THE COATZACOALCOS RIVER.—ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC.—TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY AND SHIP-CANAL.—THE EADS SHIP-RAILWAY.—AN IDEA OF CORTEZ.—PLANS OF CAPTAIN EADS.—A RAILWAY-CARRIAGE WITH 1200 WHEELS.—SHIPS CARRIED IN TANKS.—ENGINEERING AND OTHER FEATURES OF THE SHIP-RAILWAY.—MAHOGANY TRADE.—FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR THREE LOGS.—FRONTERA AND TABASCO.—RUINS OF PALENQUE.—LORILLARD CITY.—EXPLORATIONS BY STEPHENS AND CHARNAY.—PALACE OF PALENQUE.—TEMPLE OF THE CROSS.—TEMPLE OF LORILLARD.—REMARKABLE IDOL.—A REGION ABOUNDING IN RUINS.—REMAINS OF MITLA.—PILLAR OF DEATH.
The steamer on which our friends were embarked was a small one engaged in the coasting trade. She drew less than twelve feet of water, and was therefore able to enter the shallow harbors of some of the Mexican and Central American ports where large vessels cannot go. On the morning after leaving Vera Cruz she was off the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River, and a little after sunrise she crossed the bar and steamed slowly against the current of that tropical stream.
ON THE RIVER'S BANK.
Dense forests, broken here and there by clearings, covered the banks of the river, and reminded our young friends of the Menam River, in Siam, or the Me-Kong, in Cambodia. Thirty miles from the mouth of the river brought them to Minatitlan, a tumble-down village or town with a few hundred inhabitants, who are chiefly engaged in doing nothing, if one is to judge by appearances. The business of Minatitlan is not large, and is chiefly connected with trade in mahogany and other tropical woods.
The river and the town have an international importance, as they are on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which has long been under consideration as the route for a canal to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. The width of the isthmus from ocean to ocean is 143 miles, but by making use of the rivers on either side the length of a canal would be little, if any, more than 100 miles. The route has been surveyed at different times, notably in 1870, by Captain Shufeldt of the United States Navy, who declared that there was no insurmountable obstacle to the construction of a ship-canal.
Recently the Mexican Government has given to an English company a concession for a railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. One of the surveyors of this company was a passenger on the steamer with our friends, who fell into conversation with him during dinner, and learned many things of interest. The engineer told them that work was to begin immediately on the railway, and they hoped to have it completed by the end of 1889.
Doctor Bronson recalled the fact that in 1842 a concession was granted to Don José de Garay for the Tehuantepec Railway, but nothing was accomplished, for the simple reason that the money for the work could not be obtained. As soon as the Garay concession fell through, the United States Government offered $15,000,000 for the right of way across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but the offer was declined. During the California gold excitement a Tehuantepec transit line was established. Steamers ran between the isthmus and San Francisco on the Pacific side, and to New York and New Orleans on the Atlantic. Passengers were carried across the neck of land in stage-coaches. The enterprise proved unprofitable, and was abandoned after a few years.