The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-07 00:00:00

STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH
TIM WEST INDIES AND THE PACIFIC).
SOUTHAMPTON, OCT. 30.—1 n our paper of Oct.
22 we published a statement showing the saving in
distance and time that could be effected by an altera-
tion in the routes of the West India mail steamers to
and from the Gulf of Mexico, by avoiding the port of
Mobile. Such statement likewise exhibited the cause
of decline in the extent of passenger traffic, and the
still more prejudical effects which may be anticipated
to follow a persistence in the existing plan by reason
of the active competition organized by lines of Ame-
rican mail steamers.
These remarks embraced only the monthly M:exi-
can Gulf route, and did not refer to the separate
monthly communication now kept up by the R.Oyal
West India mail steamers, between England, Panama,
and the Pacific.
The importance of the latter route demands a dis-
tinct notice, particularly when viewed in connexion
with the lines of American steam-ships in existence
and in contemplation, and also as regards the import-
ance, in a national point of view, of the line to and
from the Isthmus of Panama, across which a vast and
increasing amount of traffic must flow to and from the
gold regions of California, the west coast of America,
the numerous ports in the Pacific, and probably from
Australia and New Zealand.
Before alluding more particularly to this branch of
the subject it should be premised that the scheme of
communication established and kept up by the West
India mail steamers is not a mere semimonthly mail
to and from the British ultra-marine possessions, but
comprehends a wide-spread Atlantic communication
;..ftween Europe and the French, Danish; Spanish
Sod Dutch West India colonies, with the island of
Hayti, Mexico, the Central American States of Nica-
ragua, Yucatan, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Columbia,
and via Chagres and Panama with New Grenada,
California, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili
The communications regularly maintained may be
classed as follows :
Mexico (including Vera Cruz and Tampico), Mo-
bile, Havannah, St. Jago de Cuba, Hayti, Bermuda,
the Bahamas, Honduras, Porto Rico, San Titan, Nica-
ragua, Carthagena, Santa Martha, Laguayra, Cha-
gres, Panama, and the Pacific ports of the states of
Chili, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
The British colonies of Jamaica, Demerara,
Trinidad, Tobago, St. Vincent, Barbado es, Grenada,
St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis,
St. Kitt's, and Tortola, the Danish islands. St. Thomas
and St. Croix, the French Antilles, Guad &loupe, Mar-
tinique, &c., the colony of Cayenne, via Demerara,
and Dutch Guiana.
Neither must the regular intercolonial communica-
tion supplied to the West India colonies, nor in some
instances, the beneficial intercourse afforded to a few
of those islands with the mainland, be omitted in the
estimate of the extent of this scheme.
It will, of course, be apparent in the application and
working details of so comprehensive and intricate a
plan, that all the interests concerned cannot be equally
well served, and that certain colonies and seats of
trade may complain that their particular interests are
only imperfectly protected. The little island of Mont-
serrat, for example, on a recent occasion petitioned,
complaining that a direct communication was not
kept up between it and the mother country. Jamaica
loudly complains of the injustice of its mails having to
be conveyed to Havannah, Nassau, and Bermuda,
while it has been found hitherto impossible to accom-
modate Jamaica with an unbroken route to England,
for many reasons, one of them being the comparatively
isolated geographical position of the island, which lies
out of the regular track of the mail to the other
colonies.
Whatever plan may be adopted, it is clear that
some complaints will be provoked from the clashing
of interests of small and relatively unimportant places,
each anxious to possess the short cut to and from
Great Britain. The more important ports, colonies,
or states, should therefore receive the greatest amount
of convenience, and the communication with such
places should he facilitated to the utmost extent, while
the smaller or less important places should be made
subordinate to the general scheme, and be accommo-
Lted with the supplementary or branch lines, in
conjunction with the main artery of communication.
One of the greatest faults of the existing arrange-
ments for conveying and delivering the mails is that
no through or trunk line for direct communication has
been laid down and adhered to, to which all other
lines of intercolonial or branch mails should be tribu-
tary, and therefore, while several important places
have been but indifferently served, numbers have been
badly accommodated, and but few properly attended
to. These, however, it must be fully understood, are
faults rather of the plan of routes than of the
steamers or the company, as, with few exceptions,
the West India mail service has been generally per-
formed with the stipulated regularity, and with more
than the speed and rapidity contracted for.
Since the first concession of the mail contract to the
West India Steam Company circumstances have arisen
which attach to certain places greater importance
than they at one time possessed, and which would
seem to render some changes desirable, in order that
the interests of the British steamers may not be per-
mitted to suffer, and that the new and formidable
opposition of a rival Power in the steam carrying
trade of the New World should not completely divert
and absorb the legitimate traffic pertaining to the
British steamers.
There is no part of the South American continent
to which these remarks apply with so much force as
to the Isthmus of Panama, now becoming the great
high road for traffic to and from the whole of the
western coasts of both North and South America.
We purpose, therefore, in the subjoined remarks,
to set forth the exact position of British steam enter-
prise in connexion with this portion of the globe, and
to exhibit some of the causes which at present pro-
duce the inconvenient and anomalous results that
British steamers are frequently anticipated by the
American rival lines, and that mails, passengers, and
intelligence, reach England via New York, from
certain points of the West Indies and South America,
more quickly than they can be brought by the so-
called steamers.
Assuming that from the Isthmus of Panama to
England should be considered a main trunk line, say
from Chagres to Southampton, we find the existing
routes as follows :