The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-29 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SIIN.

SlR,—The war being now happily concluded, I think this
a favourable opportunity again to bring forward the sub-
ject of the Darien Ship Canal, and to state the grounds
upon which I feel justified in calling upon the Govern-
ments and capitalists of England, France, and the United
States to cause a detailed survey to he made: of the narrow
isthmus between Caledonia Bay and the Gulf of San Mi-
guel. It will be therefore necessary to give a brief account
of the late deplorably mismanaged Darien expedition,
which I accompanied, although permitted by those who
had actually undertaken it at my instigation to have
neither position nor authority in its conduct. From this
it will be seen that, instead of a single well-arranged expe-
dition, there were three unconnected explorations in dif-
ferent directions, none of them brought to a conclusion,
and two of them conducted without the use of compasses.
Towards the close of 1853 it was arranged between the
Governments of Great Britain, France, and the United
States, that a man of war, and a staff of engineers from
each nation, should be despatched to the Atlantic coast of
the Isthmus of Darien, to assist the engineers of the At-
lantic and Pacific Junclion Company of London in making
a survey of the tract of country between Caledonian Bay
and the Gulf of San Miguel.

I. GISBORNE'S EXPLORATION.
Accordingly her Majesty's ship Espiegle, 12 gun-brig,
Commander Hancock, sailed from Jamaica on Jan. 17th,
1851, conveying Mr. Gisborne, the company's engineer,
who commanded the expedition; Lieut. St. John, R.E.,
And myself, and anchored in Caledonia Bay on the 21st of
Janut,ry. The French war steamer Chimere (avis), Captain
Jaureiguiberry, and her Majesty's surveying ship, Scor-
pion, 6, Commander Parsons, arrived the following day.
Messrs. Fordo, Bennett, Devenish, Armstrong, and Bond,
_ _

engineers of the Atlantic and Pacific Junction Company,
had previously sailed froth St. Thomas to Aspinwall, Navy
Bay, whence they proceeded to Panama, the Gulf of San
Miguel, and the Savana. that-
river, at its junction
with the Lara, Mr. Bennett established a station, whence

he surveyed the country as far as the Chuquanapua.
• On rounding Isla dol Oro, or Golden Island, which forms
the north-west entrance to Caledonia Bay, I, at least, was

not surprised to see the United States sloo-p of war Cy' ane,

26, Captain Hollins, lying at anchorin the channel of Sas-
sardi ; for a long delay had occurred at Taniaica, which I

had predicted, would result in the American engineer pro-
ceeding on his own account, without taking. cognisance of

-
the fact that the English and French engineers were on
their way to join him. Such we found to be the case, Cap-

,ain Hollius informing us that Lieutenant Strain, of the

United States' navy, had landed three days before our ar-
rival, withoutleaving any message for Mr. Gisborne, or say-
ing what course he intended to pursue. To this separate. .

action must be attributed the dreadful sufferings of lieu-
tenant Strain's party, who wandered along rivers' banks

ror 67 days, viz., from Jan. 19 to March 26 (subsisting for
the most time on the acid nuts of the trupa palm), and

were at last tracked out and rescued from their perilous

position by the boats of H.M.S. Virago, which were de-
spatched from the Savana in search of them.
Immediately after our arrival, Dennis of Sassardi, Pat-
terson of Carti, a young man named Robinson, who styled
himself Secretary of State to Caloga, the old chief at Rio
Diablo, in San Bias Bay, and some other Indians from
Carreto, &c., came on board, and, after a short " pow-
wow," gave their consent to our landing and surveying the

country.
On the 24th of January we landed on the west side of
the Point of San Fnigencio, where Captain Hollins had al-

