her tender, the Lena, and continuing her course eastward; she almost accomplished the passage that first season; but toward the end of Sept. the Vega was frozen in off the shore of a low plain in 67° 7' N. and 173° 20' W. near the settlement of the Chugaches. After an imprisonment of 294 days, the Vega on the 18th of July, 1879, continued her voyage, and on the 20th passed Bering Strait. Nordenskiöld, without loss of life or damage to his ship, arrived at Yokohama Sept. 2, 1879. Encyclop. Brit. (Am. ed.), xix. 337.
[XXXIV-8] For canal: I. Tehuantepec, connecting the rivers Coatzacoalcos and Chimilapa. II. Honduras. III. River San Juan de Nicaragua: 3. River San Cárlos, Gulf of Nicoya. Nicaragua Lake: 4. Rivers Niño and Tempisque, Gulf of Nicoya; 5. River Sapoa, Bay of Salinas; 6. San Juan del Sur; 7. Port Brito. Managua Lake: 8. River Tamarindo; 9. Port Realejo; 10. Bay of Fonseca. IV. Panamá: River Chagres: 11. Gorgona, Panamá; 12. Trinidad, Caimito; 13. Navy Bay, Rivers Chagres, Bonito and Bernardo; 14. Gulf of San Blas, and River Chepo. V. Darien: 15. Bay of Caledonia, Port Escocés, Gulf of San Miguel; 16. Rivers Arguia, Paya, and Tuyra, Gulf of San Miguel. River Atrato: 17. River Napipi, Bay of Cupica; 18. River Uruando, Kelley's Inlet. Overland. 1st. Coatzacoalcos, Tehuantepec; 2d. Bay of Honduras to Bay of Fonseca; 3d. River San Juan, Nicaragua, Managua, Bay of Fonseca; 4th. Port Limon to Caldera, Costa Rica; 5th. Laguna de Chiriquí on Golfo Dulce; 6th. Colon, Gorgona, and Panamá; 7th. Gorgon Bay, Realejo; 8th. Gorgon Bay and San Juan del Sur. Nouv. Annales des Voy., cliii. 9-10; Davis' Rept, 20.