ready caused a well to be dug. The party consisted of Mr.
Gisborne, Lieutenant St. John, Lieutenant Preston, and
twelve sailors cf the Espiegle ; Captain Jaureiguiberry,
Lieutenant de Vaisseau Oron, and twelve of the crew of
the Chimera; Dr. Edwards, assistant-surgeon of the Es-
piegle; Col. Codazzi, engineer of the New Granada Go-
vernment, and myself. A short path through the bush be-
hind the point brought us to the sand-beach of Caledonia
Bay ; after walking along which for a mile we arrived at
the mouth of the Aglaseniqua, over which the surf breaks ;
and half a mile further to the south-east, at the mouth of
the Aglatumati, or Caledonia River, where there are five
abandoned huts and a few canoes. In both these rivers
there is always excellent water. From this point the en-
gineer, instead of taking, as I had always advised, a com-
pass course through the bush, notching the trees with a
machete as he wont, first to the westward, into the pass
through the Cordillera, and then south, guided the party
up the river to its junction with a large tributary from the
east, where we found two abandoned huts in a cacao plan-
tation, at which we stopped that night. The next day,
e t followang
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tr i voenr wading
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in Januaryits bed 2 tso, ov
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we passed a small stream joining it from the west, very
shallow at its mouth, but deeper above it ; and just above
this, the large village of Agla, consisting of about twenty
huts, which were abandoned. About two miles higher up,
we came to two huts and several canoes. In those huts
everything was carefully packed up, as if for removal, and
the still warm ember.; of the fires showed that the occu-
pants had fled in haste upon learning that we were coming
up the river. In one of the huts I saw three fowling-
pieces, a double-barrelled gun, and a rifle, bat coald find
no arrows ; and I recognised a camphor-wood trunk, that
I had made a present of to Juan Seva, of Caledonia River,
in 1852. It was impossible to tell whether this abandonment
of their settlements by the Indiana was merely owing to
their shyness of white men, or was an evidence
of hostility. Higher up the river had many rapids,
and was obstructed with boulders of rock, with very
deep water between them. Having ascended it until
it became evideat that we were too far to the east-
ward, and on too high ground, we built a rancho or
shed of troolie palm leaves, and encamped on the east
bank, about ten miles 8.5. E., from Caledonia Bay, as
I estimated. On the 26th, Col. Codazzi and Mr. Gisborne,
leaving the main body at the camp, conducted a party of
five, whom Mr. Gisborne most reluctantly allowed me to
accompany, across the Coidillera, there about 900 feet
high, to a river at its Pacific foot, called the Chueti, which
is a tributary of the Chuquanaqua, eastward of the Sa-
cubti. This river, Col. Codazzi, though he had a Spanish
map from the archives of Bogota, mistook for a branch of
the Caledonia, forgetting the fact that we had crossed the
Cordillera. That night we encamped on the Chueti, and the
following morning returned across the mountain to the
camp. The same night Mr. Gisborne and Capt. Jaureigui-
berry returned to the ships with some sailors for the pur-
pose of seeking an Indian guide. Having failed to en•
gage a guide, Mr. Gisborne sent us upwards of a hun-
dred Grenadian soldiers and convicts who had lately
arrived from Carthagena. He directed us to move lower
down the river, and returned on the Ist of February,
when we moved still lower down to the above-men-
tioned branch on the west bank. Here we encamped
a night in a plantation of cacao trees (Thedbroma cacao),
opposite the village of Agla. On the 3d of February we
followed up the stream to the foot of the hill, which forms
the dividing ridge between the Aglaseniqua (which runs
parallel to and about a mile west of the lower course of
the Caledonia), and the Sucubti, a branch of the Chuqua-
naqua. This bill, called by the Indians Agla, is, conse-
quently, the watershed between the Atlantic and Pacific,
and between it and the immediately adjacent ridge, which
runs north-west from it in a direction parallel to the
shore of the channel of the Sassardi, is the valley
which I have always directed attention to, as affording
the greatest facilities for a ship canal communication.
This valley is most distinctly marked in Commander Par-
sons' Survey of Caledonia Harbour and Port Escocos.
Mr. Gisborne, with the French and Grenadian party,
guided by Colonel Codazzi, went considerably in advance,
the sailors from the Espiegle, whom I was directed to ac•
company, following the notches they made on the
trees. These, which I had some difficulty in making
out in so dense a forest, led us up the hill by a sudden and
steep ascent to its summit, which was very narrow, and
along the summit for about a mile, in the course of which
we passed three considerable depressions. From the high-
est point we had a glimpse, through the trees, of Caledonia
Bay, and we passed the Indian trail, which leads down the
Pacific side of the hill to the Sucubti, and which Colonel
Codazzi ought to have struck into. However, the notches
made by Mr. Gisborne's party, instead of following that
direction, led us, to my great surprise, down the same
(north) side that we had ascended to a small river at its
foot, where we overtook Colonel Codazzi. This river I
immediately recognised as the Aglaseniqua. On informing
Colonel Codazzi of this, and that we were still on the At-
lantic aide of the Cordillera, he became enraged, said it
was the Forti (which with another stream forms the
Sucubti), and added that I knew nothing of the country.
Although I showed him that the course of the river was to
the north, as he could see by his own compass, he
still proceeded deign its bed (which was very rocky, and in
many places so deep that we were obliged to cut our way
through the bush on the banks), under the impression that
he was guiding us down the Sucubiti to the Pacific ! It
was not until we arrived within two miles of the Atlan-
tic, and until the sailors had reported that they heard the
surf of the sea, that he discovered his mistake—if mistake
it was—for it appeared to me that there was more of de-
sign than stupidity in this very experienced bushranger
leading us back to the point we started from ; the mouth
of the Aglaseniqua being only half a mile distant from the
mouth of the Caledonia. It being late in the evening
when Col. Codazzi, after summing up all the aompass
bearings of the river we had waded down, and the dis-
tances which he had measured, came to the conclusion
that we were only two miles from the Atlantic, and the
waveinegnealemepened., marching, heavily laden,
and the following wsinhcoele dapyalritgYht,h
morn-
ing, February the 4th, having waded down the Agla-
seniqua, mostly up to our waists in water, to the sea,
we returned to the ships, to the disappointment of
all. In the whole course of this beautiful river, horn its
source to its mouth, we could find no trace of an Indian :
it is totally uninhabited. At its month are the cocoa-ant
trees, planted by the Spaniards, who occupied the fort of
Carolina from 1785 to 1790.
On my arrival on board I demanded of Mr. Gisborne
and Commander Hancock permission to guide the party,
which being refused, I requested a party of three seamen,
with whom I volunteered to cross over to the Pacific and
return. Commander Hancock, in reply, most decidedly
refused to let me take a man ashore, stating that " his
instruct;ons were to protect a survey, and not to send out
exploring parties." In conclusion, he desired me to go
alone. I was, consequently, about to start the following
morning, when I was prevailed upon by the officers of the
gipiegle to decline the service; they represented to me
that my going alone was quite unnecessary, as there were
then 800 men in harbour doing nothing, and that it could
only result in the sacrifice of my life, as the Indians had
spies out along the line; a fact proved by the murder, a
month previously, of Prevost 's four men.
On the 7th of February, Mr. Gisborne, Lieutenant St.
John, Serjeant Bell, and a Venezuelan servant of Colonel
Codazzi started for the Sucubti and Savana, with a guide
and Robinson the Indian, who, for the sum of six hundred
dollars, went as security for their lives. This Robinson,
who acted for the chief of San Blas, has just returned
from the United States, where he had lived for some years
His father, who died in 1853, is mentioned in page 71 of my
book. This party,which I was not allowed to accompany,
arrived at Mr. Bennett's station on the Savana on the
morning of the 11th February, having been detained a
whole day at Sucubti village, waiting for a. guide to con-
duct them thence to the path cut, six weeks before, by
Commander Prevost, from the Savana to the Chuquana-
qua, at a point opposite the mouth of Morti, the next
river westward of the Sucubti. Thus they crossed the
isthmus in three days' walk.
In crossing the Cordillera to Sucubti, this party follow.